Love is in the Air

So I forced my lovable and cutesy friends to pose for my latest photo project on a railroad track in Athens. The following is the result of said photoshoot. As you can tell, they hated every minute of it.

Obsession

So this is less of one of my blogs and more of a shout out. For those of you who don't rush to your computers on Sundays to see what's new, you need to discover PostSecret.

www.postsecret.com

Get obsessed.

Bone to Pick

I know. You're probably thinking, "Cindy? With a strong opinion about something? No way!" but it's true. I am my father's daughter after all (more like his sister's niece). So I've got a bone to pick.

On the wonderful campus of the University of Georgia there is, of course, the wonderful Sanford Stadium which is located on an even more wonderful Sanford Street. Between the journalism building and the student learning center is a chunk of that street that is one way.

Two way, did I say? Nope...one way.

All the cars go onnnnneeeee wayyyyyyy.

Now, there are drivers and there are pedestrians and there are bicyclists. Ahhhhh, the culprit. Bicyclists. They seem to have forgotten that they are supposed to follow the same rules as drivers. So what do you think that would mean on a one way road? Apparently not.

See, it doesn't bother me as much when they just go backwards down this one way street because we all break rules. I myself have been known for my jay walking tendencies. So I encourage you to live on the edge, take a chance.

BUT. The bikers who bother me are the vocal ones. I cannot tell you how many times I've witnessed a pedestrian look to the ONE side that cars should be coming from, start to walk across the crosswalk, get almost flattened by a bike, and then the kid on the bike yells something along the lines of, "WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!!!"

Which is when I want to yell, "IT'S A ONE WAY STREET, (enter choice words)!!"

So to all dear cyclists, follow the rules you're supposed to. And if you choose not to, then at least, know you're in the wrong when you swerve and crash cause someone walked in front of you.

Love you mean it,
The person who walks in front of you

Picke Bicke

I'm getting into my major classes which is good news cause I actually like what I'm learning. In one of my journalism classes we had to write a profile on a randomly-assigned classmate.

I got matched with a sophomore Asian guy from Peachtree City. The guy was actually pretty cool and he had no trouble telling me anything and everything that might help with my story.

A huge part of what he talked about was breaking the Asian stereotype throughout high school and trying not to be profiled. He said he was pretty lazy and didn't like anime.

He also played tennis after not making his high school team twice and he kept up with piano after his parents quit nagging him to play. So that was my hook. I talked about his dedication and said that, though he wants to break the "Asian stereotype" he is actually very proactive and committed to what he loves.

I didn't consider exactly what I had said (that he actually fits the stereotype that he tries so hard to break) until after I had turned it in. I still wasn't so worried about it cause at least he fits the good parts of the stereotype right?

So we get to read what the other person writes about us first thing in class today. What did he write about me? That I break stereotypes.

Neat.

What Not to Wear

So one of my favorite parts of middle school (and there are SO many) was when girls wore shirts with sayings like "My eyes are up here" and "I love my boyfriend" and "Take a picture it'll last longer." Here are some other shirts that you probably won't catch me in anytime soon:

Got my PhoJo back

So I got my brand new, beautiful camera on Monday and just turned in my first assignment. Here are some pictures from my first two days with my new best friend:

Dirty dishes

I've moved into my awesome new house with four of my close friends and week two at school is underway.

It's become obvious that we all grew up by different rules and need to get used to each others. For instance, at my house we put knives sharp side up to get them clean better (or so Mom says) but Melissa almost removed a finger when she was unloading the dishwasher because of my home training.

Have you ever heard of washing hats in the dishwasher? Well one of my darling roommates, AK, decided that the best way to clean her Chacos (sandal/shoes) was to put them in the dishwasher.
As Casey, another roommate, was going to start the dishwasher, AK yelled, "WAIT" and ran to her room. Expecting her to come back with dirty dishes we were all caught by surprise when she ran around the corner carrying her Chacos and thrust them into the dishwasher. It is still under debate whether they were put on top of dishes or not.
**Adorable, really**

Normal is relative

So Lisa has long said that I should blog on this and I'm just now getting around to it. What sparked my interest? The tallest woman in the world.

My dear friend (that was a lie), Jeff Foxworthy once said, "You know what? You don't have the stupidest family in the world. You don't have the goofiest family in the world and if you ever need to verify that all you have to do is go to a state fair. Five minutes at a fair you'll be going, "You know what? We're all right, we're dang near royalty.""

Well y'all, my "state fair" sounds a lot like "TLC show." The lineup on TLC one night consisted of Siamese twin girls then "Treeman meets Treeman" and then "The Girl That Never Grew." They also have shows on families with 18 kids (all with names starting with "J"), "I didn't know I was pregnant," little kids in pageants who get spray tans and wear fake teeth and, of course, lots of shows on little people. Everyone loves a midget.

What do we learn from this? That we're much more normal than we think except that we love to put abnormal people in the public eye. So whenever I think my life is a sitcom I just thank God it's not a TLC special.

Oh hey girl.

So the other day I was making a casual stop-in at Target to get some green nail polish and realized on my way in that I was in need of some bladder-emptying. So there I go to take care of business. It was one of those awesome stalls where you turn the lock closed but the little stub of a “lock” actually only protrudes about ¼ of an inch. So alas, another woman who was also hearing the call of nature hurried into the bathroom and yanked open the bathroom door…to my stall. There was a magical moment where neither of us said anything and my thought was, “Enjoy!”

She looked something like this:


And I looked something like this:

All in all, it’s good to know you’re never too old to have someone come in the stall with you.

Gimme gimme

Yesterday was the first day back in normal life with no cake flavors and bustle techniques on my mind. I went to classes like a good little college kid, including my photojournalism class. I'm hoping to get an emphasis in photojournalism but apparently it's really difficult. Anyways, this year 85 people tried to get into the class and only 16 of us made it.

The point of the class is to tell a story with a picture. It makes a lot of sense actually. Think about the picture of the Iwo Jima flag raising or the Viet Cong street side execution or Winston Churchill scowling. Now think of what the headline was the day those pictures were run in the newspaper. Can't, huh? That's the point.

So in order to tell these stories we'll need cameras right? Here's the kicker- all 16 of us get brand new 12 mega pixel Canon cameras with lenses to carry around all semester as our own. You could practically mop up the drool in the room when our professor showed us what we'd be getting. I felt like a little kid in a candy shop. Point being, expect some pictures with incredible quality up here over the next few months. I'll try to make them good pictures too.

Wedathon Finale!

Wedathon '09 is over and the big finale was INCREDIBLE! It was such a great party and everyone had a good time. There really isn't much I can say about how much fun it was but pictures are worth a crap ton of words so here we are (in reverse order cause I'm too lazy to reverse them):

An Eye for an Eye

Three cheers for my 50th blog!


So, as we all know, Wedathon '09 is in full swing and the Austin's like to go big or go home. As I mentioned before, Lisa had an awesomely cute eye infection that consisted of some nice eye watering and puffy redness. In an act of sisterly love she shared that with our blushing bride.

Yikes.

Luckily, Ashley's eye isn't as bad and I think it'll be in normal eye shape by the time she says, "I do." The best part of the whole thing is, not only that I seem to be immune, but Ashley's initial reasoning for why her eye was watering in the middle of the day for no reason.

"I thought it was from watching the people on Top Chef cut onions."

That's my blood, y'all.