Yay! :)

Another appointment with the orthodontist yesterday. He said my teeth need to move “a hair more” which is what he said the last time, but at least I no longer have to wear the elastic on the inside to correct my cross-bite.

The photo shoot last weekend went really well. I still get nervous when I’m shooting things for hire (being utterly humbled over the fact that the client is, in essence, entrusting me with their memories), then I realize that not every single frame is going to be the most awesome thing evah. I should have remembered that from photography classes in college. We’d have to shoot one 36 exposure roll of film for every print that we turned in. So, if 3 prints were due for the assignment, we had to shoot 3 rolls of film. Maybe more.

With that in mind, getting 15 decent shots out of about 100 isn’t bad.

_NaNoWriMo begins at midnight. Got to write 1667 words/day to stay on par.

_I’m 25 yrs 11 mos today. I say this because at my orthodontist’s office, there’s a laptop at each station so that the person working on the patient’s teeth can update the medical chart. So, whenever I go, there’s the inevitable period of waiting for the doctor to get to my station to check my wires (or to apply a new bracket because the assistant accidentally snapped the old one off my tooth while trying to force too high a gauge of wire into it), looking up at the polka-dotted light fixture or at the screen to my left, and then I notice my age. It’s always listed in years and months.

_Finally got a professional freelance opportunity. Yay! for patience. Let’s hope they like my designs.

_Art: “Embrace” . John/Teyla from Stargate Atlantis

Seriously, the target age group for braces must be a nightmare for orthodontic doctors to deal with. I remember back in middle school, kids were eating all that stuff—mostly the candy—all the time.

At my last orthodontist appointment, I began wearing Class II’s, which has something to do with the heavier wire and the elastics (rubber bands) across my brackets. I also have some latex rubber bands that I have to change about three times a day that are adjusting my bite. I’ve been wearing them for about 5 weeks, and, I must say, the change in my bite is quite noticeable. The shape of my mouth has also changed slightly, and it’s kinda weird looking at myself in the mirror, trying to get used to this evolving smile of mine.

I got a copy of my the photos of my teeth before I got my braces put on. I guess I’ll post the before and after when my treatment is done. Only 11 months more to go, if every thing’s on schedule.

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My 365 Days Project has suffered greatly over the past few weeks. Kendall said I’d get tired of taking photos of myself. . . Still I got a good ways through before I dropped off. Now, I’ll just settle for trying to take a photos of something, if not myself, for the next 30 or so days until January 2, 2008.

Photo of the Day: December 5, 2007

Melody, my favorite barista. She’s like a coffee-bearing pixie.

*My sister was talking with a male acquaintance in a conversation about our relative ages. She told him that I had just turned 25, to which he replied something like, “Twenty-five?! I didn’t know she was that old.” . . . Thanks for that, Jess. I’m sure he meant that I look younger than my years.

I know it’s been forever and a fortnight since I posted. Life . . .the usual, has kept me away.

An orthodontist appointment earlier today has left my mouth in pain, so I’m eager to sleep it off. I’m just checking in to throw up this first drawing I’ve done in a while. It is nowhere near perfect. I’ve already noticed some anatomy issues, but it’s something. Sketchbook Allstars is having a jam where we’re asked to reinvent our favorite cartoon character. I chose Rainbow Brite.

She’s sans horse and Sprite, and this would be a lot more effective with color, which I may add later, but I’m still fairly pleased with the result. I may draw some of her associates as well. Orange Blossom is the one I’m considering drawing next. She was cool. And, I’m totally getting her mixed up in cartoons. Orange Blossom was actually from the Big Apple City in the Strawberry Shortcake universe.

A friend of mine has gotten together with his associates to create SLAM EVIL.org. Their first podcast was posted this past Friday, and it’s a good listen. They cracked me up, and he sent me a shout out at the end under my SLAM EVIL! agent alias “Natalie Nouveau.” I appreciate the love, and it reminded me that I am actually an artist. Speaking of which, In a little while, I’ll be doing a photo shoot with an acquaintance from school. I’d like to purchase a 50mm lens for my dslr before then. After talking to him about it today, I think I’ll have time to earn the money to get it. I’m still weighing my options, though. Photography equipment is so expensive that I want to know that I’m going to use it enough for the purchase to be worth it. But, if I did get the 50mm I would definitely use it as my primary lens, since it’s just about all I used while pursuing my photography minor in college.

*Sigh*   My mouth still aches. To bed I go.

I was so stressed out at work today, I instinctively put my hand over my face and shake my head indisbelief just thinking about describing the experience here. Words fail me at the moment.

When I first started my job, I was immediately made aware that I would eventually be trained how to do color work, because at the time, there was only one person there who processed all the color jobs. If he wasn’t there and things went wrong or something needed to be sent to plate, the customer was just out of luck.

Fast forward four months, and I’m finally being trained on color work. Glenn, who does the color, was going on vacation for a week, so someone would have to do his job while he was gone. That someone would be me. In his defense, I’ll say he did a decent job of training me. . . even if it was for half of the process. *pauses to cover her face and shake head*

While Glenn is training me, something in the back of my mind is telling me that he isn’t really telling me much about what he does up to a certain point. I mean, one would think I’d need to know where he put certain files, or that I would have to email proofs of the artwork to customers. I figured things out eventually with the help or co-workers (thanks Dave and Jessica), but jeez. Mr. Glenn left a lot to assumption. I mean, I could figure out how to do what I needed to do. But it would have been nice if I would have been told I would have to do it beforehand. Good thing I anticipated this over the weekend, so I wasn’t completely blindsided. . .

Tomorrow, I’m going in to work 2 hours early just so I can get everything done and sent to plate. I know things will be better, but I really don’t need the stress right now. I didn’t even break for lunch I was so busy trying to do everything.

But . . . I’m done venting now. I had an orthodontist appointment before work, so now my mouth is aching slightly, but nothing like last time. New X-rays were taken and I have a rubber band across my top 4 incisors to close the gap between my two front teeth.

I know that this entry was supposed to follow up the previous post with more photos, but, life happened. So, hopefully, the next post will include them.

I drew this for Kendall, since he’s been feeling sick these last few days. I have commissions I need to work on. But I need to draw small stuff from time to time. I’m surprised how quickly this came out. Only took me about 15-20 mintues to draw, but it’s rather small. It’s Rosario Dawson, because Ken
I can’t believe I have about 2 weeks of school left before I graduate. So surreal.

I went to the orthdontist yesterday, got my bracket fixed. Then about an hour later, while eating a double bacon cheddar melt from Wendy’s, I spit out—whadaya think?—another bracket. Actually, it was the same one I had just gotten “fixed.” So I call the orthodontist’s office, and they tell me to come back in. The receptionist sounded really shocked. Apparently it’s unusual for it to have come off again like that. So, I get it put back on, and it’s stayed so far. I wasn’t terribly upset about the situation, I was just slightly frustrated because I hadn’t eaten all day, and I had to stop to go back to the orthdontist.

The awesomely bountiful dessert table at the luncheon at my older sister’s work.

My lovely cousin, Ashley. She goes to Auburn University.

Yeah, so I busted a bracket last night, shortly after the above photo was taken. After only 2 months with my braces. I’m going in tomorrow to get it fixed. Stupid holidays. . . my appointment has to be during my class time.

So anyway, last night I went to the house of the Fuenmayor’s with my sister. They were having a little get-together. I just finished a big project for Ellis, so I was in need for a little break. Also, I hadn’t been out in a while, so I figured I’d attempt to socialize.

A out-of-focus photo of my friend, Dean, who gave us a ride to the Fuenmayor’s.

Laura (on couch), Dean and Braxton about to play Spades.

Braxton, who fell in love with my camera.

A clear photo of Dean.

So we played this crazy game called “spoons”, which is like musical chairs, but with cards and spoons.

Then we played another card game called “murder”. Based on the rules of the game, it’s kinda hard to do it with only candlelight, but it was still interesting.

Arianna. Look familiar?

Edgardo. His English is in-progress, and he’s really nice. I danced with him at this party a few months ago. . . I just remembered.

As I said, I wasn’t the only one who had fun with my camera last night. I let my friend Braxton play with it. After showing him the basic functions, he was good to go, and took some pretty nice photos.

See the rest here.

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So school is winding down. Our last assignment involves gum printing. Very time consuming but a cool alternative process. I’m still not sure what I’m doing and contact sheets are do tomorrow. I’ll just go with my original idea. I tend to overthink my concepts on every assignment.

. . .Goodness, I still have sketches to post. I’ll get them up eventually. I need to draw more in general. I also need to practice drawing different things than people, like environments and perspective.

And then there’s graduation, December 9th. Wonder what I’ll do after that. . .