muted

settle down, class. settle down.

six weeks ago in a blazingly hot, un-air-conditioned randolph high classroom, i spent 6 hours taking the reading, writing and math 09 mtels (massachusetts tests for educator licensure).

i didn't want to tell many people that i was taking these tests as i was afraid i would not pass. i had purchased a study guide for the math 09 test (high school math including calculus, trignometry and probability) and between the guide and the practice tests i'd seen on-line i was scared poopless. my most recent trip down high school math memory lane had been a failure as i did not do well enough on a practice SAT late last year to land a tutoring gig. my confidence was more than shot. i hadn't studied any of this stuff in at least 10 years.

whenever anyone learned i was taking these tests, the response would invariably be "oh, you'll have no trouble." but i knew better. i would need to study my butt off to have a chance at this math test.

so study is what i did.

last friday i got my unofficial scores online. for each test i "met the qualifying score." phew!!

the next day i got the official scores in the mail. since i passed, i didn't get a number score but i did receive a breakdown of my performance on each section of each test. and to my surprise, i aced every section of the math test, including the two open response questions. i actually did better on the math than i did on the reading and writing. i was more proud than i've been in longer than i can remember.

but now i'm a little scared too. i guess the next step is to apply for my preliminary license which shouldn't be a problem now that i've passed my mtels. in theory, once i have that license i could land a teaching job. but to greater my chances, i probably should enroll in a teaching course or two starting some time in early 2009.

for so long teaching just seemed like a pie-in-the-sky idea for me; an alternative to the cubemonkey lifestyle i've loathed for close to ten years.

but now it actually seems attainable and it scares me.

what if i spend all this time and money and i turn out to be no good at it?

ugh.

new memories

i've been spoiled by comments of the past as the relative lack of recent ones has me questioning myself big-time. i'm mad at myself for that and wishing i had more confidence. the fact that i put two more ads on craiglist with links to my flickr and to here but received no replies certainly hasn't helped.

i'm not going to stop taking pictures, though. i've had some pretty fun times thanks to the camera and to my friends.

like...with this picture here. i can clearly remember riding in mark's car up to the field where the bourne braves play their cape code league baseball games. we drove around looking for a schedule because we wanted to know when we could catch some action. we didn't find what we were looking for but we did find this view. i asked mark to stop the car for a moment, hopped out, left the passenger door open and took 6 or so pictures. somehow, the first one ended up being my favorite. when i look at it now i think of mark patiently waiting for me as i tried to do justice to what we saw. thanks mark.

there were some cool moments tied to the last photohunt too.

the green picture was the first one i took for the hunt. some nature on linde's fence caught my eye when we came back from lunch one afternoon. i took a handful of macros, convinced they all sucked. but i saved one anyway. i was all set to use a completely different picture for green until mark saw it and was somehow fascinated. thanks again, mark.

long exposure night shot is my favorite memory. when i look at it i'm reminded of the romantic moment linde and i shared at the chatham lighthouse just past midnight on a foggy new sunday.

hop hop is dead makes me laugh because i remember how excited i was about making it a reality. i actually went to toys r us for the first time in years to buy a stuffed bunny specifically for the picture and he still has his price tag on under that pillowcase. i really must have looked crazy setting that scene up in my driveway. but it was fun, definitely. oh, and drew meant hip hop is dead, which i suspected. heehee.

street food...yeah, that's definitely gross. sorry, y'all. but at least you didn't have to smell him! now THAT was nasty. again, i must have looked pretty strange standing in the middle of the street with a camera aimed at roadkill. more thanks to mark for waiting for me in the car.

perveract isn't perverted but she didn't know i was taking it so it's as close as i came. i really don't think i'm going to do any better than that butt shot for hunt #2 anyway. plus i don't feel comfortable doing these. this picture reminds me of riding back from a nice dinner with linde, singing and dancing to the lionel richie cd she was blasting. lionel is the shit, y'all!!!

so...this post was stupid. i hadn't written in a while so i guess this is what you get.

union

linde was in the wedding of a friend and former coworker this weekend. the ceremony took place in hanover while plymouth was the site of the reception. linde looked absolutely stunning.




katie and brendon, the happy couple.






post-ceremony. she makes me so happy.


bubbles with the bride's grandfather!!! everyone loved her.


:-)


ominous reception sky.


ominous x two!


the reception took place on a cliff overlooking the ocean.


as r.kelly sang on trapped in the closet, "some shit's about to go down."


hail?! on a wedding day?! i'd hate to hear the song alanis morissette would write about this!


i'd never seen anything like this.


the end.

hunt #3


1. summer summer summertime



2. green



3. long exposure night shot



4. glass



5. in the ghetto



6. hop hop is dead



7. anger



8. what's (not) in the fridge



9. construction



10. street food



11. shopping



12. isolation



13. perveract