Aaron Riveroll | Photographer

I felt like Mary Tyler Moore yesterday. I have been annoyed, frustrated, and downright annoyed with work. I mean, so far it’s just a place I have to go to everyday. I didn’t even really have a desk. Now I do. And I have stuff too. Like a stapler (though, it’s not red) and pens and Post-Its. Granted, these new items were not obtained until the end of the day…but still…

Office supplies made things a little better. But to be honest, it’s still irritating. I’m giving it time, though. As I sat at my desk yesterday afternoon, I couldn’t help but feel a bit overwhelmed; you see, they’ve been throwing information at me left and right. It’s sort of like being repeatedly pegged with small pebbles. After a while, it just hurts, man! But I kept thinking to myself that I’m going to make the best of it…at least for a while. And I started humming the theme song to the Mary Tyler Moore Show (“you’re gonna make it after all…”). I wish I had something to throw in the air. Maybe my new stapler?

After it comes down on my head, maybe they will let me go home early?

I’m sick of training, dude. If I have to sit through another day of this, I may just go out of my mind. Someday, the future holds great things…like a pill or something that you could take instead of sitting through endless hours of crap.

But it’s not the future. It’s now. And I have to go train now. Later…

As I was driving to work this morning, I was watching a couple in a truck behind me. I can only assume that they were married, because other than the obligations of work and true love, I can’t imagine being awake that early. I also spied the wedding band on the dude’s finger. But the interesting thing was is that neither of them were talking. The chick, who was hidden behind big, dark shades mostly stared out her window. The guy was focused on the driving, his gaze never deviating from the road ahead. It takes nearly 5 minutes to actually get on the 8; most of the time, you are sitting at a stand still on the overpass and the ramp, patiently waiting, until the light lets you pass like a bouncer at a nightclub. But in that five minutes, not a word was said between these two. Lips did not move. Looks were not exchanged. And it makes me wonder; is this what we have to look forward to in marriage? Getting so sick of someone that we can’t converse? Knowing everything we need to know about the other person that there’s no reason to talk anymore?

Oooh, sign me up! And that was sarcasm, if that didn’t come across.

I truly hope the future holds more than silence.

My friends, Monday is nearly here. And I don’t want to go to work. Anyone know of any second-week excuses I can use? I’ve been doing online training modules all weekend, so I guess you could say my brain has had enough “W” it can take. Do you know what would make this all better? Some cake.

This weekend was pretty nice. Friday was low-key, which I dig. And going to bed at reasonable hour allowed me to get up early for breakfast with my grandparents and my dad on Saturday. We hadn’t been to breakfast for a couple months because it was hard for my grandma to get around; but she’s doing much better now, so we decided to go. Good times.

Saturday night, though, was cool. I hung out for a while at the airport waiting for my best friend, Katrin; she was coming back from visiting friends in Texas and I had the honor of picking her up. I didn’t know what flight she was on, only that her plane was coming in at 7:30 p.m.. It turns out that we sat on opposite sides of the airport terminal for about 30 minutes until she ran into me while walking to a pay phone to call me. We had an excellent time talking and schmoozing, catching up on old times, that sort of thing. We headed out to my neck of the woods and enjoyed dinner and drinks at BJ’s. We nearly closed the place, talking and having a grand old time. After sharing a Pazookie, we made the long trek up to Julian. It was actually a very quick drive; I don’t think I was driving like a maniac…but I’m pretty sure it was the conversation and the Coldplay that made the time fly. In no time, we were winding up the mountain roads to her parents’ house. After briefly saying hello to her brother, Shroom, and her Mom and downing the couple glasses of water, I was on my way back home. It was a nice drive. Julian is starting to get colder, which reminds me of winters at home in Ramona. I may be a city guy, but I love those backcountry falls and winters. Reminds me of growing up. You can even throw summer in there too; nothing beats those summer nights. After being on the road for nearly two hours, I hit the hay pretty early.

And now, it’s almost Monday. So begins another fun, exciting week. I hope you have one too.

I’ve been sort of lame this week. For instance, it’s almost 10:00 p.m. and I’m already thinking about going to bed. The combination of work and feeling stupid has put me in the mood not to do anything. Sort of sad, really. I hope I snap out of it soon.

Makes me feel old, too.

And on a sad note, I went exploring during my lunch break today for a Mexican food joint. The closest one I found was Sombreros, next to Pat and Oscars. This is a travesty. You see, Sombreros is a larger Mexican food chain, which means their prices are much higher than other places. In addition, there food isn’t half as greasy as your typical Mexican food joint. So that is my sad news for the day; there is no good Mexican food near my new job. At least there’s a Pat and Oscars. Mmmm, breadsticks.

Well, I have nothing else to write, so I’m going to cut this one short. Thank God tomorrow is Friday.

Well, the last two days have been quite the whirlwind of activity. As many of you know, I started my new job yesterday. Due to company policy (which I had the pleasure of thoroughly reading yesterday), I am not allowed to disclose the name of the company nor am I allowed to say that I am an employee of the company. Never mind that I have mentioned the name several times in this blog … from here on out, I will affectionately refer to my place of employment as “The W” as or Dubya, since that seems to have caught on.

So, my time at “The W” has been interesting. Actually, you could say that it sucks a little bit. Don’t get me wrong; these things take time to get used to. But I hate being the new kid. I don’t know anything or anyone. I ate lunch by myself. I had asked where the bathroom was. I felt stupid. I hate that feeling. I went from being able to tell people how to do things to not knowing how to do anything. And I hate it. Have I mentioned that already? Today was slightly better, although I did spend all day in a training class relearning everything that I thought I knew. Tomorrow and Friday looks the same.

But enough about work. Work is depressing. Let’s talk about something happy!

Well this isn’t necessarily happy, but funny … on Monday, we had our photo shoot on Sunset Cliffs. I brought a towel for our model, which ended up getting drenched when a giant wave crashed into me as I was climbing up the cliff. Not to mention my shirt and shorts got absolutely annihilated. When I got home, someone was washing their clothes, which meant I could not utilize the washing machine. Rather than put wet articles of clothing in my room, I left them in the back of my car hoping to get them into the washing machine ASAP. That didn’t happen. It wasn’t until yesterday that I got the opportunity to wash them. As a result, my car stank. This offending odiferousness permeated every inch of my vehicular unit. It smelled like something died in there. So I spent a good part of my evening Febreezing every inch of my car. It now smells like a glorious meadow on a beautiful spring day. It’s quite pleasant.

Let’s see, what else is new? I got back a little while ago from having Chipotle. I also went to Wal-Mart and bought things I didn’t need, including Milk Duds that were 88¢. I did pick up the Dave Matthews/Tim Reynolds Live At Luther College CD which was suggested to me. I’m a big fan of the Matthews/Reynolds combo; this CD is really good! I am also full of ice cream. Coldstone is great, but the small size is always more than adequate. I forget that sometimes … and their marketing ploy to get us to buy the bigger sizes. I went for the medium-size, thinking that I was being economical and smart about the whole ice-cream purchase. It turns out that my eyes were bigger than my stomach and there was a small portion I could not finish. I wasn’t even able to eat the cone, which is really sad. It’s a cone!

Well, since I’m feeling like a big ice-cream blob and pretty useless, I think I’m going to clean up and get ready for bed. I’ll try and write more at a later date. Goodnight.

Well, I had more adventures this morning that I can honestly say I’ve had in a long time. And all before lunch time. :)

Had another photo shoot with Niki in Point Loma; and it was a kickin’ good time! First of all, the adventure to get down to the beach was interesting because we weren’t expecting high tide. But we managed to get down without killing ourselves. It was interesting finding good lighting that early (again, we were thinking it would be overcast, but alas, we were wrong). Once the sun started coming up over the cliffs, we got some nice shots in (she looks amazing in the sun). But all in all, I think it was a good shoot. We had our share of challenges, though. Aside from getting down to the beach and of course the lighting issues, we had to work around Mother Nature; the tide was high and the waves were fierce, so getting shots in between the waves was tricky. Luckilly, Brian was there to let us know when the water was coming (sometimes he missed the ball and we got drenched). But it was definitely an adventure. Good times, plus one. Niki was awesome too and a good sport about everything. She’s definitely a pleasure work with.

Getting back up to civilization was hard as well, as we were toting the same equipment and were soaking wet, but we made it safe and sound. I’m laying on the floor in Brian’s living room now, still a little damp, editing pictures and trying to dry off a bit. Several slices of pizza and Carrie Underwood Hershey’s commercials later, here I am still, reflecting on the day’s events. And the day ain’t even over!

Here are some more behind the scenes photos. Enjoy!

I wish I could say I didn’t blubber like an idiot; but I can’t. I did manage to hold it together in front of people, but I lost it a few times when I was by myself. I am really going to miss everyone (and I mean everyone) at Union. It was definitely a sad, but happy, day. You spend 9 hours a day with people for almost three years, there is bound to be some attachment. And that’s not easy to let go of, especially for a guy who doesn’t deal with change very well.

Everyone took me out for a nice lunch at 94th Aero Squadron and gave me cards and well-wishes. It made me realize how much these people really mean to me…and how much I will miss them.

Farewell, UBOC.

More photos here.

The [scandalous] photos from FFM: Las Vegas 05 are posted.

And who says what happens in Vegas stays there? :)

Check them out.

Had a photoshoot tonight with a model from Alpine.

That’s right.

Alpine.

I had only driven past Alpine a couple times, and it was a long time ago. I had never driven through this charming little town. But I gotta tell you, Alpine is cool. My friend Cyndi from work had suggested some locations in her town for taking pictures and I thought it would be a different scene to shoot Niki, a lovely model from Alpine, in her own surroundings. I’ve been scouting for a woodsy, open field…and just knew that a sunset photoshoot in the country would be amazing.

And I was right.

Not only was the backdrop gorgeous, but the lighting was phenomenal. Aside from having to shoot around brush and getting stuck with thorns and attacked by fire ants, the surroundings were sweet. I was very happy with the results and will definitely add it to my ever-growing list of places to shoot pictures. Next, we are going to explore some sort of falls (water is fun), so that will be an adventure. Oh, and I should say we had a fun time shooting. I had met Niki for the first time today and she’s a cool girl. So best of luck to her and her career…definitely looking forward to more shoots with her.

Who knew that San Diego’s backcountry was so gorgeous?

Um, yeah, I only spent most of my childhood in the backcountry…how would I know? :)

Aside from UBOC looking for a new “Wholesale Coordinator” (yeah, they are going to need all the help they can get once I’m gone…hehe…), there are countless others that need help too.

My friend, the amazing Shea, has posted some links on her blog where you can help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Donate to Noah’s Wish
Donate to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund

My thoughts and prayers go out to all affected.