Some Background

I am currently in the process of editing, uploading, and sorting a gazillion photos. And I have zero energy to upload any of them today. So tomorrow, I promise, there will be photos of life since last week. Until then…

Here are some fun facts about me that may or may not explain some of the random things I talk about.

• I graduated from Wayland Baptist University in December of ’08 with my B.A. in Art. Yes, I was 20 at the time. I came to college as a first-time student with 52 hours already completed (test credit and dual credit courses).
• I work at my alma mater and have been working here full time since April of 2009. It’s a desk job.
• My husband, Edgar (aka “Ed”), and I have been married since November 21, 2009. We met at Wayland while I was a high school student visiting the school for their spring preview weekend. He was a sophomore at Wayland. We became friends pretty much as soon as I stepped on campus that fall. He liked me a lot. I wasn’t interested.
• Edgar’s birthday is the day after mine, only he was born two years earlier. He turned 24 on Monday. He is still a student at Wayland, double-majoring in Music (instrumental performance) and Business. He has already completed his Business degree and he walked during this past spring ceremony. All he has left is his senior recital (trumpet) and he’ll be done with the Music degree (finally!).
• Edgar also works full-time at a local seed distributor. His job is in agriculture/manual labor and he comes home for lunch sweating like a hog. He grew up in a small country town and spent half his life working in his dad’s car shop, so he derives some sort of sick masochistic pleasure out of picking seeds out of 20-foot-tall metal bins in 100+ degree heat and calls it “work ethic.” His job doesn’t require a degree and he makes more than I do.
• I consider myself a groupie in the university music department. My best friend when I first came to Wayland was a vocal music education major (up until the time I showed up) and I met the majority of my friends through that circle. I was a member of the school’s non-audition choir for four of the five semesters I was a student. I’m currently enrolled in the choir as an audit student. I was also perhaps the only student I’ve ever met here who LOVED their music appreciation class. Also, the entire music department is going on a tour of Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic next spring break, and I can’t imagine passing up the opportunity to go.
• I was the staff photographer for the university student newspaper the entire time I was a student. I had the privilege of using the school’s Canon Rebel XT DSLR camera, and I was sad to have to give it back.  I also worked in the art department, art gallery, campus mail room, and very briefly during one summer, the yearbook office.
• I grew up in a suburb of Fort Worth, and my family still lives there. I have two younger sisters, Holly (about to be 20), and Katie (18). Holly is at community college and last I heard would be attending UTA. She wants to go into the mission field. Katie just decided a week ago to go to Texas Women’s University. She began class today as a Photography major. She’s a much better photographer than I am, but she also has a DLSR and I don’t. 😛
• Edgar’s plan is to become a Naval Flight Officer (think Goose from Top Gun) for the U.S. Navy, flying either P-8s or jets. After his service is complete, he wants to become a pilot for Southwest Airlines.
• My goals in life are simple. I want to be there for my family and friends. I want to do things that make life worth living. I want to honor God with whatever I do. I hope to eventually make blogging/food writing/photography a career, and I am excited about it because it will enable me to travel, homeschool my kids, be a homemaker, and photograph at will. I’m also planning to get my Zumba Instructor Certification as soon as I have the money and a local workshop becomes available.
• Oh yeah, I was homeschooled from 4th grade through high school graduation. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. No, being “socialized” was never a concern. We had plenty of quality friends, and frankly during the later years, quiet mornings/afternoons/evenings at home became extremely rare.
• I’m feel very shy and awkward when in direct conversation with new people, but I can feign enough bubbliness until the exact moment when I’m free to run away.
• I enjoy art (particularly photography and painting), cooking and baking (obviously), music, singing, dance, interior design, movies, poetry, reading, the internet, and I have experience in sewing, embroidery, and knitting. I’m Martha Stewart, lite. Or a Caucasian geisha. Whatever.
• I also have smatterings of dance experience. I love dance so much. I get it from my mom. She was in drill team in high school. I was never part of a formal dance studio, but over the years I’ve learned bits and pieces of: ballet (never point), modern dance, jazz, Irish dance (soft shoe), square dancing, swing dancing (east and west coast, charleston, balboa, lindy-hop, shag, jitterbug, and the ever-dreaded shim-sham), ballroom dancing (waltz, foxtrot), and latin dancing (cha-cha, rumba, salsa, merengue, samba, cumbia) and two-stepping, if that counts.
• I have something of a dark sense of taste. My affection for Tim Burton is somewhat unnatural, and Halloween is quickly becoming a favorite holiday of mine. I wore a lot of black in high school and my sense of humor can sometimes be a bit strange and twisted. I was always running out of black paint in art classes. My distaste for pastel colors reaches so deep within my soul that it seems to trigger an unpleasant reaction in my stomach when seen in excess. It’s also for this reason that I’m not much of a fan of the Impressionist period in art history. Too many pastels, ruffles, and pink flowers. Except I can forgive Van Gogh (no ruffles or pink flowers) and I really, really love Toulouse-Lautrec. And chiaroscuro.
• I was going to be a psychology major before I decided to be an art major. Psychology became my minor, and I have 12 hours of graduate-level counseling classes. I psychoanalyze people without them knowing it, and FYI, I’m an ISFP with ISFJ tendencies.
• My hair color is my natural color. I grew up calling it strawberry blonde. It was lighter (blonder) when I was younger, and it still looks different depending on the lighting, how clean it is, and what mood it’s in. These days it’s something of a light auburn.
• I’m very very fair skinned. I have trouble finding makeup because the lightest shade anyone carries is typically too dark for my skin. And I have no desire to tan. I’ve accepted my Casper-ness and will live happily as a 40 year old with people mistaking my age as being much younger than it is.
• I have a “tattoo” on the heel of my foot from when I accidentally stabbed it with a pencil in the 5th grade.
• Fall is my favorite season. You will see this expressed excessively over the next few months.

On a completely separate note… see my new profile picture?? My sister and I went out to Southlake Town Square yesterday morning to take pictures of each other. I will tell you this, never ever ever has my hair behaved the way I wanted it to on the day of a photo shoot. It looked just fine until the minute I stepped out of my car. The humidity had its way with my hair. Woe is me!