While I have your attention, check out our newest family member.  Her name is Ripley!  Isn’t she a cutie pie?  She likes to eat sticks and random things, so it looks like here she was chowing down on some tasty spider webs and I caught her red handed, look how guilty she looks.  She is allegedly part beagle part dachshund, but I’m not so sure about that.

Here’s a little clip from the show last night, we had great seats!

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On this one you can see Jordan looking right at me, yep he was singing to me!  It’s a song about taking photographs, see I told you he was singing to me!

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]]> http://angelacalderon.com/blog/2008/10/29/new-kids-on-the-block-atlanta/feed/ 7 http://angelacalderon.com/blog/2008/09/06/clumsy/ http://angelacalderon.com/blog/2008/09/06/clumsy/#comments Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:05:03 +0000 Angela http://angelacalderon.com/blog/?p=303 First off – to all my blog readers who emailed me last time after I posted about New Kids on the Block, ok I bought their new album on itunes, I LOVE IT.  (is it ok for a grown woman to confess that?)  It’s perfect, no one is home and I’m going to play loud music while I clean the house music.  I’m not sure that’s what they had in mind while they were making the album, but if you dance like I do when you are mopping the floor, this is a good one for that.

If I were asked to write down a list of adjectives that describe myself I would sadly have to add clumsy to the list.  Oh how I envy ballerinas and figure skaters, they are so graceful and smooth.  Me on the other hand, well I seem to trip over air.  A few months ago I tripped over the sidewalk at the mall, in my defense there was some concrete that was uneven and sticking up.  Down I went and it just so happened to be at the busiest parking lot of Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, CA and I ended up breaking my favorite pair of sunglasses that are no longer made, I was sad, they made me look so cool .

When I was pregnant with my daughter I was walking (ha again at the mall) and someone had forgotten to put down the wet floor sign and I had on some slippery shoes and yep, down I went.  When I was in girl scouts (800 years ago) I was carrying back a pepsi bottle to the machine for my troop leader (remember those really tall old school pepsi bottles that you pulled from the machine), the floor was wet from someone spilling a cup of ice.  Down I went and to this day I have this obnoxious scar on my wedding ring finger as a reminder of that fall.  They should have done a butterfly bandage but they didnt and the scar is ikky!  I also have a scar on my foot from a broken bottle that clamped around my foot (I didnt see it in high grass).

Oh my list could go on and on and on of my oh so graceful moments (please note my heavy sarcasm here).

Yesterday I went to Michael’s (yes that is the best store ever for stuff, scissors that make cool edges, stickers, punches, paper oh my!) and I was walking along minding my own business when my flip flop got caught under the wheel and somehow my foot slammed in to the cart.  Ouch was my first thought and then my foot started throbbing.  So I am now the proud owner of not one but two lovely broken toes.  My “this little piggy had none” and my “this little piggy went wee wee wee all the way home” toes are broken on my left foot.  They are a lovely shade of purple, some would say grape-like.

I’m not sure why I’m telling this story, it has nothing to do with photography, but I guess it helps you to get to know me better.  While I may be clumsy, I always get right back up without missing a beat and laugh at how I’m not the most graceful person on the planet.  I think I missed my calling, I bet Ringling Brothers has a place for people like me.

So today, broken toes in tow, we went to the Paulding County Arts & Crafts festival at Paulding Meadows.  Funnel cakes, fried Coca-Cola, fried dill pickles, you name it they had it.  I’m trying to figure out how you fry Coca-Cola, but that is a mystery that I’ll solve another day as I didn’t get over to that booth.  I had grand ideas for taking lots of pictures, but in the end I only took a few and just enjoyed all of the festivities.  Here’s my son taking a ride on a horse.  I bet that horse is more graceful than I am!

I hope you are all having a great weekend, try not to trip over air like I do!

Fast forward to oh about 25 years later (I’m guessing the last time I roller skated was when I was 10) and my son’s school is having a roller skating night to promote the PTA. Now I think in my entire time in California I only saw one roller skating rink and that was when I worked for Special Olympics and they had a competition there. I guess it’s not a cool thing there, but there are tons of ice skating rinks. So we head over to the skating rink, my kids skated for the first time (more like attempted). “Mommy Mommy skate with us like you did when you were a kid.” Really? Oh man, Mommy is old, tired and well, when grown ups fall on their hiney it’s kinda painful. Ouch, I was having visions of the ambulance carrying me away with a broken leg.

Well I’m a push over so I ended up renting a pair of skates and skating with the kids. I’ll admit I’m very shaky, but I didn’t fall and some of it came back to me, in no time I should be back to roller diva status. Now this is the cool thing, the skating rink has Monday afternoon skating that is .99 and that is admission, skate rental, pizza and one other thing that I can’t remember. What a deal! So I’ve now been talked in to taking the kids back again soon so they can learn and be able to “skate real fast and be cool”.

For all you peeps here in Metro Atlanta, check out Sparkles Skating Rink for a good time with your kids, they have four locations – Hiram, Kennesaw, Smyrna & Gwinnett. My kids loved the playground and next time my son said he wants to play laser tag!

So today, I risked my life… and it was fun.

PS – Happy 40th birthday to my husband, who by the way chose not to try to roller skate tonight, he’s never ever roller skated before and he didn’t want to push his luck on his birthday

? 2. Have multiple power outtages.

? 3. Experience thunderstorm.

?? 4. Get lost because your GPS has no clue where anything is, and you are about as geographically challenged as they come. (deserves a double check)

?5. Order “sweet tea”

?6. Visit Gone With the Wind Museum

?7. Have someone cuss you out on the phone because you “stole” their home phone number.

?8. Get stung by a vicious monster.

??9. Listen to your security system blare for an hour because you have no clue what the passcode is because the system technically isn’t being activated until next week. (double checks because it’s happened twice already).

?10. Can’t call home because you don’t know your home phone number and your iphone reset itself and you lost all your contacts and the home number was one of them. You are reapeatedly asked for your phone number and you have to say, I don’t know. You are then asked for your cell phone number and you have to look on the side where you have taped the number on to the phone with a post it note and a piece of tape.

?11. See the big KFC Chicken

I think I can honestly say that I am now offcially initiated and I’m a Georgian. (Is that how you say it? Hmm) Last week law enforcement showed up when the power went out after the storm when we couldnt get the security system turned off. The power has gone out two times in less than two weeks. My GPS is acting like I’m crazy when I type in addresses, I’m wondering where this attitude came from, she suddenly gets upset when she starts all this “recalculating” mess when giving me directions. I’m waiting for her to scream obscenities at me when I don’t go the way she tells me to go. Sweet tea is a must if you live in the south, I’ve drank my share already and its back to Coke Zero, Diet Pepsi and that yummy Chick Fil-A Diet Lemonade.

Comcast gave us someone elses phone number, no they had not cancelled it, they were still using it and they weren’t so happy when their friends started calling and I told them they had the wrong number. Yikes. So sorry about that, didn’t mean to take your number, you can thank Comcast for that.

Today we were at the pool, I was minding my own business sitting there with my feet in the water while the kids were swimming. I started feeling a really bad sting in my arm and looked down and this huge monster was stinging me (ok it was a wasp, but just let me be dramatic and picture the hugest wasp on the planet). I immediately start screaming like I’m at a New Kids on the Block concert and try and get the darn thing off of my arm. He (I’m calling the wasp a he, he looked mean) wouldnt let go and finally I was able to flick him in to the pool. This darn thing hurts, it made me sick then I had to take a nap for a while. My arm is still swollen and I can still feel the stinging, I guess because I can’t get the stinger out. Google repeatedly talks about venom and all sorts of bad things. Yikes!

(gee I’m rather rambly tonight for someone who was stung by a monster )

This afternoon on my way back from Marietta I stopped for a quick tour through the Gone With the Wind Museum. It’s not real big but they have a lot of neat memorabilia, posters, costumes, etc. So here are a few snaps from there. Oh but before that I passed by the big huge chicken that has googly eyes on top of a KFC restaurant. Apparently it’s a big deal around here as a few people have mentioned it to me, so now I can mark that off my list!

But first, here’s one quick one of my little client Mr. J, from his at home portion of his session…

They sky was completely white for a little while this morning, it was weird!

and here’s that chicken I was telling you about…

One night we tried to find a hotel room in Oklahoma and I swear the entire state was booked, we must have stopped at least 12 different times in different cities and there was nothing.

Our stuff doesn’t arrive until Saturday, so this week we’ve been sitting and sleeping on the floor. OUCH my poor back is not a happy camper! This afternoon a storm was rolling through and the power went out, when it came back on the security system went nuts and we couldn’t figure out how to turn it off so we had a visit from some wonderful police officers who came to check up on us. I’m sure the neighbors are already thinking there goes the neighborhood with those crazy California people setting off alarms and causing problems only after a few short days here. I promise we are nice!

Texans are friendly drivers according to their welcome sign… (Oh and I know I am supposed to show a Georgia sign but it was super late when we arrived and I had a severe case of driver’s foot cramp, so I’ll have to take a picture of the Georgia sign some other day!)

It’s true, everything *is* really big in Texas. We saw the 2nd largest cross in the Western Hemisphere. It was HUGE and was right off the interstate.
Interstate 40 follows along historic Route 66

And my regular blog readers know, I love using the fisheye. Spencer & Morgan outside our new home…

and the friendly police officers who came out today when the security system went nuts
(a la point and shoot camera )

 - I owe some of you emails, for LA clients who sent me well wishes, you are the best ever!  Thank you!  Don’t forget that I will be coming back and doing sessions here in LA from time to time.  If I have a few of you interested at the same time we can get it on the calendar. 

- All of you need to cross your fingers, think good thoughts, pray, do a dance, anything so that my four year old will suddenly decide that being in the car isnt that bad.  Oh boy, I need a lot of help from you all on that one.  Her favorite hobby these days is screaming at the top of her lungs.  Do they sell minivans that have a south proof booth in them?  Maybe one that has a Britax car seat in that sound proof booth?  Am I on to something here?  I wonder if the Pimp My Ride people could do that for me?  Oh well too late now…

- Can I just say that one of the best things about starting this trip is being able to stay in hotels along the way and to once again sleep in a BED!  Man the air mattress/floor combo isn’t kind to my 34 year old back.

- I had *the* best facial last week from my faaaaaavorite skin care guru Kevin Alexander at Joe Oliveri Salon in Redondo Beach.  Seriously, if you are in LA give him a call, he is awesome.  I wish I could pack him in my suitcase and take him with me.  My face will miss his awesome facials!  My eyebrows are already crying.  Hmm maybe I should just fly back for a facial and a brow wax every month?  Is that a business expense?  I think so!

- I think on the way out I have to eat at In N Out Burger, they don’t have those in Georgia.  East Coasters, just trust me when I say its so yummy.  Californians – get yours Animal Style, trust me, you’ll love it!

- Thank you to all of the wonderful, amazing, funny, friendly every adjective you can think of people that I have met in my 11 years here in California.  I’ve made so many wonderful friends, met so many awesome clients (who are now also my friends too) that I am sad to leave behind.  Please don’t forget that I’m always just a email away and I’ll still be rambling on here on my blog just like always.

- Thanks to the state of California and Mother Nature for that sweet little 5.4 earthquake as a going away present.  Do you know that is the first one I’ve ever felt.  I’ve always been asleep or just not paying attention before.  That was one freaky experience on Tuesday I tell ya!

- My husband thinks my southern accent is going to get thicker since I’m going back to the south.  I’m from Nashville so I don’t think mine is as thick as a Jawwwjuh accent.  I am *so* ready for some southern hospitality. 

I’ll be blogging along the way, so stay tuned! 

I promised to come home with lots of photos to share, and I certainly have a ton of those, however my two stinkers just were not really wanting me to take photos of them so be prepared for a lot of photos of “stuff”. One of these days hopefully I will get some good shots of them!

The weather was so bizarre, one minute it was freezing cold, the next minute it was a gazillion degrees. My little ones loved hanging out in the Mickey Pool.

There were characters everywhere on the ship, we even had breakfast with them one morning!

The lobby of the ship was amazing, check out the chandelier, it was created by the famous artist Dale Chihuly and it weighs over 3,000 pounds!

The arches in Cabo, even the birds posed for me (although here they look like dirt on my lens!)

This boat in Cabo looked funky and colorful to me so I took a picture of it

In Mazatlan our tour made a stop at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, it was AMAZING

Each night when we would return to our cabin, we would have a towel animal on our bed. The kids loved that! Here is the elephant we found waiting for us one night, along with the yummy sleepy chocolates!

My little 007 James Bond, I mean Spencer Bond on formal night!

On the last day at sea they have a special graduation ceremony for all of the kids club members. They even get a special tshirt and a graduation cap with mouse ears!

Ok I’ll be back to add more photos later, my poor Mac keyboard is freaking out on me and needs a break!

UPS just dropped off my bluetooth Jawbone, so now I won’t go to jail when someone calls me when I’m out and about.   I feel like I’m ready to work the drive thru or like I’m starring in the Janet Jackson Control video.  Do you want fries with that?

Enjoy a little Janet for a Tuesday afternoon, Miss Jackson if you’re Nasty.
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photo via iphone

Have any of you seen the movie Music & Lyrics with Drew Barrymoore & Hugh Grant (who I love by the way, and yes I’m pretending he didn’t do that thing with that woman and get arrested for it….shhh)? It is such a cute movie, he plays a 80′s singer who was in a band similar to Wham. I even downloaded the songs from itunes, yeah I’m a sucker for cheesy music.

So this time tomorrow night I’ll be screaming like a teenager from wayyyyyyyy up high in the cheap seats and singing at the top of my lungs to George Michael music. My husband will probably be sitting next to me with his ipod ear buds in his ears pretending he’s listening to the same thing I am, but in reality he will probably be listening to Judas Priest or something bizarre like that .

***update*** The George Michael concert was flipping amazing. In my next life I want to come back with a English accent. I wonder if I could just talk like that when we move to Atlanta, maybe no one would notice? Best accents ever. This morning I had almost no voice from screaming so loud last night at the concert. I told my husband I want to see him when he plays Atlanta, and darn it his show is the day we leave LA July 31. Here are the dates left on his tour: http://www.ticketmaster.com/artist/735650, if you like him GO! You will not be sorry, he sounds as good as ever!

One of my favorite George Michael songs (but to be honest I pretty much love them all)
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Check out Hugh Grant in his faux 80′s group “Pop”, I love this he’s so funny and that’s really him singing too!
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