The Secret Service is cool!

I mean, really cool. James Bond kind of cool. Or, at least they would be if they hadn’t given me dirty looks all day. Which was to be expected. I was with a person that had unrestricted access to an event that both George W. Bush AND Bush Sr attended.

Yesterday I assisted Kim Case, the wedding photographer I’ve told a few of you about. She was shooting the wedding of the US ambassador to Belgium’s daughter. Also, the ambassador’s wife just happened to be Bush’s cousin.

I got to Kennebunkport Maine around noon, parked in a city lot and wondered around for a bit. At 1:00 Kim and her other assistant for the day Olivia showed up. We headed over to the reception site to take some shots of the table settings, the flowers, etc. The reception was in a huge (circus sized) tent that had been done up to be “cozy and intimate” by turning the tent polls into giant trees and covering the tables with rose pedals and more candles than you could imagine. After that we headed over to where the groom was to take pictures of him getting ready. He was, for lack of a better term, slacking. He wasn’t even near ready so we had to skip him because of time and head over to the bride. At this point I had become “the driver” and I stayed with the car and the equipment all afternoon. I would pull the car to where it needed to be so we could move from place to place nearly instantly. After the bride left for the ceremony, we followed, followed by the Secret Service. We had access to the whole thing so we were waved through check points and allowed to park next to all the Secret Service cars in the private section of the lot. Unfortunately Kim was the only one allowed in side the church so we had to stand by outside. While I was sitting in the car I was able to take a look around and realize exactly how many Secret Service agents there were. There were a ton. They had Coast Guard cutters off shore making sure boats didn’t come anywhere near. There was a helicopter in the air at one point, circling the compound. In the van next to me there were 6 or so Secret Service agents in complete riot/whoop-ass gear. These guys were dressed head to toe in body armor and they carried the always impressive MP5 on they shoulders. These guys weren’t messing around. After the ceremony, everyone came out onto the lawn and picture taking continued. The President left and so did 90% of his Secret Service entourage so things got a little calmer. After the post-ceremony pictures we headed back to the reception site for the actual reception. At this point I wasn’t needed any more so I was able to head home. I didn’t get to see the reception in full swing but I’m told that the bouquet tossing was going to be at 11pm and the “send off” at 1am. I’m sort of glad I wasn’t staying that late.

Things went well assisting wise and I think Kim liked me. She asked me what I was doing the 26th-29th and said she’s email me and we’d talk about it, so that’s a good sign.

That’s about it. My very first assisting job and the president was there. Huzzah. Well, since today is Father’s Day, I’m heading over to our friends the Bossie’s house for a joint father celebration and then over to my uncle’s to visit with them for a while. I was supposed to have plans with Chip this afternoon. He was going to give me a hand with a new hard drive and show me how a DNS redirect thing worked. I guess that it’ll have to wait until Monday. Sorry Chip.

Later.

Web Site updates

Well, I’ve finally finished the splash intro for the page. It’s up, check it out here. I’ve checked it in IE 6.0.2, Mozilla 1.3 for Windows and FireBird 0.6 and I can’t reproduce the mismatched colors that Chip was experiencing this afternoon. Everything looks fine on this end. Let me know if you can see it correctly or not. I also changed the navigation in the photo portfolios to be a little less confusing. Hope everyone likes everything. I’m going to go have some dinner and then get ready for tomorrow. Wish me luck with assisting. Talk to you Sunday.

Life = not crappy

Well, things are looking up a little. Kim Case in Portsmouth is hiring me this weekend to help with a shoot in Maine and Dave Mendelsohn in Durham wants me to come up next week. I also got an icky form letter from Portfolio One in Bedford saying “if my resume met their requirements I’d be contacted”, which, I suppose is good considering my resume and experience certainly meet their qualifications of “A degree in the arts and 2-3 experience”. Heck, I got that at EXPI. So, things aren’t looking so grey. I’ve got to put in some laundry so that I have appropriate clothes to wear tomorrow at the wedding. Wish me luck.

Matt out.

4th Entry… more things to complain about

I have to drive my brother to Concord. Why? I have no fucking clue. I leave momentarily.

I just got word that someone made an offer on our house (we’re selling the house in case you didn’t know). Full price. But they want to close by mid-July. That really fucks with my time table. So, I pretty much have until mid-July to both have a job AND be out of my parents house… unless of course I want to live on their couch. This isn’t going to be a fun summer. I need to bitch and complain some more… cause that’ll make things better, right?

Because everyone else did it

Stupid internet quiz #4528 – ColorQuiz.com – Personality based on color psychology.

Your Existing Situation:
Persistent. Demands what he feels to be his due and endeavors to maintain his position intact.

Your Stress Sources:
Has an unsatisfied need to ally himself with others whose standards are as high as his own, and to stand out from the herd. This desire for preeminence isolates him and inhibits his readiness to give himself freely. While he wants to surrender and let himself go, he regards this as a weakness which must be resisted. This self-restraint, he feels, will lift him above the rank and file and ensure recognition as a unique and distinctive personality.

Your Restrained Characteristics:
Wants to broaden his fields of activity and insists that his hopes and ideas are realistic. Distressed by the fear that he may be prevented from doing what he wants; needs both peaceful conditions and quiet reassurance to restore his confidence.

Your Desired Objective:
Needs release from stress. Longs for peace, tranquility, and contentment.

Your Actual Problem:
Wants to be valued and respected, and seeks this from a close and peaceful association of mutual esteem.

….

Creepy huh. Gee… “needs release from stress”… you don’t say?

The past few days

Job searching mostly. Toss in a little house selling aggravation, a dinner or two, and you’ve got it. My life that is.

The job searching is going alright. Kim Case, out of portsmouth, seems interested in having an assistant. I’ve also applied for a web design job in bedford that I’m really hoping turns into something. To be honest, I feel a little better now than I did a few days ago. The NHPPA (New Hampshire Professional Photographers Assoc.) was very nice to me and nearly every member has suggested different people to talk to and different things to try.

I also unfortunately didn’t have a chance to get the redesign you see now up the 100% level yesterday as I had planned. You see, when you’re selling your house you’re at the mercy of these evil real-estate agents. They called at 11:45 to tell my mom they were coming at 12:30. She calls me at 12:00 and tells me to get out of the house in 20 minutes. Of course I’m in “job search mode” and I’m typing at the computer in my boxer shorts. It was a scramble but I managed to make it out and have lunch with Chip.

I was also told to “do something” for the afternoon since they were coming again at 3:00 and 4:15. Eventually the 3:00 got moved to 6:30 so I had to amuse myself all afternoon. Which I did over at Simpro with Chip and Dave. I brought Chip two hard drives, 30Gs worth total, to be used in Hindenburg (the web server) instead of the 80G I had previously given them. Turns out they don’t need that much space and that 30G will do just fine. So I get the 80G back to put into my machine, bringing my HD total to 180G. Nice.

After hanging out there for a bit we picked up Nick and took Dave with us and headed toward Bedford to drop Dave off. From there we headed to Methuen in hopes of eating and seeing a movie. We wound up only eating at the Macaroni Grill which gave me horrible indigestion the rest of the evening.

Boarders down the street had a copy of the new DJ Tiesto CD and my monthly dose of BPM Magazine which made up for my stomach disapproving of dinner.

So, there you have it. The job search is hopeful, the house selling is aggravating and I’ve got a new webpage design. Today’s plan is to finish the damn intro page, put something on the main page, and to get back to the job search.

Matt out.