Deerfield Fundraiser @ Natural History Museum

My high school, Deerfield, threw a big fancy fundraiser at the Natural History Museum Thursday night.



I was allowed a guest, so I brought my Laurie.



Lots of familiar faces. Including the Fays whose wedding I shot a month or so ago and who I'll see this coming weekend at their 2nd Fay Wedding! (Wedding 1 = Molly, Wedding 2 = Katie)



We also saw Granto! I love Granto.




Dinner was held in the room with the big blue whale which I used to love as a small child.



Did I mention this thing was fancy? It was fannnncy.




I saw a bunch of former teachers, including my former Chinese teacher, Ms. Liu, who was, in-general, thought of by all as a huge c-word.

Literally the first thing out of her mouth when she saw me was, "You've lost weight!"

Really Ms. Liu? Really?? Thank you for being the first to remind me that what you remember of me was that I was an awkward chubbo OVER TEN YEARS AGO. Thanks.

I would have fed her to the walrus if I could have.



Dinner started with a trio of beets. Normally not a huge beet fan, I devoured this isht. It was amazing.



The flower centerpieces were quite pretty as well.



And the surf and turf was good too, though it photographed not-so-nice.




For dessert was listened to strange songs by awkward current-students.

It's funny, for all the diversity Deerfield tries to have, they always end up grouping their blacks and Asians all together. Like really? You can't even separate your blacks and asians by a single person? They have to be within an arms reach of each other at all times? Hmmm...



That was followed by a speech by the great Mr. Bewkes, who is kind of a big deal.




Get ready for your upcoming wedding Katie! See you guys in like 6 days!



I think they said they've made something like $85 million from the fundraising campaign so far and are aiming for something like two-hundo.

Kind of ridiculous...I mean it's high school. God forbid you only have one teacher for every four students and the sous chefs don't have access to the freshest lobsters for Sunday dinner.



Toothy walrus knows all your secrets...

:-(

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”



Thank you for changing our world.

Double-Wedding Weekend

So I mentioned how I had a wedding Friday in Newport...








And then ANOTHER wedding on Saturday in Connecticut right?






Two long days, really fun though.

Especially that second wedding because it was Kristen's friend Gretchen's wedding and Kristen was a bridesmaid so I got to play with her and Chrispy all day and try to take a good picture of them.

Chrispy HATES "relationship photos" so always tries to look as terrible as possible...not that that isn'this usual M.O. anyway...




In a way though these end up being cute little relationship photos in their own way. Cute!








Remember back in the day when we used to all try to make uglyfaces so that Chrispy would look relatively O.K.?






I miss that. We need to bring that back more often. So we did.

Woohoo!

Just booked my first shoot at my new rate!

Also booked tickets to go to Hong Kong Nov 1-8. Yes because my cousin that I rarely see or talk to is getting married, but also because I'm 25,000 medallion qualification miles from hitting Diamond status, and going to HK gives me 17,000 miles. Am I completely bonkers? Probably.

-- Post From My iPhone

Raise!

Just gave myself a raise for Headshots.

Now charging $850 in NYC!

Hopefully this will help slow things down a little. I've been swamped lately. Shot two weddings this weekend. Sorry for the lack of updates. I know you're just dying to know about my life.

-- Post From My iPhone

Krazy Kripples!

Remember when I destroyed my ankle?

Well a couple weeks ago our dear friend Quail had a freak running accident where she stubbed her toe and ended up shattering her hip socket.

It may or may not be worse than a trimalleolar ankle fracture. Equally awful, I'd say.

You get to stay off your injured leg for 4+ months. You get to re-learn how to walk. You probably get to have metal stuff in you for the rest of your life...

Well, I popped in to have lunch with our Quailfriend, and she seems to be in good spirits. She's recovering at her friend's fancy home in the Palisades...things could be worse.




She's keeping busy, writing a bit.

Oh the krutches. They back memories.






Don't worry Quail! Things will get better. Just enjoy the free time you have.

Lots of positive things come out of Krippledom.

Remember how I got to be on American Idol like 20 times?

Or how I got to skip all the lines at Disneyland?

Or how we befriended Smileyjohn and gave him his nickname?

All these things would not have happened had I not been a Kripple!

And furthermore I probably never would have moved to NYC, which basically changed my life for the best.

Everything happens for a reason and there will many good things to come from this Quail! Just wait and see!

LAX -> NYC

Headed back to NYC w lots of legroom sitting next to a puppy!

-- Post From My iPhone

Machine Gun Preacher Premiere!

I landed in LA around lunchtime yesterday. Grabbed a quick lunch with Kristy. Took a power nap. And then it was off to the premiere of Gerard Butler's new film Machine Gun Preacher!



The premiere was held at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (Oscar) Building in Beverly Hills.



The star looked real good with some longer hair.



His costar Michelle Monaghan looked like a skinny little elf.




Zoe Saldana was there too. And a smattering of other rando celebs.



Thanks Naia for hooking up the tickets!



The AMPAS Building houses an enormous fancy theater.



Movie premieres are funny because they're just like a regular movie screening, except the film gets introduced, usually by the star of it, and everyone claps for all the opening credits including the production company logo, in this case Relativity Media. The first few credits are the ones that get the big applauses, for the stars and directors etc. Near the end of the opening credits, when they're crediting the Wardrobe Designer or Casting Director or something there's just an awkward smattering of applause. And in this movie those last credits came up during an awkward sex scene where Michelle Monaghan is getting F'ed in the passenger seat of a car so that combined with the weak applause was kind of funny and made me LOL inappropriately.

The movie is about Sam Childers, a former junkie criminal who reforms himself, finds Jesus, and builds an orphanage in Southern Sudan to save the child victims of the war over there.

Here's the trailer:



After the screening, the theater was completely silent as everyone processed what they had just seen. I thought the movie was pretty incredible and it made me want to do something, anything, to help these kids...except maybe visit. (The movie probbbbably won't be good for Sudanese tourism.) And I kind of wish that it were titled and marketed differently... the words "Machine Gun" and "Preacher" might turn away some potential filmgoers.

............................

After the movie they had open bar and open FOOD.





But it felt kind of weird to gorge oneself on delicious snacks and beverages after watching a movie about African children who eat SEWAGE. Not that we didn't happily do it.



We mixed and mingled and congratulated the stars on a job well done.



And we ended up chatting with these fabulous ladies from the Official Gerard Butler Fan Club who had won tickets to the premiere. They were REALLY excited to be there, and you could just feel them getting all moist in the presence of Mr. Butler as they fanned themselves continuously.




Somehow my camera managed to make Gerry look old and yucky when really he is anything but.



And people also posed for pics with the real Sam Childers, the man Gerry plays in the movie.



Yay. Fun night! I miss LA.