photo shoot.

Today I did one of those things that interns are stereotypically expected to do. I was sent to fetch coffee for my boss. Okay, joke. It was lunch. She sent me to buy lunch. And she told me to get myself something. So it was fine. But I laughed at the irony of the intern being sent to procure goods.

Something more exciting happened today. I got to go with the curator to our photographer's studio on 5th Avenue to shoot some pieces for press and advertising purposes for our upcoming exhibition. Aka I spent my whole day transporting costumes and mannequins, assembling costumes and mannequins, and endlessly scrutinizing said costumes and mannequins for flaws with my own eyes and through the camera's eyes. It. Was. Fascinating. We spent all day on three pictures trying to get them just right. And the best part? They valued my opinion. They asked me what I thought and considered and sometimes acted upon what I said. It was great.

Shot from the back of the studio - notice the garment rack in the foreground, and the photographer looking for some detail shots in the background. The box in the middle ground is what I packed, unpacked, and repacked for the safe transport of the costumes.

Even better? The names I was handling. I had never heard of one of the designers, but I was crazy over the two pieces we had from one of her collections - who knew such bizarre prints could be so tasteful? The other three designs we were working with were Alexander McQueens, who I have always had a strange awe and respect for, since visiting his collection of "Savage Beauty" at the Met in 2011. Seriously? I was studying real life Alexander McQueens today - handling them, looking at their construction, their prints, feeling their textures and marveling at their brilliance. Genius. Pure genius. And a day well spent. Beats staring at images on a computer all day. This internship is really starting to shape up.

And so will I. I just booked my second aerial yoga class. (Pun! Love those.)

aerial yoga.

Remember that time I spontaneously signed up for an aerial yoga class? Guess where I went last night?

 

Thank you, Tough Lotus, for an exceptionally entertaining, physically demanding, delightfully stretching evening. I had my first intro class with these lovely ladies and by the end of the night we were already hanging upside down and doing aerial push-ups. Note the following picture.

This, my friends, is an aerial push-up. And it is simultaneously harder and easier than it looks. Whilst suspended we learned to stretch essentially every muscle in our bodies, did some core strengthening exercises like supermans and full body lunges (speaking of lunges, we did all sorts of crazy lunges), in addition to push-ups, tricep curls and bicep curls. Aka, this was no simple yoga class, but an intensive workout. And it felt soooo good. Plus, it was crazy fun and we giggled the whole time. Like little girls. No joke. 15 full-grown women swinging in hammocks with their feet sticking in the air laughing like schoolchildren. It was great.

We had an awesome instructor who let us hang around (pun intended!) after the class to try out the hammocks a little longer and take some funny pictures. Shout-out to my friend Sara who convinced me to buy the Groupon that permitted me to begin this exciting adventure of trapeze artistry. Jealous, anyone? Come visit me in Phoenix and I'll take you with me for only $5! Seriously. It's a deal. About time they made exercise exciting.

los angeles.

So maybe I lied. I have no other pictures to share of my sunny weekend. But that's not to say it wasn't enjoyable. The reason I have no pictures? I did a lot of relaxing, reading, eating, and shopping. Not really picture-taking material. Thanks to my dear sister, I got three solid meals a day and a foot up on wedding decorations. And all the sunshine didn't hurt either.

It was tough to head back to Phoenix, but it couldn't be avoided any longer. One thing that eased my departure from Cali was the opportunity to stop and see the Los Angeles Temple on my way out of town. If I had planned my time just a little better I would have gone in to do baptisms, but as there was traffic to beat, I settled for a brief visit. It's a beautiful, massive building that seems to pop up out of nowhere in the cityscape. It was a pretty special stop for me to make, and I'm glad I had the time to do so.

 

All said and done, I'm glad I went. It was therapeutic. And if you'll give me a moment to brag, I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself for making the six hour drive there and back all by myself. Champion traveler? Check.

cali or bust.

When I realized that a three day weekend with my schedule was actually a six day weekend (I am at the museum Monday, Thursday, Friday) I quickly began devising plans. My first attempt was to find a cheap flight home to surprise David for his birthday and hear his little sister speak before leaving on her mission on Wednesday (good luck Mel!), but alas, plane tickets are not cheap on short notice. So instead I planned a road trip to Los Angeles to visit my sister.

Here's a good joke - my professional film score composer bro-in-law gave me an extremely hard time about this: All I have in my car is cd player and radio. Seeing as I don't know any good radio stations down here, I'm bored to tears with my current cds, and my car is too new for an ipod cassette adapter and too old for and AUX input, I looked for a new way to listen to jams on the drive. Solution? Sat my computer in the passenger seat and made a playlist for the trip specifically. Battery lasted all six hours. That's the power of a Mac. Hard core.

SO. Since my arrival in the Big Orange - you know, like the Big Apple, but opposite coast and citrus-flavored? -  I've spent plenty of time relaxing and soaking up sunshine. My sister has a pool. I even got so hot sitting outside I had to come in and cool off. How many of you native Utahns can say that? Only been here since last night, but I'm sure I'll have some more exciting pics to post before I head out. Until then...be jealous.

70 and counting.

I knew there was a reason I moved to Phoenix... Today it was a least seventy degrees out. And sunny. Of course, I was locked up in a cubicle all day sorting and printing images, but it's the principle of the thing.

Self-timer pic, top of car, palm trees, soaking up the sunshine, just got off work, normal.

Something hi-larious happened today. My super was out of the office today so her assistant and I were redoing a poster with images of the collection that she keeps in there to muse and reflect upon. The collection has grown vastly since it was last updated and consequently, said poster needed to be enlarged. Immensely. We had permission to move a large framed photograph further up the wall to add some extra room for the poster below. So I trotted off the find a hammer to move the nail. No big, right?

Next thing I know, the assistant walks in and sees me up on a chair pulling a nail out of the wall with the claw of the hammer and gasps, "Oh my gosh! Don't hurt yourself! Stop! Stop! Oh, be careful!" Uh... I was pulling a nail out of the wall. Don't people do little things like this all the time? "Um, I'm okay. I did stuff like this all the time at my old job." You know, "at my old job," I felt like I had to give an excuse or something as opposed to "It's just a nail..." I went to move the nail higher. "Oh, don't do that! I don't want you to hurt yourself. We'll get someone to do it later."

As I leave for the afternoon, I must have shown off some of my other deceptively simply yet actually apparently fantastically impressive skills, like drawing lines with a yard stick, and operating a paper cutter, because said assistant exclaims, "Well, we just didn't know what we were getting with you! You are so skilled!" Okay. People. These are extremely average tasks, yes? Or maybe just where I grew up... These are the people I am working with. Such a different world.

In other news, look what I just signed up for:

It's called aerial yoga and my first class is next Thursday. Some crazy deal on Groupon or whatever. One of my new found friends down here convinced me I just HAD to do it with her. So...here's to flexibility! In the AIR!

giant jenga.

Today was my first real day at the museum. I was very proud of myself, because this time I made it to the museum in a timely and effective manner - twenty minutes, tops. Parked, strode my way in and to my desk, and got put straight to work typing up thank you letters for donors. When those were all printed and sent for approval, I started organizing inventory images in the database. Sound thrilling? Perhaps not to you. But I was enjoying myself. I was feeling pretty good when I left at 4:20 pm. So I decided to try making it home sans GPS. Well, then rush hour traffic caused me to miss the sign directing me toward my exit which put me on the wrong side of the loop at the opposite side of the valley from my intended goal where I thought I was one the right track because all the street names are the exact same but the store fronts are not. At approximately 6:20 pm I finally pulled into the driveway. Rough.

My day was redeemed at ward FHE where we played a rousing game of giant jenga. Aka regular jenga with massive wood blocks. It was epic. When the tower fell we continued playing with the blocks like little kids, including building a domino train and a massive tower, which we completed almost to the ceiling without even a chair for help thanks to the 6 foot 10 inch guy in our ward. Time well spent? I think so.

Typically I won't work Tuesdays, but since I currently have nothing better to do than brave a trip into Phoenix again, and with the lure of a promised trip into the vault for photoshoot purposes lingering over my oh so easily bought over head, I shall be returning to the museum tomorrow morning. Hopefully this time I will be able to make it there AND back without mishap. And maybe if I learn to do that in a timely and effective manner, I will have time to visit the little Ribbons and Lace store I discovered on my extremely roundabout journey home tonight.

the aussies.

My gracious Mesa hosts are also currently providing housing for two teachers from Australia who are here touring the west USA with a group of 64 students. I have to admit I've enjoyed their pep and wit, and of course their delightful accents over the last few days. I'm also picking a little bit of the more amusing lingo from Down Under. Tomorrow they leave us for the great and spacious of Los Angeles. As a special treat per special request, Angela tried her hand at making an Australian dessert from scratch for us tonight: Pavlova.

Trust me. It's as delicious as it looks. It's basically a meringue with fresh whipped cream and fruit, but never ever did so few ingredients pack so much sugary delight. The best part was how modest she was about it having never made it from scratch before. She was so worried about how it was going to turn out, but it was fantastic! When I first arrived a few days ago I was little apprehensive about sharing a bathroom with two Aussies, but now I must say, I'm sad to see my Australian friends go.

day one.

This is the sunset as I drove into Phoenix last night with my windows rolled down to enjoye the warm fresh air. What you can't see in the picture are all the delightful palm trees and cacti. I think I can get used to this environment.

Day one was certainly an adventure. I was feeling super confident as the day begun as I donned my new duds and and drove myself all over Mesa and Tempe to the tunes of my GPS. Then said GPS led me astray as I attempted to make my way into Phoenix and the museum so despite my head start I still arrived late and scrambling. Soon enough however I was shedding tears of great joy as I learned of the incredible fashion resources available to my itching fingertips at the museum including a near perfect rare collection of Vogue. Also... the museum has Gerome's "Thumbs Down." Win.

I met my supervisor and got invited to a party at her casa complete with a map drawn for dummies. It was two hours until party time, but since it was rush hour it wasn't worth my time to head home and back... so I sat in my car in the parking lot and laughed at all the people wearing wool coats and beanies. Joke. I did that earlier. I sat in my car and listened to Imagine Dragons while eating a Lunchable. They make those things fancy these days!

At the party I tried awkwardly to help out in the kitchen, but it turns out that I don't know anymore how to appropriately cut cilantro or juice an orange (fresh citrus - all the rage with these people) than I knew how to operate the wine opener they handed me. But I knew how to open and down those tamales. Except, maybe not even that, because I ate twice as much as any of my skinny fashionable peers. Introductions baffled me. These girls are some SERIOUS network. They have background and experience in all places all over - made me look like the lame little noob from P-town who somehow wrangled an undeserved invitation. I was a little crafty in what parts of my resume I chose to share in an attempt to match their fame and fortune.

BUT listening to them was so incredibly fascinating and enlightening. There is so much to do out there! And as much as I felt like I had know idea who these girls were or how I ended up in that room drinking orange juice while they balance wine glasses precariously on their fingertips, I felt inspired to find my niche among them - a balance of what I know and love, and the glamor they exude. I'll cease spilling my thoughts there at the risk of overly-sappy-saturating text that is probably already too full of eye fatigue for any of you to read. But know that it was an interesting day - worthy of the start of a peculiar adventure. Also, for anyone who has ever wondered what wine tastes like, I can't tell you how it tastes, but I can tell you it smells really bad.

new beginnings.

Hi friends! Thanks for making the transfer with me! That is...to the few of you who actually read my blog. Sometimes I pretend people read what I have to say. And sometimes I only post pictures because I like to think it increases my blog's chances of being read....

THIS POST is entitled new beginnings. I have deemed this the most appropriate time to make the grand switch to a new blog, because I feel as if I am starting a new chapter in my life. Please, continue reading to find a greater explanation.

1) SCHOOL - Officially done with my major. Aced my senior thesis. If I wanted to, I could click a button right now and say, "Hey, BYU! Graduate me!" Done with school? Probably not. The plan right now is to keep going to school and work on a minor in chemistry in anticipation of grad school. Aaaand I have good reason to stay around a while longer. Keep reading.

2) DAVID JOHN ROWE - We're engaged. Ta da! Brief story time: David and I met my junior/his senior year of high school. We sat next to each other in yearbook. We bumped into each other the summer after he graduated, started spending time together, and eventually started dating. He left on his mission when I started at BYU. I told him I would not wait and I dated other people. Try as I might, I could not forget about Dave. When he came home in October, we found we both still cared for each other, and though I never could have predicted things would happen so fast, we got engaged December 10, 2012. The wedding will be June 21, 2013. Why are we waiting so long? Are we crazy? Keep reading.

David and I the night we got engaged.

3) PHOENIX - I have been accepted to an internship in the Phoenix Art Museum's Fashion Gallery assisting the curator. Tomorrow morning I will get into my car and drive ten hours to Mesa where I will be living for the next four months. Crazy? I know. It was the hardest decision I ever made, but this internship is a great opportunity I need to take advantage of before I get married. Thank goodness for Skype! And a new airline flying direct to Phoenix out of Provo! I've managed to pack all my clothing into two small suitcases, but I'm still trying to figure out how to pack all my sewing supplies because, folks, in addition to 13 bridesmaids skirts I am hoping to sew my wedding dress whilst in the land of OZ. I mean, AZ. Now you probably are assured I'm crazy.

Enough with the words. Now that you are officially informed and updated, I can continue to fill this blog with more exciting posts and pictures of all my new adventures in desert land and wedding plans. For those of you just joining our story, feel free to catch up by returning to the archive of kerielle at kerdmann.blogspot.com. Ha! I'm a nerd.