2009 was a busy year for me... and it brought along changes. I also did a lot of traveling.
January found me heading off to the final frontier, Alaska. It was a great time and I made some great friendships from there.
February was adventurous at work (oh the stories I can tell) and also found me celebrating my first blogiversary.
March was a crazy month traveling on an amazing (but short) trip to Hawaii, a madcap weekend in Indy where I ended up working at the last minute and heading to Amarillo, TX.
April was more Amarillo time where I had a great cast and we had a grand 'ol time.
May was Das Rheingold, my first Wagner, and the beginning of Butterfly. Oh, and it may have also been my birthday month. Celebrated with one of my best friends and the cast of Das Rheingold.
June found me celebrating a marriage between WS & GS and doing Butterfly with a schoolmate from college. It also found me mourning the loss of a dear friend.
July was when I made the big move from Houston to St. Louis. Much happier in St Louis... even though I do miss my Houston friends and favorite resturants.
August found me unpacking, organizing and generally relaxing. A welcome change.
September had me in Indianapolis again, working on another German opera. I also started Assignment: St Louis on Flickr.
October was my grandfather's 90th birthday and also sent me back to Alaska for a second time to do a double-bill of operas. I took seven flights in one week. Never again... (hopefully).
November found me finishing up my time in Anchorage and heading home for the holidays and a break.
December was blissfully quiet and work free. Sometimes that's a good thing. I got to hang out with a friend and see parts of St Louis that I don't get to normally see. I also participated in the bi-annual roommate reunion with my sophomore year roommates. We got it in just under 2 years and we had a blast.
I completed #1, #49 and #75 on my life list, as well as revamping it to be more realistic and attainable. You can't cross things off if they're vague.
I know a lot of my friends had rough, rotten 2009s. Mine wasn't 100% great, but it wasn't 100% bad either. I was lucky enough to keep up a freelance/contract job in a recession. I survived many companies closing.
May 2010 bring me many more adventures and hopefully more stability. And many new and fun photographic opportunities.
Showing posts with label 2009. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2009. Show all posts
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Happy New Year/Rose Parade
For as long as I could remember, it was a New Year's Day tradition to watch the Rose Parade on TV. My mother says that we got a color TV specifically for this purpose.
When I moved out to LA for work, I got it in my head that I wanted to try volunteering to work on the floats once I started learning more about it. I found out there was a City of St. Louis float done by Phoenix Decorating Company. I showed up at the gate, flashed my driver's license and asked to work on that float. Thus started not only a 'tradition' (that only lasted two years so far) but a friendship as well. There was another gal, who was very similar to me: we both were Asian, we both wore glasses, we were both short and easily mistaken for being far younger than we actually were. As it turns out, we actually lived a few blocks away from each other. We hit it off very well, and we worked quite well together. Our crew chief was impressed with our work and set us on the more detailed work, and often, up on scaffolding. Quite often we found ourselves atop the float because of the combination of our size, weights and abilities.
The rules are that every part of the float must be covered in organic material: seeds, flowers, beans, etc. You'd be surprised at what is used. It's a lot of work, often with adhesives that don't like to be washed off easily. Patience, flexibility and eagle-eyes are important. I was lucky enough to make an impression enough to be asked back for the final days where we get to place the flowers. I can't tell you the kind of pretzel positions I put myself in to get flowers everywhere they needed to be. The two years that I lived in Pasadena, I never did make it to see the parade live. Every year, I was barely able to move from bed to couch, every muscle screaming in protest. But I can't begin to tell you what it was like to see my handiwork on national TV. Especially since the first year, my float won a trophy. My contribution was small, but my pride for the float was big.
These are a few pictures from both years that I worked on the floats. The first year, was for the 2005 Rose Parade where I worked on the City of St. Louis float. More can be found here.
Not everything on the float was flowers:
The corn kernels were made of lemons - yum!
The apples were covered in individual carnation petals, painstakingly glued on, one-by-one.
See what I mean? Every corner. Ouch!
Made from seaweed paper (black), coconut (white), statice (yellow), lentil (orange), coffee (brown).
The second year, I followed our Crew Chief to the Ronald McDonald house and worked on that one instead of the St. Louis one. More here
The bear that I worked with, up close and personal:
Raggedy Anne before her saffron-coated hair started bleeding onto her white dress because of rain during judging.
Some of my close-up handiwork:
It's really hard to keep the colors seperated when you're working with things like statice petals and coconut. Lots of attention to detail.
I intend to go back and work there again, and my float friend has offered to host me. I forgot to take her up on the offer this year - the first time I haven't had work in late December since I left LA.
Hope you enjoyed this up close look at Rose Parade floats, happy new year! I've got two more posts ready to go, so stay tuned!
When I moved out to LA for work, I got it in my head that I wanted to try volunteering to work on the floats once I started learning more about it. I found out there was a City of St. Louis float done by Phoenix Decorating Company. I showed up at the gate, flashed my driver's license and asked to work on that float. Thus started not only a 'tradition' (that only lasted two years so far) but a friendship as well. There was another gal, who was very similar to me: we both were Asian, we both wore glasses, we were both short and easily mistaken for being far younger than we actually were. As it turns out, we actually lived a few blocks away from each other. We hit it off very well, and we worked quite well together. Our crew chief was impressed with our work and set us on the more detailed work, and often, up on scaffolding. Quite often we found ourselves atop the float because of the combination of our size, weights and abilities.
The rules are that every part of the float must be covered in organic material: seeds, flowers, beans, etc. You'd be surprised at what is used. It's a lot of work, often with adhesives that don't like to be washed off easily. Patience, flexibility and eagle-eyes are important. I was lucky enough to make an impression enough to be asked back for the final days where we get to place the flowers. I can't tell you the kind of pretzel positions I put myself in to get flowers everywhere they needed to be. The two years that I lived in Pasadena, I never did make it to see the parade live. Every year, I was barely able to move from bed to couch, every muscle screaming in protest. But I can't begin to tell you what it was like to see my handiwork on national TV. Especially since the first year, my float won a trophy. My contribution was small, but my pride for the float was big.
These are a few pictures from both years that I worked on the floats. The first year, was for the 2005 Rose Parade where I worked on the City of St. Louis float. More can be found here.
Not everything on the float was flowers:
The corn kernels were made of lemons - yum!
The apples were covered in individual carnation petals, painstakingly glued on, one-by-one.
See what I mean? Every corner. Ouch!
Made from seaweed paper (black), coconut (white), statice (yellow), lentil (orange), coffee (brown).
The second year, I followed our Crew Chief to the Ronald McDonald house and worked on that one instead of the St. Louis one. More here
The bear that I worked with, up close and personal:
Raggedy Anne before her saffron-coated hair started bleeding onto her white dress because of rain during judging.
Some of my close-up handiwork:
It's really hard to keep the colors seperated when you're working with things like statice petals and coconut. Lots of attention to detail.
I intend to go back and work there again, and my float friend has offered to host me. I forgot to take her up on the offer this year - the first time I haven't had work in late December since I left LA.
Hope you enjoyed this up close look at Rose Parade floats, happy new year! I've got two more posts ready to go, so stay tuned!
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