El Jay went to see Mariachi Christmas at Pope Joy Hall today. He loves going to UNM. He told me today that he understood the Spanish they spoke. I am glad. After all, his first words were in Spanish. They were MAS and LETCHE.

He also told me someday he wanted to be like me and go to UNM. He is on the right track. I smiled. Maybe being in school is the right path for me. I wish I knew.

The picture above was taken in November before my camera stopped working.

End of Semester

I took today's featured picture on Nov. 13th. I walk by this statue/sculpture on my way to class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Personally, I think it is gaudy and the woman has an ugly face.... I'd better be careful what I say, huh? You never know who might read this.

I have my Deutsch final in less than 3-hours. After I write this, I need to study a little more, get dressed, pick El Jay up at school, drop him off with Tio Jorge and catch the Rapid Ride to UNM. Oh and then, dash all the way across the main campus to Dane Smith Hall.



My German final is really at 12:30. A few minutes from now. However, I have to pick El Jay up at 1:55pm, causing a conflict. Herr Ewing was kind enough to let me take my final with his French class at 3pm. So, Danke, to Charles.

When that is done, all I have left is the Intro to Public Relationship final, which is online. If I have any energy left, I may take it tonight. Just to be finished.

Since my camera died, I have to admit that I have lost my enthusiasm for this project. I can use my old Pentax SLR-Film camera, but I can't afford the cost of film and developing. At what I could spend to develop just five rolls of film per month I could make monthly payments on a good digital SLR in a year. The problem is getting financing.... and then making the payment.

Another Day

After a long weekend I return to class on Monday.

Sing Sing Sing auf Deutsch!

Meine Kamera ist tot und ich bin sehr traurig.





I feel like an integral part of me has died.


The rest of the story from my morning photo shoot at UNM....

I took what I think are some awesome pictures. I went to my German class. The silhouette of the teacher singing caught my eye... I took these pictures. After class, I went to use the camera and... my camera was dead. I knew it was struggling. I just hoped I could keep it working indefinitely.

Having a working camera is important to my day to day commitments, even if I am not earning money from my photography. I do not know how long I will have to wait before I can afford a new camera. We are talking spending at least $1000 to buy a new camera. Do I make a house payment? Or do I buy a camera?

Luxury-vs-necessity?



I feel... traurig. Very, very sad.





In these pictures....
Dieses ist Herr Ewing, mein Deutsch Lehrer. Er singt gut. Charles is young, but he is old school. The class room does have a projector/computer set up... but Herr Ewing likes to use the overhead. Alte Schule ist gut. Reminds me of the Campus Environment 30-years ago.

Goal:

Goal: To photograph typical, daily campus life.

I took my camera to UNM with me this morning and took about 60 pictures before my German class.

I will share the pictures I got over my next four or five posts. I really felt that I had gotten several pictures that caught my vision today.

Having owned a business and having attended a variety of business related seminars.... I know the importance of a business card. I've been thinking I should make some new ones for me, yet I haven't completely known what to put..... Tina G., unemployed student... just doesn't do it. Today while taking pictures, I wished I had a business card available with a link to this site and my smugmug account. That light bulb came on and I had one of those enlightening moments.

The picture used for this post, is of a UNM student. He skated past me and I commented that I wished I had seen him sooner, because I would have liked to take his picture. The kid happily repeated his skating three times for me. if I had had a business card, I could have told him he could see his pictures online.

I like this picture best.

Thankful for.....

As Thanksgiving approaches it seems everywhere I go online people are posting what they are thankful for. I found this BEEutiful quote:

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow. ~ Melody Beattie


(Featured picture was not taken at UNM, but on a Fall hike I took about a month ago. Maybe I am a BEE and not an ant? Bees certainly do show up in my pictures more often than ants. To see my thoughts about this photo go to: http://indigodreams.smugmug.com/Other/Indigo-Dreams/9584391_tfMM3#709861857_Vqpbo)

Homework Again

I am now done with my homework. Or. I am done with the homework that had to be submitted by midnight. I really shouldn't wait til the last minute.

I need to give my German presentation tomorrow on Eva Braun. I am mostly done, but still rehearsing and editing. I think that the presentation will continue to be a work in progress until after I have made the presentation.

ETA: My presentation is done. It didn't go very well. My blood pressure was high and my head was pounding, so I had problems focusing on what I wanted to say. I forgot about a quarter of what I worked on saying and struggled with the rest. I doubt Herr Ewing would give me a DO-Over. Oh well. Das ist nicht sehr gut.

My featured picture.

Leaves. Vivid Red. Taken at UNM. In a dark corner against a wall.

I have been trying to take my camera with to to school at least once a week. I've gotten a few good pictures to use on this site.

I really need--OK, so, it is more a want than a need--a new camera. Mine s nearly 5-years old and it is sick....

The image posted above isn't my best work, but it caught something for me... but... what?

I stood back off of the path facing the SUB and randomly took 12 or so pictures over a space of about 3-minutes. I was focusing on the wall behind that says, "Craft Fair." The goal was to see what I would get as students rushed to their next class.

I would like to do this again on campus at peek times. Next time, I think I will play with the shutter speed to get more of a look of motion as the students hurry by. I may also edit the pictures in B&W and/or go with other colors and saturation.

Mochtest du....?

More Deutsch classe.

In class we are given a set of questions and we go from student to student interviewing them. Here are some examples of the questions:


Hast du eine Katze? Nein, ich habe kaine Katze.

Mochtest du einem? Nein. (*note* there should be an umlaut over the "O" in mochtest)

Mochtest du eine Katze kicken? Nein!


Hast du Kakerlaken? (Fun word to say, ugly bug) Nein, ich habe keinen Kakerlaken.

Mochtest du einige? NEIN!


What do I really want to have?

Was mochtest du?

Ich mochte.......... hmmmm..... can I answer that when I know more Deutsch?

Who Am I?

For my German 101 class we are required to make an oral presentation. We are to pick a famous German speaking person and pretend to be them and then the class will guess WHO we are....

I gave the teacher these three names as ideas for who I can be:

Eva Braun
Hedy Lamar
Anne Frank

The picture above is Who I am.....

Window Opening

This picture (see above) reminds me of the saying, “When God closes a door, he opens a window.”

Of course, this window is old and covered with ivy. It is barely open. Could those windows God opens, not always be very obvious? Sometimes, is there only a short window of time that it is left open. Maybe I am just not looking in the right place or maybe my attitude is all wrong. I wish I knew. Lately, life feels like this huge wall with no openings.

Rant (r nt)

To harangue: a loud bombastic declamation expressed with strong emotion. To speak or write in an angry or violent manner; rave.

Do ants rant? Or not?

This ant can't rant.

Is it healthy for an ant to rant?

Perhaps, on this BLOG its not.

Since someone could Google me and find this rant, it might give that someone the wrong impression of me. Ranting could also turn out to be positive. Who knows, unless you try?

I am feeling really frustrated. Too many personal issues contributing to an already stressful life. I have been having one of those, "I cannot do this" moments. I am considering dropping my Ethics class. I skipped class last night. I didn’t have a sitter for El Jay and I was feeling achy and running a bit of a temperature. I also had a small panic attack waiting at the bus stop last week after class. I felt safe. I was just worried that I could somehow miss the bus. Class gets out at 9pm and the last bus stops at UNM around 9:05to 9:15. What if I miss the bus? What if it doesn’t come? The issues of babysitting and the bus will be stressful for me for the next 13 class periods. Plus, I cannot, yet, afford to buy the text book and am now behind on reading.

I do not want to give up. Not just on this one class, which I could take later, but on getting this degree. I am questioning my motivation more than ever. Why am I in college? Will having a degree really help me to get a better job? Or is it too little, too late? Or am I just drained after 18-months of H**L, with no reprieve in sight?

He Loves Me, He....

On my way to my 8-week Ethics course on Monday evening I walked by a section of garden at UNM that was still blooming with beautiful yellow sunflowers. I decided to bring my camera back on Wednesday to get pictures before Fall had more of a toll on the brilliant flowers.

Wednesday arrived. Stormy. When it was time to leave for class the sky was overcast and I debated whether to take my camera or not. I was uncertain that I would be able to get any good pictures in that lighting. I did take my camera, though, and I did get some interesting pictures. The flowers were in various stages of life. Brilliant, beautiful, blooming. Withering and wilted. Dried and dead. My favorites were these abstract, other worldly looking sunflowers, as seen in the picture. When I look at this I think of taking a daisy and pulling the petals off one by one.... "he loves me, he loves me not, he....." I hope this flower felt loved by Mother Nature.

The picture in my last post is of one of the oldest, unchanged building on campus. The pump house.

Intro to Public Relations

My PR 101 class this semester is on-line, but we do have to attend three face-2-face classes. The 2nd one of those was tonight. It was a discussion board comprised of PRSA members. One of the questions asked was about the things we should be working on while in college to prepare for careers in Public Relations. The answers were fairly consistent that we should be working on our writing skills, having several (varied) internships, an understanding of business operations, knowing the principles of public relations work, and creating on-line social networks.

I believe I already have a good business understanding. After all, I owned my own Special Events business and I have been an office manager. I think both the internship and knowing the principles of PR work categories also fit into my past experience. How about writing, though? I love to write, but have never considered myself a great writer; especially considering I am dyslexic. I really love spell check!

The point that the PR professionals seemed to return to the most was about creating online social networks. They recommended that we create BLOGS and web-pages, in order to showcase our writing and internet skills to future employers. However, many potential employers will Google the name of someone they are considering hiring; because of this they also warned us about posting things on BLOGs or on Facebook that could be damaging.

Think Pink

Think Pink and Feel Your Boobies.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. At Jeddy's school they had Think Pink Week with activities scheduled each day. One day, Jeddy wore all pink--and I have to mention he wore an old pair of my pink-polka-dot pants--he even wore a pink-polka-dot bra on the outside of a pink-tee. Of course administration made him take the bra off, because.... boys don't wear bras.

The next day, he repeated the costume, sans bra, but with the addition of butterfly wings and a pink filmy skirt over the pants. Hair dyed pink. Nails painted pink. Even down to pink show laces. All I can say is, "You go, Boy!"

The news was there and Jeddy was interviewed.

My message in this thread is to do your breast exams monthly. Get a mammogram whenever your age range recommends it. This is so important. I was extremely proud of my big, 14-year old son for not being afraid of what others might think and simply going for it and having fun.

Jeddy, you are awesome!



Think Pink and Feel Your Boobies.

Balloon Fiesta

The Balloon Fiesta is one of my favorite events in Albuquerque. The Balloon Fiesta is a huge week long spectacular here. It is the type of event I use to get excited about helping plan. Sometimes, I miss that part of my life. Now. I love taking pictures. Pictures can tell so much more than I can ever describe with written words.

This is my favorite picture. The Clowny Balloon looks like he is licking the other balloon.







These are few of my favorite images from the Balloon Fiesta this year. I got out two mornings and enjoyed taking pictures. I took over 500 pictures. I'll only process 50 or 60 or so. To see more: http://indigodreams.smugmug.com/Events/ABQ-Hot-Air-Ballons-2009/ABQ-Balloon-Fiesta-Oct-2009/9856264_8uJpK#670429236_qVCQR

Deutsch 101

This image was taken at EL Jay's new school. It is the first and only Primary School in ABQ.

One of the classes I am taking this semester is German. I need two years of a language for a Bachelor of Arts degree.... I had three years of German in high school and one year in college the first time around.

When I started back to school, I decided to take Spanish, since it really is a necessary language living in Albuquerque. I figured it might be useful in getting a job. I knew a little Spanish, having lived in East LA, but NO WAY did I speak it. So, I took Spanish 101, twice. I really struggled. I wanted to add German accents and slip in German words.

I thought, maybe, it would be easier if I just took German...? I am taking German and have discovered that I have forgotten more then I learned in the first place. I think my brain is on over load.

20/20 Vision?

I have a fairly easy schedule this semester. I am taking German 101. Intro to PR—this is an online course. And Ethics in Public Relations—this will be the last 8-weeks of the semester.

My favorite class at UNM, so far, was Visual Communications. I had that class Spring ’09. I liked it because, duh, I really am a visual person. However, when I took one of those “how Do you Learn” quizzes in my algebra class, it said that I am not a traditional learner, but that I learn kinetically (OK, that isn’t the right word, is it? So, please comment and correct me. Please!) I don’t learn as well by hearing or seeing, but by touch. Yeah, I have to get my hands on something and get them dirty to help me learn.

I can see myself (in a few years) teaching Visual Communications type classes. To do that, though, I would have to go back and get (at least) a Master’s degree and that would mean several more years of school. Plus, I would need to take video editing classes, because even after taking the Visual Comm class, I still cannot edit video.

It Was a Bee-utiful Day at UNM

Just so you know……

I am not a Bee. I really am an ANT. Ants are amazing critters. We can talk about them sometime. I’ve posted a BEE picture or two here, so let me explain. These are my images taken at UNM Fall of ’09. As always I used Adobe photo-shop to edit them. The close-up looking one was created to have a Georgia O’Keeffe-esque look. The other is simply cropped and color corrected.

I may be an ANT, but I do like Bees. They are also very interesting critters. They are my friends.

I Am An Ant

My name is Tina and I am an Ant. No, I am not the little creepy-crawly kind of insect. I am A Non-Traditional Student or an A.N.T.S. I am 47-years old. I am a single mom with two son—ages 15 and almost 7—living at home with me. I dropped out of college many years ago when I was a senior.

I am attending the University of New Mexico; majoring in Mass Communications with the emphasis on Public Relations. My major will be somewhere in the realm of art… art history, art education, art studio, art management…? My art is quilting and photography. I am a very visual, yet analytical person.

This is my third Fall Semester at UNM. When I started back to school in 2007 I was a returning Junior, projecting graduating in the Spring of 2010. However, life happens and I am still a Junior, only now my projected graduation is in the Fall of 2011. I often wonder if this—finishing my BA—is really what I should be focusing on. Maybe I am too old? Maybe there is an easier way to find a job that will help me support my family? Some days, I am not even sure that I like going to school.

Ants Dance

Congratulations, El Jay!


You graduated from Kindergarten! WOW! You were the line leader. Does that make you the Valor Victorian? I am so proud of you and always know that no matter what, I LOVE YOU! I enjoyed doing a Dance of Joy with you to celebrate.

I’m a proud Mom…. Grant graduated from 8th grade and two of my older children took college classes Spring Semester. Maybe all three of us will graduate at the same time, but from various universities?

ANTS Eye View

These are pictures of me taken in 1982/1983 at Weber State. The B&W was a self-portrait taken for a photo class. The Color photo was taken at homecoming; I went with a charming older man named Ronnie. Back then, I was 21-years old. I weighed 105 lbs. I was a junior majoring in communications-journalism with a minor in photography. Talking with people who knew me then, their impressions of me were that I was,

• a dumb blond
• the best dressed girl at WSC
• knew where I was going
• very motivated and driven
• an ice princess
• untouchable or the girl you took home to mother....