A New Fish Pond

After looking around and a long deliberation, I've decided I needed a new Fish Pond. So please update your links, bookmarks, and/or feeds and visit me at...

http://www.fishwithsticks.wordpress.com

Lynda the Guppy

aka The Fish With Sticks

A Love Affair with Photoshop

I've recently acquired a copy of Photoshop. I. Love. It. I've become hooked on Pioneer Woman's blog, and she posts some really amazing pictures. She periodically posts How-To-Photoshop posts that tell you how to make your photos look like hers. So I've been playing around and using her tips as a starting point, and have been editing some of my photos.

I took some of my travel photos and used some Photoshop tricks and here's what I came up with. First will be the Straight out of the Camera shot, followed by the same photo, but edited.

As you can see, I went for subtlety for some, and just went wild for others. Either way, it was just plain fun.

I love this program.

Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

Walking for a Cause

Once again, my mom, aunt, friend, and I all participated in the Revlon Run/Walk today. It took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Colliseum, and I volunteered as a finish line timer. And just like last year, it was the most inspiring, amazing, incredible (and FUN!) day.

Last week I went to the Volunteer meeting to pick up my t-shirt and get my team assignment.

When I walked in the stadium, it looked pretty empty...

Unlike Race Day...




There were tables of medals...







And an army of people to hand them out...




The Olympic Torch was lit...




There were volunteers handing out Survivor Roses...




The runners start arriving...




And two hours later, the walkers are still pouring in...




And the Go-Gos were there!

There were teams with great t-shirts that made me laugh, like “Saving Second Base” and “Save the Ta-Tas";

There was a little girl who was pushed the whole way to the stadium in a wheelchair...and then was helped by her mother to walk to the finish line under her own steam;

There were women, men, kids with signs saying they walked for family, friends, etc. who had fought and survived...and wonderful people who walked for those who had fought and lost the battle;

There were women who were singing along to the Go-Gos at the top of their lungs...just like I was. And possibly a boogie or two;

There was a group of three women...one was a sister, one was a daughter, and one was a niece walking for their sister/mother/aunt who had lost her battle against cancer the day before;

There was a woman who came through my lane who looked like every single step was a struggle. She was exhausted and still she looked at me, sighed with relief, gave me the biggest smile I’d ever seen and said “I made it.” She was a survivor of two months.

The Revlon Run/Walk is always such an emotional day for me. It’s the most amazing, powerful, heartbreaking, and inspiring event. You cannot comprehend the immense feeling of pride to be a human being that day in that stadium. And as a volunteer, it feels so wonderful to help support all these amazing women and their families. I spent most of the day laughing through my tears, and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.

In fact, I’ll do it all again May 9, 2009.

Who wants to join me?

Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish with Sticks

Twenty-Three

Today would have been Greg’s 23rd birthday. It is so obscene to me that it’s his birthday, and while he should be turning 23, instead he will eternally be 22. It’s been six months since we lost him and it feels like forever…and sometimes it feels like yesterday. One of the last times I saw him was one year ago today. I was in Phoenix working and he drove into town to pick up something for his bike. I took him to lunch next door and we sat and talked for well over an hour. I’m glad he got to see SOME family on his birthday…even if it was just me.

I knew I wanted to post something here to remember this day, and I’ve been considering how best to do that for the better part of the last month. I can’t tell you how many times I started this post only to send it off to the recycle bin. So, here goes.

In the spirit of the way Greg lived his life, instead of looking at all the ways in which we miss him, here is a list of 23 things I love(d) about Greg…

1. He would talk so fast his words would practically trip over themselves.
2. Checking an incoming text messages on my cell phone and seeing him in his blue hair.
3. His crazy t-shirts.
4. His ability to get away with darn near anything!
5. His pointy chin.
6. He was almost always laughing about something.
7. He had more energy than the rest of the family combined.
8. His brilliant mind.
9. His outgoing voicemail message. Even now it makes me laugh. It was so Greg.
10. His absolute enthusiasm for anything he enjoyed and his willingness to explain it in terms that wouldn’t make people’s (my) head explode.
11. His sense of the absurd and willingness to be silly. And allow photographic evidence.
12. His ability to take really great self portraits.
13. Getting an instant message from him one day saying “I need help translating some Latin and I thought of you.”
14. His willingness to take off on an adventure, like traveling to Europe for school, or Hawaii to sky dive.
15. His skill at flipping off a camera…A skill equaled only by his father and siblings.
16. His appreciation of and love for his family and friends.
17. His beautiful eyes.
18. His stupid, silly, groan-inducing jokes.
19. His open mind.
20. An innate curiosity about how things worked.
21. His sense of humor about himself and willingness to laugh at himself.
22. His love of all kinds of music (Except country!)
23. His amazing heart.

Happy birthday, Gregger. You are loved and you are missed every single day.

Love, Cousin Lynda

aka Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks