Biola Chimes Article
Love. It’s all around me. From the flocks of friendly cats wandering the neighborhoods, to the scary man I just saw on the subway who threatened a fellow pedestrian for casually brushing by him, it seems everyone is catching a wiff of the same thing, and no, I don’t mean the smell of my cat Georgie’s litter box. Everyone is catching the old “kissing disease,” which is what I usually call any disease someone catches. Except this time thankfully it’s not leukemia, it’s actually the Valentines Day jitters.
For some special people, Valentines Day is one to be cherished and looked forward to. Those special people however can range from uncomfortably affectionate lovers who treat each other with public oil massages in the park, to downright terrifying people who surprise their special someone with personalized billboards, skywriting, and/or by kidnapping them and placing them in a situation not unlike Hannibal Lecter. I’m not one to judge. Personally, I’m counting my blessings this year that my fiancee has completely forgotten about Valentines Day altogether.
“Good thing I remembered all that stuff you told me to do for the big day coming up,” I told her, with a phone poised in my hand. “I made so many plans I can’t even remember all of them! Oh so many plans! What were they supposed to be again?”
“What day?” She responded. “Is something coming up?”
Thinking quick, not unlike a fox, I responded by saying, “I mean... What?” And then ran away.
Yes, some might argue that may only mean she has so much more to look forward to when I surprise her this Valentines Day morning with her cat dipped in white chocolate and encrusted with diamonds. Sure, such surprises have their joys, but just think of the joy I can bring to her by giving her a day full of so much deception that she’ll be unable to ever understand what holiday is currently occurring for everyone else. So very much joy, I say.
My plan is so simple really. All I have to do is disable her internet connection to keep her off Facebook, then isolate her from her friends, perhaps by distracting them with Valentine’s Day gifts of their own. Then all that’s left is to print my own personalized version of the morning newspaper and replace the headline to something along the lines of “It’s Not Valentines Day.” After that, it’s clear sailing, as long as I can keep her from going to the grocery store and can easily convince her that the Valentines Day parade we run into is actually for returning astronauts. It’s almost too easy.
All this I am willing to do for her. Nay, for love. And also for me. But love mostly. Sort of.
Shhh. Don’t speak.
Finally, to complete my deception of love, I ask that all of the Chimes readers join in by quickly lowering their heart-shaped balloons and tossing their boxes of chocolates into a nearby shrub as my fiancee passes by. Remember everyone, now that I forgot to make those dinner reservations Beth told me to make two months ago, we’re all in this together. There’s no backing out now.
Happy Valentines Day Everyone!
Showing posts with label biola. Show all posts
Showing posts with label biola. Show all posts
2.18.2010
10.14.2009
Adventures In Engagement Photos
Chimes Opinion Article
Zachary Newcott
Although I thought Jennifer Lopez prepared me well with her instructional film The Wedding Planner, it turns out I thought wrong. J Lo knows nothing of my life. So when my fiance told me that we needed to take engagement photos I was at a disadvantage even before I suggested using her imac photobooth to do the job.
Now, I can't claim to be a doctor. Lord knows I've tried, but I can't. What I can claim to be is a college student intern. This places my price-range for wedding photographers a tier below insta-matics and a tier above talking about how great our wedding photos would have been had I a budget that didn't require me to save 7-Eleven cups for cheaper refills. This is bad news if you want to hire a professional (or a "pro" as the professionals call them), as they like to be paid in valid currency and not the unspecified favors I usually offer.
What's frustrating is that my fiance is a rather great photographer. I know this because she doesn't have to use the same amount of lense-flare and blur that I usually do, or insist on using MS Paint to edit in embarrassing photos of celebrities. She's a real classy lady, unlike me, who is a semi-trashy not-lady.
Sadly, first-person wedding photos would make for a terrifying prospect considering that they would mostly involve me coming towards the camera with my mouth opened incredibly wide and drooling (as is the way I expect our wedding kiss to be). If we were going to do engagement photos soon we would need another option. After thinking about all I had learned, I proposed we could make money snake hunting, but was once again convinced that was a bad idea after learning that I had mistakenly watched Anaconda instead of the Wedding Planner, which also starred Jennifer Lopez. Beth had a better solution.
The answer came in the way of the automatic timer on her camera, who works for practically nothing provided that it has enough battery power. Harnessing this resource we found an excellent location atop a pleasant mound of dirt. Problem was, in order to photograph a mound of dirt the camera itself needed to be several yards away. This resulted in me, a Chimes opinions-writer/part-time-videogame-player, setting an eight second timer and then running as fast as I could. This made the modest pile of dirt, to my physique, virtually Everest.
Having no knowledge as to how legs should function apart from sitting, I took whatever lessons I could gather from Discovery channel videos and hunkered down, assuming that if I stayed low I could practically pounce my way to the top of the hill in one swift movement. Somehow, I managed to make it literally at the last second, and although that means many of our photos feature me sweating and plastered with an expression of fear and confusion, that might just be exactly who I am deep down inside.
In this way we have captured a truly authentic moment in our relationship with a minimal budget of nothing. Even still, we fear that a similar, somewhat-complicated system of various cameras set to timers might have to be implemented in the actual wedding to come. We're dedicated to finding a better option. I think Jennifer Lopez said it best in the film Gigli when she noted, "Life, will find a way..." And although I never saw Gigli and actually stole that quote from Jurassic Park, I think we all learned something very special. Although saving money is important, if it takes making an investment to capture a memory, then it's worth the cost.
Zachary Newcott
Although I thought Jennifer Lopez prepared me well with her instructional film The Wedding Planner, it turns out I thought wrong. J Lo knows nothing of my life. So when my fiance told me that we needed to take engagement photos I was at a disadvantage even before I suggested using her imac photobooth to do the job.
Now, I can't claim to be a doctor. Lord knows I've tried, but I can't. What I can claim to be is a college student intern. This places my price-range for wedding photographers a tier below insta-matics and a tier above talking about how great our wedding photos would have been had I a budget that didn't require me to save 7-Eleven cups for cheaper refills. This is bad news if you want to hire a professional (or a "pro" as the professionals call them), as they like to be paid in valid currency and not the unspecified favors I usually offer.
What's frustrating is that my fiance is a rather great photographer. I know this because she doesn't have to use the same amount of lense-flare and blur that I usually do, or insist on using MS Paint to edit in embarrassing photos of celebrities. She's a real classy lady, unlike me, who is a semi-trashy not-lady.
Sadly, first-person wedding photos would make for a terrifying prospect considering that they would mostly involve me coming towards the camera with my mouth opened incredibly wide and drooling (as is the way I expect our wedding kiss to be). If we were going to do engagement photos soon we would need another option. After thinking about all I had learned, I proposed we could make money snake hunting, but was once again convinced that was a bad idea after learning that I had mistakenly watched Anaconda instead of the Wedding Planner, which also starred Jennifer Lopez. Beth had a better solution.
The answer came in the way of the automatic timer on her camera, who works for practically nothing provided that it has enough battery power. Harnessing this resource we found an excellent location atop a pleasant mound of dirt. Problem was, in order to photograph a mound of dirt the camera itself needed to be several yards away. This resulted in me, a Chimes opinions-writer/part-time-videogame-player, setting an eight second timer and then running as fast as I could. This made the modest pile of dirt, to my physique, virtually Everest.
Having no knowledge as to how legs should function apart from sitting, I took whatever lessons I could gather from Discovery channel videos and hunkered down, assuming that if I stayed low I could practically pounce my way to the top of the hill in one swift movement. Somehow, I managed to make it literally at the last second, and although that means many of our photos feature me sweating and plastered with an expression of fear and confusion, that might just be exactly who I am deep down inside.
In this way we have captured a truly authentic moment in our relationship with a minimal budget of nothing. Even still, we fear that a similar, somewhat-complicated system of various cameras set to timers might have to be implemented in the actual wedding to come. We're dedicated to finding a better option. I think Jennifer Lopez said it best in the film Gigli when she noted, "Life, will find a way..." And although I never saw Gigli and actually stole that quote from Jurassic Park, I think we all learned something very special. Although saving money is important, if it takes making an investment to capture a memory, then it's worth the cost.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
