MU Photo Club – Abelardo Morell

Last month, the MU Photo Club traveled out to Kansas City to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art for a photography lecture by Abelardo Morell.  Our professor, Joe Johnson, worked with Abe years ago in Boston shooting some stunning camera obscura work.  You really must check out Abe’s website for a look into his work.

Abe talked about his process for making his camera obscuras, why he makes them and what he’s doing next.  It was a really interesting, semi-biographical, semi-technical lecture, probably the best we’ve seen at the Nelson.  Oh, and he’s incredibly funny, many of his stories were rich with hilarious anecdotes.

After the lecture, several of us went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. Leah (@tigersluvpepper), Maggie (@maggiepfaff), Emily (@emilyiovaldi), Bethany (@bethanymichaela) and Shalonda (who isn’t on Twitter!) all met up with me, Ryan (@rzhale) and Ben (@joubiku).

We definitely had too much fun at dinner.  From group tweeting to photographing everything in sight to cracking jokes, to, of course, eating.  The entire evening was just magical!  I’m glad to have friends like Ben and Ryan in Kansas City and love how it seems all of my local friends enjoy them as much as I do.

Now I just can’t wait for the next photography lecture at the Nelson where we can all meet up again.  It was such a blast!

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A Cake, a Movie, a Melon Baller

I’ve made some wonderful friends through Twitter and just a few weekends ago, I got to share one of these friendships with many of my old friends.

Ryan and Ben, (@rzhale and @joubiku, respectively on Twitter) came into town for a weekend away from the bustling city life that is Kansas City, ahem.  The weekend had been heavily anticipated for all involved for a few weeks and as the days closed in the anticipation grew to astronomical proportions.
I welcomed them to their new home for the weekend, my apartment and shortly after their arrival we headed down to Shakespeare’s Pizza (@ShakesPizza) for some dinner, drinks and a fun environment.

After pizza we stopped by Top Ten Wines for a few minutes before ultimately heading back to my apartment for wine, cookies and hours of hilarious YouTube videos. I don’t’ think Phoebe (@fotofobe), Josh (@brooding_soul), Ryan, Ben or I had ever laughed as hard in our lives. One of the most entertaining evenings in I’ve ever had.

Phoebe and I decided we should share our new addiction to Cafe Berlin (@CafeBerlin) to Josh, Ryan and Ben. Amazing breakfast, delicious food, fun, waitstaff and a comically difficult cream dispenser.

That evening was Cake and a Movie Night (#CaaM).  I made a Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and a bittersweet chocolate-peanut butter ganache.

Before Cake and a Movie, we headed out for wine drinking at Top Ten Wines downtown (@TopTenWines), my absolute favorite wine bar, where Chase (@clettenberg) performing.  Yet again, Chase put on a great show and as per usual, Lauren (@laurenkilberg) proved to be a fantastic wine maiden.

Cake and a Movie had a great turn out, some regulars and some new attendees.

My Ryan (@kaleb1983) finally got to join us for the weekend festivities.  We watched Toy Story, the Pixar film that put them on the map.  Wow, who would have known how funny that movie would be, over ten years later.  I sure wasn’t expecting all the laughs.

The next morning, Ryan, Ben, Ryan and I went to Bleu for a brunch before Ben and Ryan had to head out of town.

Valentines!

Wow, I’m really late with this buuuut.

Ryan and I celebrated Valentines, as we do every year (ahem, well the one year before) with a trip to Kansas City.  Dinner at Eden’s Alley… Stay at the Crown Plaza.

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We went out for drinks afterwards at this really cool, huge, bar.  I wish I could remember the name, it had a babillion different beers on tap…. I think it’s called McFadden’s.

Anyways, it was a great time and too bad that we had to go back to Columbia.  But not before he brought me out to lunch at an awesome Indian restaurant.

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Reluctantly Home

I finally got home from the Kansas City airport.  It took four hours but I made it!

And of course I had to take a picture.  Note, this is not my home, just an apartment near me.

Now time to get back to reality and revise a paper that is due tomorrow during the final for the same class.

Oh, but don’t forget to check out my photoblog for quite a few new pics from San Francisco and even one new one from tonight!

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Always Busy

It seems like every week I’m flying out somewhere or otherwise taking a trip out of town.

Texas, Birmingham, Chicago, Kansas City, Saint Louis, San Francisco… This Monday I’m flying out to Raleigh North Carolina and giving a presentation to the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission and then Ryan will join me in Texas to spend a long weekend with my grandmother and grandfather at their home there outside of Austin.

I am really excited/nervous about the trip to Texas.  This is the first time that I have really integrated a boyfriend in my family life.  I have always wanted to do so with my past boyfriends (namely, only, Landon and Geoffrey) but a mixture of my fear and my family’s obvious distaste for that quelched any chances of something like this.

However, my family seems to just love Ryan, a lot.  I mean, why not?  He’s smart, funny, loving, cute, incredibly diligent, charming and so kind.  He has helped me grow and feel comfortable in my skin.  He is such a light in my life and my family must see that.  He emails back and forth with my grandmother and my parents ask about him everytime we talk on the phone.  How great is that?

So anyways, going to be busy traveling but it will be a lot of fun and let’s be honest, getting out of Columbia is about the best thing one can do in the summer!

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