Shannon

I am sitting here on a Tuesday morning, Tuesday after my first day back from a much needed vacation and wondering what I should post about? I could talk more about my vacation and how bitter sweet vacation really is, but I want to save all of that to go with my pictures from the vacation. So I will go into the valt and pull out some older photos. Lets see where this journey takes us...

I would like to introduce you to my partner of 9 years. Her name is Shannon, she is now 30 years old. We met when I was only 18 and developed a wonderful friendship. At the time she was in a relationship with a nice woman, however the relationship was struggling and Shannon was moving in another direction with her life. At the time I had never really given any thought to my own sexuality. As always in my early life I just did what was expected of me. I steered clear of drugs and alcohol, I didn't smoke or party. Frankly my childhood was pretty dull. My family had put the fear of god in me and I was afraid of intimacy. Then Shannon came around and for a while we were good friends. We talked and laughed together, as time moved on we became inseperable. I found myself wanting to be around her all the time, I would skip school everyday she was off from work, just so I could spend the day with her (much to her displeasure... she wanted me to go to school and do well) All I wanted to do was be around her.

She had broken up with her girlfriend and had expressed an interest in me but I was scared and told her I was not interested. (I was but was too afraid to admit it, both to myself and to her) So our friendship developed further and Shannon got a new girlfriend. This was the turning point, I could no longer pretend that I had no feelings for her because I pained me to see her with someone else. I was jealous. I was sad. I wanted her to have unlimited time for me. So I bit the bullet and told her how I felt. As they say the rest is history. Sometimes in life you have to do what other people may frown on and live your life for you. I am a true believer that you need to live your own trouth regardless of what your family friends and society think about it. I am so glad that I made the choices I did. I have had 9 wonderful years with a person that I love very much. I am happy and live a full life. I couldnt imagine my life any other way!

This is my girlfriend, my life partner and the love of my life. I fell in love with her as a person and will love her for every moment I am on this earth.

Its all over!

Well vacation has come and gone in a heartbeat! Or should I say heart pounding breathlessness coupled with exhaustion, fatigue and pain. But it was all worth it! We backpacked through the wilderness and learned some valuable lessions in ultra light weight backpacking. About two km's into the hike it became apparent that we packed too much and our backpacks were way too heavy! Its funny because everything we desided to take with us was desided upon because "this is pretty light" funny when you add all those pretty light objects into a backpack and throw it all on your back how heavy it suddenly is all together!
Photos of the trip? Well I will try to have them up by the end of the week. Who knows if they will be any good I desided not to take my camera ( thank god on one hand and damn on the other) My camera would have been too heavy to add to my already 50lb pack so I desided to leave it at home and take a disposible, which I dropped in a pot of water on the second night so cross your fingers that the shots still turn out!
I am back at work this morning and cant believe how fast a week passes when you are having fun and not dealing with LMS! One hour until I see her wonderful smiling face again and begin the dance for another undisclosed amount of time until I have the opportunity to escape again!

YAY Vacation!!

Where do you vacation? Do you board a plane and head to a tropical paradise? Do you rent an RV and tour the country? Do you spend the time fan tanning in the backyard? For me a vacation is any time more than 3 days that I don't have to deal with any customers and little miss ray of sunshine! Who is little miss ray of sunshine you ask? Little miss ray of sunshine is one of my employees, she is the daily thorn in my side, the 40+ year old lady I have to babysit. She reminds me daily how much I hate 40+ year old baby's. Honestly my 6 year old niece needs less supervision. Need an example of what I mean? Okay you asked for it. (Well no you didn't but I'll tell you anyway) Little miss sunshine was scheduled 9am to 5:30pm yesterday, Little miss sunshine believes that if you are working until 5:30 that means at 5:30pm you should be on your bus on the way home. Now I may be wrong about this however as I understand it when you work until a certain time that means that you sign out and leave at that time... Not 30 minutes early so you can be outside leaving the neighbourhood when your shift ends. So yesterday I get a phone call from little miss sunshine at 5:05pm, it goes something like this: Ring.. ring.. (me) Hi little miss sunshine (I already know it is her) ( LMS)Jennifer I have a customer that has a return.. (me)Okay what do you need me for? (LMS) I dont have time to do a return.. I have to get ready to go... (me) LMS it is five after five you are scheduled until 5:30, it only takes a minute to do a return.. please just help the customer and then you can sign off.. your replacement isnt ready to relieve you yet... (LMS) But...well...oh alright.. Click.. Now if you are like me you are thinking good god woman just help the customer and do your job.... So now I am thinking I can't believe I have to convince my staff in front of customers to provide my customers with some kind od decient customer service. Imagine you are this customer and the cashiere in front of you is complaining on the phone to her boss that YOUR return is going to take too long! ... Ring..ring.. (me) What LMS? (LMS) this lady has lots of returns to do.. whine.. I NEED you to come here... I donnooooo..... (me) LMS you haven't done this return yet... you know if you just stopped complaining and do it you would be done by now...(LMS)Jennnnnnn... (another whine) I donnooooo... (Me) Oh jesus LMS I'll be right there (click) Now all I care about is this customer leaving my store happy and I will deal with LMS later... So I go out appoligise to the customer for her wait and am done the return in a matter of minutes.. Meanwhile LMS is signing off her register and going to count her till... I just picture an office worker whining to her boss saying something like can you finish this call I have to go catch my bus, and getting on the elevator 5 minutes before the actual end of her shift.

Do you now understand why I need a vacation? This year my vacation will consist of my partner myself and our puppy will be backpacking in Algonquin park. The trip will take 4 days and span 35+ km. Nothing but us and nature.. Ahhhh sounds wonderful to me! After the backpacking trip we will be heading to Grand Bend to spend the rest of the week on the beach. Lake huron is beautiful, it is as close as Canada gets to the tropical ocean.

Pray that we dont get eaten by any bears on ourtrip and know if any do well we died on vacation and at least it wasnt at work...LOL... LMS wouldnt know what to do if I was injurded at work or god forbid if I hurt myself too close to her time to go home...

Random shots in time

I work as a retail store manager and often I keep my camera right in the car in the event I see something that I have to take a picture of . On this occasion I was thrilled to have my camera on hand. the grocery store next to my store has a garden center which i often check for perfect plants that would make good pictures. I am not sure what the above flower is but it caught my eye and is a very odd looking flower. Of course I had to take pictures of it! I am lucky I saw it when I did because mere moments after I took the shots someone came along and bought the planter it was in.

I love experimenting with fire shots. I like to slow the shutter speed and try to get some sweeping flame shots. Often the shots do not come out as I envisioned them but sometimes I get a cool effect regardless.

I have this expensive thermal spring water spray that was purchased to help with my rosacia. The spray feels great on your face it is refreshing and cooling however more often than not I use it for these types of pictures. Ever see something that would look really cool if it had just been raining or if it was still morning and had dew on it? This fine mist spray is perfect for those occasions and as you can see above does a pretty decent job of making it look as though nature has moistened the earth.

i have been playing a lot lately with shutter speed and still trying to wrap my head around how long of an exposure you need for certain shots.. This one of the moon I left the shot open for 30 seconds hoping I would get the clouds passing over the moon and the cresent of the moon. Instead I got this... dont get me wrong i like the effect although it is really grainy but it is not the shot i was going for.

Here is another of the fire shots I love how this one turned out! I was going for swooping flames but got this effect.. Its neat...

this is my partner and our best friend chillin out with eachother they were both so happy this was taken just months before all of our worlds crashed down around us. It is nice to see pictures from this time and remember how carefree we all were.

Refreshing dip anyone? Cuban sun, cool pool and a Mojito waiting for you by your chair... What can I say heaven.