Foster Chihuahuas - best photo job ever

My friend's mom is a hair dresser slash chihuahua rescuer. She traded me a cut and color for me to take pictures of her rescued dogs... some foster, but mostly hers. I love all of these dogs and most of them have super sad stories, but Laurel is such a good mom to them that they all recover so much and turn out very sweetly. Most of them have been through a lot - debarking, physical abuse, living in cages, over-breeding, and more stupid things that make me hate humans. But she wanted black and white pictures of her dogs specifically that she could frame and have. I took some pictures of the foster ones, too. This was a lot of fun because I just got to sit in the sunlight for 2 hours with tons of tiny dogs and just pet them. Best.

I was really happy to do this because I think that dog rescue and adoption is a really important issue. Not a lot of people are aware of the abuse that dogs go through in puppy mills and puppy farms, and because of that, they unknowingly support intense abuse and murder. Buying from pet stores and Amish people may seem like a harmless thing but it is SERIOUSLY not okay! If you want a puppy, you can ADOPT a puppy. If you want a purebred, you can ADOPT a purebred. There is zero advantage to buying from a pet store or a puppy farm. ZERO!!!

Anyways... check out these adorable pups.


This is Leah.


She sleeps in her bed.


This is Kevin. He loves everyone!!


This is Sadie-Sue or Susan, who has a beautiful coat of red, orange and golden brown that you obviously can't see in this picture because of the B&W. She is so sweet and loving.


This is Sadie's sister Ruby, who is Kevin's girlfriend. She and her sister were given to Laurel by a mother who complained that they were "too much of a hassle", which, if you sit with these dogs for 1 minute, you will find super hard to believe. The mother was young and was not prepared for the responsibilities of taking care of these 2 awesome babies.


This is Baby Hue, Maxx's dog. He also goes by (phonetically) "Bibba-Hoo".


So handsome.


Here's June! She loves to pose.


This is Libby-Lou. She is super shy and skittish. It was really hard to take pictures of her because she was shaky and nervous from the camera and the noises it was making. =(


This is Teddy. He was super shy too. I think he is the only non-chihuahua dog living at the house. He hid under a lounge chair and I had to lay on the ground to snap this.


last but not least... This is Gertrude. She is the oldest of these dogs. They had her before they started doing Chihuahua rescue. She's the queen.

Now the foster doggies...


This is Bigs. You can't tell too much from this picture, but he is huge. Definitely part chihuahua, but probably part Italian greyhound as well. He is super friendly!


This is Figaro. He definitely looks like a mobster. He has a lot of issues with his hair... they don't really know why. He can grow it out, but it starts falling out in patches. So he has just a weird mess of hair. But he's so cute and nice.


This is Bub. He's tiny and has grey hair.

There were a lot more dogs that I didn't get to take pictures of, but they are all great. I loved being over there and just sitting with two dogs on my lap and one on a table next to me, giving unlimited pets and receiving unlimited kisses. I can't wait until I can adopt (ADOPT ADOPT ADOPT ADOPT) a dog. Bad idea for a college kid going from apartment to apartment... someday, though, and I look forward to it!

home!

I went home for a week! I went to the zoo with my sister and her children, went to an antique sale that my friend's mom was having, took pictures of some adopted puppies, hung out, saw good clouds, tried to take pictures of said clouds but failed a lot, went to my Grandpa's 80th birthday party, the usual!!!


antiquity!!




mmm, lunch with mom


youngest niece om noming on an apple


nephew niece friend niece niece!




raddest elephant picture ever?


rescued doggies!!!!!

FLASH DANCE

Only because we were dancing and there were 2 flashes.
PAT TOOK ALL OF THESE. http://patreynolds.blogspot.com

Nina Simone

For a long time I have been into Cirque du Soleil which, if you don't know, is a Canadian circus that is just the coolest thing ever (www.cirquedusoleil.com). I have a DVD of one of their shows, Varekai, and there is a comedy part where one of the clowns "sings" a song:


I always really liked this part of the show because I thought it was funny, but also I thought the song was really beautiful. I just started studying French, and the other day while doing my homework this song got stuck in my head - which was kind of out of the blue because I haven't watched Varekai in a really long time. I then got on a mission to find this song so I could listen to it on repeat for forever.

After much internetting, I found out that the singer of this particular version of Ne me quitte pas (a well-known French song) was Nina Simone, an American singer and activist who knew success through the 50s and 60s, later becoming active in the Civil Rights movement.

So, I bought an "Essentials" album by Nina Simone to check it out more. Then, upon listening to it, I heard one of my favorite Feist songs: "Sea Lion Woman". Nina's is called "See-Line Woman", and was obviously recorded way before Feist and is completely bad-ass:


See Line Woman, Sea Lion Woman, See [the] Lyin' Woman... what a cool song.

Sea Lion Woman / Sea Lion
She drank coffee / Sea Lion
She drank tea / Sea Lion
And he gamble lie / Sea Lion

Way down yonder / Sea Lion
I'm going maul / Sea Lion
And the rooster crow / Sea Lion
and he got no lie / Sea Lion

Sea lion woman / Sea Lion
she drank coffee / Sea Lion
She drank tea / Sea Lion
And she gamble lie / Sea Lion

Sea lion woman / Sea Lion
she drank coffee / Sea Lion
She drank tea / Sea Lion
And a gamble lie / Sea Lion

Nina Simone... what a woman, what an inspiration. Nontraditional and unapologetic.

BEARD SHAVING!!!!!

Pat finally decided to rid himself of his mutton chops / moustache combination. I chronicled it.


Before.


Notice how patchy and long it is




skinny


half-stache




lolololololololololololol


shavin' cream lips, my new country jam


looking shaven and defeated.

lublublub

I took this picture with my cellphone

IT'S 83 IN BOSTON TODAY!!

who makes the rules about body hair?!

Just did a project in my gender class about the taboo of body hair on women in the US. Why do I have to shave my pits to be pretty? For my part of the project, I photoshopped some pictures of women:

So here is this image of a woman. I asked my class to raise their hands if they thought this was girl was attractive, and almost everyone in class raised their hands.
Then I showed them this picture:

This is what the girl ACTUALLY looks like. This is the original image. She has hairy armpits. I then asked my class to raise their hands if they thought she had become less attractive with this addition of the armpit hair, and again, almost everyone raised their hands.

I just think it is crazy. I mean women naturally have hair on their bodies. Why is it more attractive to shave it? For our presentation we just went through how business pretty much created this social construct of how women need to shave in order to sell products for hair removal and therefore, make money.

Then we tried to talk about WHY men and women now found it unattractive for women to have hair. A pretty big discussion erupted between two people, one side saying that she didn't need to shave her body hair because it is her natural state, and the other side saying that since our society deemed that as more attractive, she should ascribe to those rules or just accept her ostracization (did I just make up that word?).

Who knows. I don't think that women should have to shave their body hair if they don't want to, and I think women should still be seen as attractive if they don't, but I still will shave and honestly, still be caught off guard when I see a woman with hairy legs and armpits.

Weird!

This American Life

I am currently listening to the most recent episode of This American Life entitled "Didn't Ask To Be Born". I was cleaning my room while listening to it and I had to sit down because it was such a crazy episode ... if anyone reading this has iTunes and doesn't get the Podcast of This American Life, seriously, get on it. This show! Is so amazing. If I were a WLP or Journalism major at this school, my aspiration would definitely be this show. It's so great.

this might be one of the funniest things I've ever seen

FOUND IT. Anyways, this Lindsay Lohan commercial is not a joke. It is serious. Even though it looks exactly like an SNL Digital Short or something Tim and Eric would do except instead of LL it would be David Liebe Hart. I don't even know what to do with myself. It is great.

flannel

My grandmother turned 90 on Sunday. 90! Isn't that amazing? March 10, 1919. Born in WWI, lived through WWII, the Great Depression, the birth of suburbs, moon landing, JFK assassination, all these profound events. I asked her about all these things and asked her what was most memorable, and she said the birth of her first child. She also said her favorite president was Eisenhower.

Tonight, she forced me to wear her pajamas so she wouldn't be cold:


We also watched the first half of Oldboy tonight, and when Dae-su eats the live octopus she didn't even flinch. Spunky, spunky woman. I hope I get to live that old and be that awesome.

update on things 'n' things

The process of this screenplay has been worse than any other process I've gone through. But I think I'm done, actually done really done done with it, ready to shoot. In less than two weeks.

One other screen play I'm working on that also has to be fully developed in two weeks for my BFA application.

Boring life. Nothing to post here. Except:



I thought it was GREAT. Great, great, great. I know it's getting hated on but hey, I don't care. It was a great 3 hours.

rest in peace

My fish died today. His name was Sensei Bundles. He was a beta fish. I had him for almost a year. He lived in my boyfriend's suite and they didn't take care of him so I saved his life. I took him home over this Christmas break and my mom wanted him to stay there so that is the last time I saw him.

He was my first pet that died. I really, really liked him. He was such a pretty orange color and when it was sunny out and he swam through the water it was really nice to watch, and I really liked watching him. He was also funny and would pretend he was dead a lot so that you would pay attention to him. He was a fickle eater.

I don't even have any pictures of him.

maybe I just miss the sunshine

I remember having perfect days
at the zoo, when it was sunny
at the coffee shop, when it was quiet
in my bed when, it was warm.

Now I just wish for a break through
(just even a teeny tiny one).
For a perfect day, to be able to picture myself in the future;
Instead of being crushed by bank slips
and copies and sickness and headaches
with no end in sight.

my stomach hurts so bad

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

It's 4am. I am awake. I feel like I need to throw up but it isn't happening (which is pretty much one of the worst things ever). I can either crouch over the toilet, a miserable place, or sit on the couch and update this blog. I'm choosing the latter because I'm sick of holding my hair back for no reason. I don't know why this is going on inside my belly. It feels like there is a gremlin inside of me tearing at my organs.

When I was trying to fall asleep I think I was thinking about casting for films, seeing as that has been my life the past week. But since I've had "Skin" by R. Kelly stuck in my head all day, I just had this image of a really pretty black girl in my head. Like she was the girl I needed to find. It doesn't make any sense. In that song R. Kelly is talk-singing about how pretty and nice this one girl's skin is. I think darker skin is really the most beautiful which is why I think I pictured a black girl.

I feel like I will never get on a normal schedule. Plus I feel like I will probably skip my morning classes tomorrow and I have already missed the 10am once twice. I just wish I could not have my stomach hurt so often, and just go to my classes without this much trouble!!!!!

I'm ready for this semester to be over

this is untitled as of now

one down

poetry by Shauna Galante

get out of my life camera

I haven't been using my digital camera at all. I don't even want to for some reason. It's like a task.


this is soon. which I am excited about.


this music video is amazing.