merry christmas

it's finally christmas, i hope you're all having a wonderful day with your families celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. God sent his only son down to the earth to save us, and today we come together to recognize the miracle of our Savior's birth.

i'm not sure when presents were added into this religious holiday, but they were. and i'm not complaining, don't get me wrong (: i'm still at home so i haven't gotten the gifts from my grandma's house yet, but it's been good so far. i got the 18-55mm lens for my Nikon d40, so now i don't have to constantly borrow emily's. i got a house key and peace sign keychain for my keyring, so my car keys aren't lonely any more. brina got me a cheetah print snuggie, a hat, and two mario things. i got this book called The Contact Sheet that has the contact sheets from all these famous pictures, with the photographer's thoughts written up on the side. i love everything so far. now i'm off to grandma's house with the cousins for dinner. pictures and more will be posted later xoxo

edddit --

just got home from grandma's house, it was a holiday just like any other, it was fun. we opened gifts after everyone got there (late) and just chilled for a little before we at our dinner. as always, the kids table is the shit and we win at making holidays better, all singing "over the rainbow" and "love today" haha it's soo legit i love it. i love my cousins so much, and my aunt, they're all so amazing. so from grandmother's house, i got monopoly: now and then which is like, i HATE monopoly, but whatever its cool, its a family gift. then i got a mickey mouse wall clock to go with my other one (: i'm excited to hang that up. i got an ox something chess set which made me laugh and the best thing ever -- a silver pocket watch, it's gorgeous.

date: 25/12/2009 location: Grandma's, Pt.Wash camera: nikon d40, 18-55mm
*** note i am NOT that tall, tippiest toes, my feet still hurt ***

these are the girls in our family, four generations captured in one composition.
back row - jessica, lesley, stephanie, me, claire (aunt), grandma linda
front row - (great) grandma jo, laurie (mom), brina, rebekah, phoebe

merry christmas again everyone :) now a week off of school.

christmas evee

merry christmas eve all, i hope you have an amazing day tomorrow with your families and you remember the real reason behind the holiday - i'll go more into that tomorrow.

today has been an awesome day, i chilled here then my sisters, momma and i went to the szanto house. i miss them a lot, it was a nice visit. we chilled there for a little while, meeting their newest family addition, Magnolia Pignolinut Polly, and hanging out with them. jake wasn't home, but it was still a worthwile visit, especially on christmas eve. if you don't know us, then this is laura and me, michael and lesley, brina and katie. just missing jake-o and the mommas.

after that we went h'orderve shopping in stop and shop and came home to eat them and watch Elf. i wrapped the few gifts i have and talked to my boyfraaaaan for a little bit then came back down to watch the first A Christmas Story of the next 24 hours. momma came downstairs with three cute bags with bells on them as mine and my sisters first gifts. we never open gifts on christmas eve so this was a little unexpected. we got matching plaid green and blue pj pants and different colored solid long sleeves. so, in the spirit, we decided to be gay and have a photoshoot being triplets.

merry christmas eve to all again (:

day before the day before break

longest day in the history of the world? i'm pretty sure.

first period i come to school and take the chem exam i forgot about for an hour. it was a lot easier than i thought it would be, and the room we were in was heated (phew). second period was my latin test that i forgot about, so another hour of testing. i didn't get one of the answers so i drew the Lucky Charms guy, it didn't make me receive credit for the question, like i was hoping for. that got graded already - 81% with a possible curve. not bad for no studying. third period we had our CPR written test in health. the past 8 hours of health we've been learning, practicing and being certified in infant, child, and adult CPR/AED/choking. awesome, i can save a life... just as long as i get at least a 80% on the test. four-one four-two was lunch then USH but McClean wasn't here (♥) so that's an hour and a half off, but then i had fifth period off also, so momma took me to old navy to buy jeans. i ended up with two pairs of jeans, coudorois (sp?), a jacket and some weird stocking tights things. then we came home and momma made me soup and half a sandwich (: she's a mad good chef. then i came back for sixth period, honors precalculus, and was expecting some work. but instead she starts class with "okay whatever we don't finish in class, you have to finish for homework" then turns on Transformers. awesome but long day? pretty much.

tomorrow night is gonna be SICCCCCCCCCCCK hahahaha so excited. last day of school, night in the city with my girls, hella time ;D

you are my joy

last three days of classes before christmas break! i'm so excited, but i have soo many tests tomorrow that it's kinda hard to get into the holiday spirit. jeez why do teacher's always do that?!
so i suck - remember how i told you that julie, raffi and i are leaving for pittsburgh on the 28th? yeah, i ordered the tickets for sunday the 27th. there was a whole shebang right there last night at the realization but its all good now, so we get an extra 12 hours of pittsburgh :D woooo i'm really excited, but i'm messing up raffi's break ): i feel super bad, i should have been more careful. that has never happened before!

so if you're in the tricounty area, you were hit with massive snow yesterday... yeah on sunday, not monday, life sucks. but grace, pamela and i built a HUGE pile of snow while emily and mickey were out driving. didn't use it but we did make a sledding course on the side of the house. then after grace left, i did christmas with the bennett's, soo crazy, so much fun, i love them.


date: 20/12/2009 location: Bennett's, Pt.Wash camera: nikon d3000, 18-55mm

ten strands of lights later, and this is what you get, a masterpiece christmas tree. poppin champagne and blasting christmas music while dancing with the lights and pamela and emily with mickey. it was so much fun, second family, quite legit ♥ ♥ ♥ it was a very merry christmas, even though i didn't get to decorate my own tree on friday night ( ;D ) i got to help them, horray for winter.

eighteen inches of snow...

date: 27/11/2007 location: SHS, Pt.Wash camera: sony cybershot w40

this was the first picture in a seasonal series i wanted to do, but i forgot in the winter of that year and decided to screw it. jeez, that was the november of freshman year. so much has changed since then. haha and if you asked me if i wanted to go back -- never would i ever. i hated who i was, the people i was with, and what i did. i've legit became a new person in the past two years. haah like looking through my picture folders on my computer you can see how i evolved, in picture taking, organization, friends, events, and all that. this is one of like, six pictures that i submitted to newsday's photo contest a while ago. this wasn't the one with the most votes - that's this one. http://myli.mycapture.com/PHOTOS/NDY2/1UserPhotos/605757E.jpg

so christmas is in a few days and i have yet to be shopping ... ! so not good - procrastination's getting the best of me. i think miss emily and i are going to roosevelt field today as long as we can find a ride. and, as julianne just informed me, this time next week i'll be packing to go to pittsburgh :D falalalahey i'm so excited. now just to overcome the snow problem out my front door ...

i'm really bad at this

so basically i suck at keeping this. i think of things to talk about with this every day and i never get around to this. junior year is gonna kill me, so busy with everything. homework, photo, friends, super paper mario, boyfriend, campus life, work, babysitting... its all killing me slowly, not to be emo or anything ;D

ahah but yeah so julianne and i are going back to pittsburgh over the break! and this time with mr. froundjian :D so excited, i miss all the people from out there soo much, i really don't know how i've been dealing with it. this is the first christmas since meeting miss danielle that she won't be in my house for a week ): but God wants me to see my love, and He showed me this by landing austyn and his band We Are Merely Moving Shadows a show in this huge 6-way battle of the bands over the break. austyn invited me, julie, and raffi to go see him and with barely over two weeks till the show, we got ourselves plane tickets from JFK to pittsburgh from 28-31/12 i'm so excited.

date: 8/12/2009 location: my roof, Pt.Wash camera: nikon d40, 18-55mm

hm, in more recent news, we're having a photo exhibit tonight at the school before the band concert, i don't know if i'm going but i have four pieces on display - three panoramas and an americana shoot. on top of doing that, we've been working on self portraits. i have two of them almost done that i like for class but, in a self portrait shoot, how can i not do a myspace picture? its kinda necessary. plus, i didn't even know i had self timer till the second day of shooting. smart, eh? i'd think so too.

it's christmas time, again.

it's been a full week. blah, i know no one actually reads this but i feel the need to apologize to my invisible audience. i've wanted to but haven't had time/pictures :(

date: 28/11/2009 location: Stannard's Brook Park, Pt.Wash camera: nikon d40, 55-200mm

"this picture makes the tree look ... special. like there's something extraordinary about it." - Mrs. Murphy

this is literally my latest picture, i printed it about fifteen minutes after class had already ended today. obviously this isn't the print, but i liked it enough to go digging through my bag to find my USB and upload it.
i think i agree with Mrs. Murphy - something about this panoramic makes this tree look ... different. i don't know how to explain it.
i was doing this shoot while Brina was doing recording for her video a few weeks ago, the last picture i posted was from the same day (two down). today i finally got around to putting these three together and i'm super happy with the combination of this (fully intended so not much of a surprise). there was one other tri that i liked enough to print, but not enough to put on here, not today at least.
i can't wait till summer, this will be my favorite spot, i can tell already. in a secluded park basically in my backyard chillen under a tree, sounds like a plan.
okay i have to go find a picture to submit into the Antonelli Institute high school contest, its due tomorrow D:< shoottt meee. kbye xoxo

obsessedd

i feel the need to inform you all of why i haven't been updating as much as i'd like.
for one, haven't really been shooting so much. which is because of my new obsession. of course it won't ever take my love for photography, but it's a second choice.


super paper mario for the wii. it's my sick obsession lately. that, the song lullaby - bond, and diet peach arizona. xoxo

sincerely, me.

currently listening to : Lullaby - Bond <-- new obsession xoxo



date: 28/11/2009 location: Landmark, Pt.Wash camera: nikon d40, 55-200mm

one of many panoramas i've been playing with all weekend. there were others but i like this one, even though the distinct difference between them. when i took this, there was a third picture that got added to the far right, but it just didn't fit in. i didn't purposely distort this picture, but i love how it came out. doesn't it make you wanna see what's in the triangle of the fences? it creates this illusion that we're missing a part of the story that's right in front of our faces. to those who don't recognize the area, this is only one fence - right and left sides. one sees off into the distance, the lighter side, which is kind of a hopeful thing for most people. the other side, dark, is cut off in the midground and doesn't offer you as much, it's more out of focus which can be confusion. i don't know, maybe i'm looking into it. this definitely wasn't the motive behind the picture, but that's the beauty of it.

of course...

this thanksgiving has been amazing, such an awesome day. from just chillen around here with the family watching cake boss all morning to grandma's house with the cousins, it was a great day.
we only had thirteen of us there tonight - great grandma, two grandparents, four parents, and six kids. we missed lesley :( but she had fun in new hampshire so thats okay.

haha i love time with my cousins, it's always so much fun. like tonight, we sat around the "kid table" (ages 9-19) and went in a circle, each singing one word at a time of that song tomorrow from Annie. its just such a thrill to chill with them, they're all amazing and i love them so much.
everything was going amazing and perfect, something none of us have really experienced with you mix our grandma into the situation, so upon leaving, we're all so happy for a successful, stressless night.. which of course got ruined as we're going out the door.
our grandpa came downstairs with his teeth out (he looks like the guy from the sixflags ad when he does that) just playing around with us and one of my cousins went to take a picture when our grandma EXPLODED and freaked out screaming at her husband (they have a bad relationship) and make him go back upstairs away from everyone, calling him names. kinda shook everyone up as we were leaving.

all in all, it was still a really nice thanksgiving and a perfect way to spend it, with my family that i cannot be more thankful for if i tried. i hope you all had an amazing day today and remembered the reason behind the holiday.

i'm thankful for ...

today is the one day in a year dedicated to reflecting and being greatful for everything we have in our lives. just sit back today, enjoy the time with your family and friends, and be thankful for what a privilege it is to live in this time and place.

what am i thankful for? just about everything under the sun.
i'm thankful for the fact that i had soup for breakfast this morning.
i'm thankful for my camera, and the skills i have to take pictures.
i'm thankful for my cell phone, and even being able to have one.
i'm thankful for my friends, they're absolutely amazing and will never understand how much they mean to me.
i'm thankful for my family, the people i grew up with who have been there for everything and will always be in the future.
i'm thankful for my boyfriend, he's so sweet and awesome and makes me happy all the time.
i'm thankful for music, the major stress outlet that never fails me.
i'm thankful for Campus Life, it introduced me to the Lord and almost all of the closest and best friends i've ever had.
i'm thankful for my faith, for without it none of this would be possible.
i'm thankful for my house, even though i complain about it a lot, at least i have a shelter to go to when there are many people who don't even have that.
i'm thankful for my God, for being so forgiving and loved me enough to send His Son down to save me.

and the six day weekend begins

date: 24/11/2009 location: 76th and Madison/Park, NYC camera: nikon d40, 55-200mm

daniella and i skipped school yesterday to meet up with the beautiful jessica lerner who moved upstate a number of years ago. her school went on a field trip to the MET so we joined them, it was awesome. i made a new friend, mallory, who made me laugh a lot haha, i love funny people.

while walking back to the subway station on 77th and Lexington, we saw this building and daniella pointed it out to me so i could take a picture of it. this lens is uber annoying, but i got it to work for this shot. this picture is begging for a story to be told, questions to be answered. who lives here? why is the glass broken? how long has it been like this? why hasn't it been fixed yet?
everyone has their own answers to these questions when looking at this shot, so what's the story you see in this picture?

new york city, coming home again

i haven't been here all weekend :( but it was eventful so that's good :D

the final jon and kate plus 8 is on tonight, i'm really excited because i'm in love with the show, but it's gonna suckk not watching those kids, i'm gonna miss them haha. so team jon? yeah i think so. kate is too commanding and basically drove him to the decision he made. but still, to be able to cheat on your wife then show up to your 6 5-year-old's birthday party pretending everything's okay isn't right of him (yes, thats the episode emily and i just finished watching).

lalala i've been on this shindig for about a week and haven't even gotten to start sharing what i've been meaning to - my pictures. i have to find one that i can talk about first and all that.


date: 8/11/2009 location: SoHo, NYC camera: nikon d40, 18-55mm

so ann and i went shooting in SoHo and right in front of Citi Bank (?) was this guy who was solely responsible for my good mood that day, and every single time i go to edit these pictures. he was just so happy and enjoying every minute that he was there selling his bubble blowers, which i'm happy to report that i bought. i was taking pictures of him, quite obviously, from across the street then when ann had to go back inside, i took about 80 pictures of him just dancing around. when we were leaving, i thanked him and he let me use the bubbles and convinced me to buy one. successful day, i would think.

xoxo jbox

LOL okay so i started a post about how awesome my high school is, then was going to lead into something deeper about how we're growing up too fast. but, before i got past sentence three, my dad decided to ask me about my current relationship status. oh, and my mom gave me potato soup <3 so yeah, i kind of lost my train of thought.
and i am now a loyal mysterygoogle addict xoxo i'm so entertained. it's a kind of google that whatever you type in, you receive the search that the person before you typed in. its so funny and i don't know why.
i get to go to temple in the morning :) that's gonna be interesting haha, so excited though. i get to see the entire Szanto family, aka my other half. i haven't seen them all together since.. laura's bat mitzvah i think, about two years ago. jeezz. okay i'm super tired and can't find a pretty picture to add so goodnight xoxo

it will be as if i never existed

new moon premier, main street, port washington. xoxo
although twilight the movie was a bust, as i think this one will be, i can't help but to be excited :D the books completed me, i fell in love with the characters as they fell in love with eachother. i'm not sure why they were so good though, written on a 6th grade reading level and being completely predictable. maybe its the badass superhero story we all wish we had? not sure where the hook in the saga is, but nevertheless, it has captured the hearts of countless teenage girls around the world.
with kristen stewart's poor acting abilities and robert patterson's awkwardness on camera, i'm surprised that the movie's allegedly the top of the charts this weekend. but, i shouldn't speak, because i'm going along with the rest of the teenie-boppers in this town.

in other news, my mom is going to the dominican republic to see a concert. crazy hippie<3
oh, and in even other news, mrs. tecusan is going to be the death of me. i'm convinced i could be a lot more successful in PreCalculus Honors without her leading the way. that test today was absolutely rediculous and covered more information that i was responsible for knowing. whatever, i pass the clas, get the 3 college credits, and be on my way. other than that, junior year is a breeze thus far.

music is the food for our soul

hey young faithful, i will teach you to be stronger, to be stronger.

^ my favorite line from some will seek forgiveness, others escape - underoath. this song is one of the few from them i listen to, not being a huge fan of screaming and all that headacheness. some of their harder songs i really do like, but not so much for the music itself, rather their inspiration, or motives. this band, along with many others like august burns red, mewithoutyou, family force five, skillet, jars of clay, dave crowder, etc. are categorized as Christian bands. no, this doesn't mean they're singing about God all the time, but it means that they're into the music to glorify the Lord.

i find that incredibly awesome, and i have a lot more respect for artists that follow this idea than others because rather than supporting someone thats only into it for the money and fame, why not listen to someone who has a deeper background? plus, the lyrics have more meaning than alcohol, marijuana, and girls.

if you're interested in something like this, tell me what kinda music you're into and i'll give you someone to look into