A few days after her loss, Ashley and Aaron's cousin, Caleb, made it official and got married. All of this, of course, happened during winter break. Knowing that her due date fell during that time, she had planned to go into independent studies and finish out her school year there. When it came time for school to start again, she pulled (what I figure took everything she had) together and went back into her regular classes. NOT ONLY did she go back to school but she also passed all of her classes with flying colors. AND got a "Best in Class Award" for her photography class. In the end, after EVERYTHING, she walked up and grabbed her diploma with a smile on her face. If this isn't the definition of amazing, I don't know what is. I absolutely love that girl, I am so glad - no, HONORED to be able to call her family and, better yet, friend.
Congratulations Ashley!!
I kind of went off on a tangent there, but I couldn't help it. On our way back home today, we passed by the same ol' shack we do every single time we go and come back from Bakersfield. I have forever wanted to do a photoshoot at this place, but I don't know who owns it. NOW, I could...hop the fence and take pictures and in a rickity, falling down, old house....WAIT! I think I just had deja vu! :)
When I was in high school we had to do an occupational shoot for my graphic design class. Since there was a rickity, half burned down, old house (there's that deja vu), I decided to do fire fighting. Lucky for me, my boyfriend at the time had a fire suit and helmet lying around his house and was willing to be my model. We drove to the house, stepped over the broken down fence and went inside. The pictures turned out AMAZING! The last time I was in my old teachers class, the picture was still up on his wall. We all packed up and went out to dinner to celebrate a successful shoot. During dinner I got a phone call from my mom that I needed to get my keester home immediately. I jumped in my truck and drove home, only to find 6 cop cars at my parents house! I thought for sure that something really bad had happened. Turns out Brawley was just a typical small town Someone had got my licence plate number and was turning me in for burglary! The owner of the house had been contacted and was willing to press charges due to a recent string of thefts. I kindly explained to the 3000 cops in my front yard that the only thing I TOOK was some pictures and that if they wanted them...I would give them the memory cards, I would even stomp the cards right there in the driveway if all of this would go away. Once they realized that this 5'3 105lb (at that time, not now :() girl was not the culprit to whatever thieving was going on, the cops had a little pow wow and 5 of the 6 cars left. Of course, the only guy left was the scariest one, who seemed to stare right into my soul. He sat me down and very politely explained to me that when I stepped over that fallen fence I was trespassing on to someone else property without their permission. They had previously talked to the owner and he said that with all the trauma he had been through with his home burning to the ground, that he was only willing to press charges IF I was the thief. Since I wasn't the cops let me go with a warning. But I learned a few things that day:
1) My mom is SCARY when there are 6 cop cars parked in her front yard
2) You seem to need to have a split personality to be a cop. They magically go from raging mad to sweet old men.
3) Trespassing is a BIG no no...even if you are innocently taking pictures
My teacher ALSO uses that picture in his powerpoint presentation on the first day of class for all the newbies in the "what not to do" part of his shpeel. Thanks Mr. Archer!
SO everytime we pass this little shack that seems like it is progressively falling down, I am tempted to hop the fence and go take pictures around it. Then I get slapped back to reality by the look on my mom's face when I pulled up to the house that night and think better of hopping over the measly barbed wire fence. Today, however, was different while we drove. For once we weren't in a hurry to get back home. Both Aaron and I were tired and both not quite ready to leave Bakersfield. We had left early enough to make it home before it was dark if we drove 45 mph the whole way. When we got close to the house Aaron looked over at me and asked how the lighting was...it was perfect of course! So he pulled over and let me take some pictures of this little shack while all of the traffic and crazy people passed us. He totally made my day and didn't even know it!!
Since I've written so much and it's late, I will only post one. If you want to see some more, they are on my professional blog.
P.S. I did these from this side of the fence...this is a 100% legal picture
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