Friday, May 29, 2009

the beach

Saturday before the canoe trip

Finally it was sunny and not only - it was also warm! so we packed quickly and went to have a breakfast at macdonalds which i actually really like for several reasons - their burgers are of a good size and are not giant as in other places, their french fries are the best, they have a good fruit salad... and they have the apple pies. so now it's one of my favorites :D and for breakfast i had the fruit salad and a pie... and some stolen french fries from Michael's plate. haha.

and then we rushed to the beach. the water wasn't warm enough to swim but at least it didn't feel like melted ice. a week or two and i'll get to swim there :D we didn't put any sunscreen on though we had it in the bag. i didn't want to because we got a treally strong one and the last time i was at the beach i didn't get ANY tan at all :D and i don't know why exactly Michael object to sunscreen. maybe because he likes red color hehehe.

at first we both were reading. there came out this watchmen comic novel which everybody was talking about. so we got it and that's what Mike's reading.



it was one of the top-rated books on new york daily or something which was surprising. i haven't decided yet if i want to read it. i was reading Dashkova's latest novel. Dashkova is great - one of my favorites, and in her books there is always a second story about Russia before revolution, nazis, kgb, Russia today, wars, and other things. when i get to read one of her books (which aren't that many - she has about 10 only :( ) i get completely fascinated and imerged, and can't do anything else until i get to the end.

however something made me close the book. i heard some music. which my mind classified as "oh nice now we have music" at first. then it was "wait! we are at the beach.. is it smb's radio perhaps?" so i looked around and saw this guy walking around with a guitar and pinching strings.

in front of the crowd

looks like i wasn't the only one enjoying the music - see the flock of seaguls behind?

and yes as i took this photo i also started looking around for more photo-objects.

running contest

these guys were rather interested in that black clacking thing i was holding, so they came very close staring at my camera :D

and then i kind of got carried away watching the beach. different people, different stories, different situations..



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i need a lense with more powerful zoom.. at the beach i didn't draw that much attention with my camera - everybody was relaxing and enjoying and not looking at a girl with a cam, which enabled taking photos of people :D i could always pretend i was taking a photo of the beach or of the lake.. which i actually did take anyway :)

flag

this one looks like a flag. i cropped it later when i noticed. if you don't look at the boats but concentrate on the color or look at the thumbnail you will know what i mean. then i played with desaturating a bit:

beach colors

and then i asked Michael to take a photo of me. which always makes him sigh :D he likes my photography and photos but he doesn't like being part of it or taking part in the process hehehe.

150 - the beach

but he did take what i wanted!

say hi to Michael:



and then we went to the ice-cream place (marojnianoc :D:D) i was somewhere in the heaven:





later Michael had practice, and i had to practice maneuvrability - which i did good at - last several tries would be a pass at the test. at practice guys were auditing a new guitarist (they need a second one) and looks like they were happy with him.

we didn't go to the bar since there was the canoeing trip and we had to get up early, so we just had a relaxed evening. it was a good prelude for sunday :)

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

sunday - canoeing

i'm gonna skip saturday for now as i uploaded photos from canoeing trip first.



we arranged to meet at 9.45 in Madison. somehow we were the first to arrive :)) i met with Tasha's dad Rich who was the organizer of the trip. he was a very nice and funny man. the company was big - and i didn't know the majority of people. there was us, Tasha and Jason, Gregg and Cathlene, Tasha's sister Tara and her friend Randy, and that was it for me. the other's were mostly Rich's friends - older than us.



once everything was ready we drove to the place - something like a little camp. from there a van took us to the starting point at the river. everybody got into canoes and we started off. it was cloudy and rained slightly which wasn't fun and everybody hoped the weather would not go worse - and it didn't :)


(Jason and Tasha, Tara and Randy)



it was very relaxing - slowly moving down the river, socializing. every so often several canoes would stick together and nobody would row - just float. sometimes canoes would bump into each other. that's how people would get accquainted - "hello my name is... and this is.. and we are about to bump into you" :D

we would make little breaks - to have some snacks or to rest a bit, or for other needs :D



this was the first break - and this was when my camera was discovered. some people made comments, and then were wondering if it's waterproof. they decided i was a brave girl to take such an expensive camera without protecting it from water (i did protect the lense - i had a UV filter on so that water wouldn't get on the lense itself). to the question "what if you fall into water??" i replied "i'm just not going to :)". i wasn't because i had a camera on me :D and well if you don't do this:



this will not happen:





i did want to wrack our canoe though - so that Michael would end up in the water - even though i would to it would be worth it. but oh well then next time - when i don't have a cam with me :D

then somehow it turned out that all canoes stopped at the same place. and somebody called "camera girl! take a photo". i said okay.. and i stood up in the canoe which made people go "oh my god she's standing up!!!" but it was safe! canoes were sticked together so tightly and Michael was holding ours stand completely still, so it wasn't that crazy.





we were in the middle so i didn't end up getting one picture of everybody :( but oh well.

at one of the stops there was a tree almost parallel to the ground. i liked Tasha's attitude "let's climb that tree!!!" so we did. then i passed the camera and we starting showing off. this is Irina the tourist, Tasha the cougar, and Catlene the model :D



this lady fell when she was getting out of the canoe (the tricky part).. and i instead of going to help her started taking pictures. yes maybe you're right and i'm a paparazzi.. bad girl anyway :)



and of course there was alcohol - beer, wine, and a cocktail Tasha made for us the girls:









then we got tired and tried to make ourselves more comfortable:









it was so nice to let the guys do the rowing part and just chill out. i was eating an italian sub (long sandwich) at the time and Michael said i could imagine myself in Venice - on a boat, having somebody row, and eating italian food :D however sometimes it was the vice versa :D




and some random illustrated facts:

what a woman can do for a kiss:



trip organizer Rich



somebody got a bad sunburn



my sweet captain of the canoe:




it was a very nice day - got to know different people and talking to them was fun. me and Mike had to retell our story several times :)) and in case somebody reads my blog here's a wiki link about Armenia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia and a link to photos http://armeniaphotos.info/.

Friday, May 22, 2009

warm night

it was a hot lazy day. didn't do anything important, just lingered time, waited for Mike to come home. we watched an episode of star trek and then "me, myself, and Irene". then i remembered i needed some cash since me and Nicole are getting together tomorrow. Michael said we could go now (passed 10). i just changed and we left. it was strange for me to leave without doing anything about the hair or make-up - just like that. we decided to go and we left within 30 seconds. it gave a feeling of freedom in some way, indipendence from small routine.

the night was so nice and still that we didn't want to go home and Michael started driving around. we were talking about something, just enjoying the night and the empty roads. Cities at night look so alike and "faceless" if you are not walking by a particular sight of interest. just the bulk of the city in the darkness and lights.. at some point it even seemed i was in Yerevan - on Kievyan's bridge and to the right was the Swallow Fortress park...

we were talking about copyright.. not a very romantic thing to talk about i guess and i don't think you could find many other couples that would choose that as their topic :) it's funny. but i don't imagine having long usually meaningless conversations about romantic stuff. those themes will die off quickly..

anyways. Mike went to bed and i was going to read a book or do something else. but i felt like staying outside more. i went to the balcony to breathe some air. then decided to take photos of stars.. which was just an excuse to stay here longer. i dragged a chair to sit on and wait for the camera to finish processing (when you set a really long exposure your cam's processing the result is long too).

and then i saw him! the bandit in a black mask! he was by the garbage dumpster.. there was some white thing on a video stand that smb threw away. the bandit pulled an end of that white flat rectangular object and it fell on him :D it was really funny to watch - he pulled back and froze. then pretended he had no business there and walked away. who was he? a racoon :)) it was the first time i saw one just like that and not at the zoo. there are a lot of them here - just like squirrels they are not afraid of people, and they find food in garbage.

nothing good came out of the photos and i decided to try some other time. for now i just got my laptop and started blogging. and again it brought memories of Armenia... how once i was out of town with mom. it was summer, we were on a one week hike or so. after she went to sleep i sneaked out to the balcony and started writing in a diary (yes i kept one back then).

am i becoming overly sentimental? small things suddenly evoke some memories and it happens let's say not once or twice but a lot. you can laugh all you want but i have photos of Armenia on the wall in front of the bed (i blogged about it and posted photos) and one of the photos shows.. Ararat. i guess so many people from diaspora hang pictures of Ararat not because they care about the mountain in particular but just because it's a symbol of Armenia, something familiar, something.. from home.

and please, don't think that i suddenly started liking Armenia more or less after i left - no, it's a different thing. it's not that from far you start loving something more as long as you don't have to deal with it in your every day life. it's about people, about special places, and little things. it's not tourism - i'm here for long so probably not many of my friends will understand what i'm saying. but were they in my situation they surely would - at least deep inside their heart.

oh and from the balcony i saw the ursa major.. just like form my room in Yerevan on a summer night. creeped me out for a moment :)

i'm wondering if that racoon will be back.. i'll wait here a little bit longer. i'm not sleepy anyway.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

driving, photography, cinema, etc

and as usual i'm falling back - still am missing one post because haven't taken photos for it yet. anyways.

on saturday it was my 4th day at the wheel (of Mike's car :D ). and what did Michael have me do? drive to his parents!!! the road included a freeway.. which was the easiest part just kind of scary at first since i was going 65mph. i love driving :D. but i'm far from being on my own.. i'm so used to being in passenger's seat and looking at all the trafic, traffic lights, turns and stuff with complete indifference - i just see them but don't really notice. and suddenly all those road signs and lights and lanes are so important and i can't skip any.

Michael says i'm doing pretty good, and that i'm driving like a guy - girls are believed to be all over the road and slam the breaks at the last minute.. which i don't do. i mess up other stuff - like stopping earlier then necessary. but really the worst thing is parking backwards. and the second part of the test to take is maneuvrability - i have to park twice (once backwards) without hitting any cones.

SMILE = Seatbelt Mirrors Ignition Lights Eyeglasses
i have to adjust everything after Mike.. and he has to adjust everything back because he just doesn't fit in the driver's seat when it's adjusted to me :D like the wheel is in his mouth :D:D:D

so much about driving for now.

now what were we doing on saturday? well you can see for yourself!



you can check the date and time of photos - they were taken minutes apart - so yes Michael was vacuuming while i was playing world of war craft. ok ok i'm not that terrible - i cleaned both birds' cages on friday which was an incredible deed for me :D and somebody had to vacuum after... i hate vacuuming. and the vacuum cleaner is heavy for me (that's a lie but shhhh).

then we went to have a dinner at "Steak'n'sheak":



i liked the place and their food was great. i had a milkshake afterwards and mmmmmmmm it was so good...

then we went to a movie thater across the street. it was different than the ones in Armenia - there was a corridor with doors above which the names of the movies were lit up. every room was approximately of the size of small hall of Nairi cinema.
We went to see Star Trek and it was very very good. we are thinking of watching the old Star Trek show now :)

Sunday

this is when we went to Michael's parents. they are staying with Janet and Erik now. Mike's mom told us that they have a new pet - a turtle. they just saw a turtle walking down the street and it almost got hit by a car! they picked it up and are trying to find the owners. we went to their backyard to see the turtle and oh god! it was huge!

then i stayed in the backyard to take some photos:


forget-me-not

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i don't like this one. it was the best from the bunch but if you want to see a really good photo of dandelion go to Mary's photostream:


this is one of her best shots!


when i walked around the house to actually go inside i saw Tess. he decided to run away from my camera but it never happened:


sprint

in disguise
yes very smart


and some photos from the front yard:








Eric with cones


the cones are for me - to practice maneuvrability.

then we came home but i felt like taking more photos. so i went to the Garfield park. sometimes you don't know what you're going to shoot and have no specific purpose. and it's never disappointing - there is always something to take photos of :D

this time it was.. birds. i'm so used to sparrows and wild pigeons, and ravens at maximum. here there are all kinds of birds all around:











the birds were too far and i don't have a powerful zoom... yet! hehe i'll get a new lense eventually..

there were geese with their chicks! i couldn't get closer because the parents started hissing at me :(




they decided to cross the road


the cars stopped and waited



these happens all over the place - geese constantly stand in the middle of the road - they know they won't be hit and that cars will stop in front of them. they feel so good about it.

anyway. then i decided to take photos of some ducks. they were a bit far. suddenly i heard some noise behind. i turned.. and there was another pair of ducks. the boy got interested in my camera. he walked really close and inspected my gear.

my cam setting were too light but i forgot about everything and was shooting the duck while i had the oportunity. i tried fixing images later but oh well. when a photo is over-exposed, there is practically nothing you can do about it :(

and then i was shooting seagulls in the flight:

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it was such a nice day... now everything's green and the weather is warm.



some guy was fishing in the park...




...but he wasn't the only one fishing


okay i think this post was too long and i overused photos here... i need to learn to make smaller post and blog more often.