Ha! It’s been 11 months…

So it has been almost a year since I started this blog.  I know the last few months my post  have been few and far between.  But it has been for a good reason I promise!!

So after licking my wounds from the terrible break up between my and Cookie Monster, I just kinda stopped looking.  I finished school, got my Masters and then began to tackle the shit storm that was my professional life.  All the while trying to reunite with my biological family.  Mind you I was not actively looking or dating.  Then one day I knocked a book display over on a guy and the book store and 6 month later we are still dating.  I know.  It’s what John Hughes movies are made of…but awesome none the less.  So I have a boy friend.  A new Car.  A new Cat.  Oh and I start my dream job on December 17th!!

So here is to new beginnings with positive thoughts.  and here’s to more updates…I promise!!

I always get Nervous when today falls on a Tuesday

Since 2001, 9/11 is the one day a year that I hold my breath when I turn on the TV and Radio. I always get terribly nervous when it falls on a Tuesday. And ever since May 1st, 2011…I find that I fear another attack is more likely since the US killed Bin Laden.

I was barely 17 when 9/11 happened. I had been tutoring a Junior in government at the donut shop across the street from my high school. By the time I made it to the school and inside a classroom with a TV, the first plane had already hit the First tower. The teacher, whom I knew very well, was on her cell phone with her stepdaughter who was at work in the second tower. The teacher asked…begged me…to keep my eyes on the TV while she talked to her daughter as she made her was from the 35th floor to safty in the plaza. At the time it felt like it was happening in slow motion…but I watched as the second plane turned and flew directly into the second Tower. I remember screaming “Oh My God!” and running to my teachers side. I put my ear up to her face so I could hear her phone. I began to cry when I could hear crashing….terrible screaming and loud sirens. I thought I was going to be sick. I thought my teacher was going to be sick. But then we heard “I’m out. Oh mom I’m out, but this is bad. This is very bad. But I’m out.” The teacher and I held each other and cried. She sent me to my first period class. It was AP chemistry. There was a Junior in that class. She was new. Her family had just moved here from New York City. Her and her Mother had moved down here so that she could start school on time and her Dad was still working in NYC waiting for his transfer to become effective. We were slated to have a test that day and I had convinced the teacher into letting us keep the TV on but muted the sound. AT this time, we had no Idea what was occurring in DC and Shanksville. I breezed through the test, as did the New Junior, and she and I watched the silent TV. She looked nervous. I asked her if she knew anyone who worked in the Towers. A silent tear rolled down her cheek. She whispered “My Dad.” I hugged her and asked the teacher if the student could use her cellphone to call her mom. She agreed. The New Junior reached her mother who had made contact with her father after the second Tower was hit. But had not been able to contact him since. The student and I had 2nd period together which was Drama. We told her mom we were heading there and to call the school office if she got word from the student’s father. 15 Mins into Drama…the second Tower hit was the first to fall like a house of cards . I caught the New Junior before she fell to the ground and held her while she cried. By the end of Drama class, her mother had come to the school. I escorted her to the office. It was confirmed that the New Junior’s father did not make it out. He was able to call and leave a voicemail for the young girl on the family’s answering machine. The New Junior never returned to school.

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I took this picture 3 months to the date and time before the events of 9/11/2001. I was 16 and had gone to NYC for the first time. I had a lot of “firsts” at the WTC. My First kiss occurred on the observation deck. I bought my first designer product at the mall located under the plaza. I had my first dirty water hotdog outside the South Tower. I captured this moment of now important history while riding the ferry to The Statue of Liberty. In the days following 9/11, I clung to my photos that I had taken during that summer trip. I stumbled upon this one and it inspired me to capture as much history as possible with my camera.

When I first heard this Kelly Clarkson song, it reminded me of how the world struggled to keep faith in the events following 9/11.

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The Sun Will Rise

Kelly Clarkson

I can see the weight there in your eyes
I can feel the thorn in your side
Your knuckles are bruised from a losing fight
One way down a dead end street
Broken glass underneath your feet
You think the day won’t break the sunless night

The sun will rise
The sun will rise
When you’ve lost your lights
The sun will rise
It’ll be alright
It’ll be alright

I’ve been in stuck in a storm before
Felt the wind raging at my door
Couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t find a way out
Somehow my clouds disappeared
Somehow I made it here
Maybe just so you could hear me say

The sun will rise
The sun will rise (The sun will rise)
When you’ve lost your lights
The sun will rise
It’ll be alright (It’ll be alright)
It’ll be alright
It’ll be alright
It’ll be alright

And though you can’t see it’s
So hard to believe it
Sometimes you just need a little faith (All you need is a little faith)
There’s an answer to your prayer
And I swear that there’ll come a day, yeah

The sun will rise
The sun will rise (The sun will rise)
The sun will rise (The sun will rise)
The sun will rise
Yeah
The sun will rise
The sun will rise
The sun will rise

It’ll be alright
It’ll be alright (Eeyeaheeyeah)
It’ll be alright (Eeyeaheeyeah)
It’ll be alright (Eeyeaheeyeah)

The sun will ris

Once upon a time… (mini update and a IHEARTFACES “Hey Girl” submission)

Once upon a time there was a woman who had spent her entire life trying to find where she belonged in this big old scary world.  Since the age of 6, she had been told that she was not wanted and that her mother’s family wanted nothing to do for her.  It was strongly impressed upon the child that she should be grateful and not take her “situation” for granted.  The young girl began to find the best way to get out of her situation and to move on from her tragic up bringing.  22 years later she discovered that she had been lied to.  That her mother’s family did in fact want her.  They wanted her so badly that they made sure to keep her memory alive by talking about her often wondering what she was doing with her life.  When the woman found out the truth, she sought out her family and made the connection that she had been longing for.  It’s not going to be easy and it’s not going to happen over night, but maybe…one day…the woman can finally have the family she knew was out there but was unsure of.

For the first time….since she was a little girl….the woman has a happy song in her heart and a spring in her step.  All she wants to do is dance…

http://katdonovanphotoanddesign.wordpress.com

True Story Bro….

So this one time I got paid to do photos for a wedding.  Spent 8 hours taking pictures and half way through the post-party…cops have to get called because someone got a bad case of the sticky fingers and decided to steal money and phones from most of the bridal party.  The culprit has yet to be discovered but we have a good idea of who it is.  But this posed and interesting predicament for myself as a photographer.  See the beautiful blushing bride wanted photos of her, the groom and various groups of guests taken on the front porch of this awesome house where they had the wedding.  All was good until some douchenozzle of a jackwagon asshat wearing cop decided to park his pig mobile right in my shot!!!!!!!!!!! Thank goodness for creative cropping!  Pictures will be slowly posted on my photography Facebook site and eventually on my photoblog.  There are 888 to pick through.  It’s gonna be a long editing process…..

Long time no talk…

Well hello fellow bloggers and blog readers.  I would like to apologize for my extended absence from the blog-o-sphere.  I have good reasons!! Promise!

So lets start with the obvious…I MOVED!!  Finally got out of the old place and am in a place of my own and love it!  I also broke down and got cable…and faster internets.  It’s pretty amazeballs.  And I get to start my day with Hello Kitty toast from my Hello Kitty toaster.  New place didn’t come with a microwave…but no worries.  I’m saving up for the pink Hello Kitty one Target has…

So without going into the long drawn out lifetime movie script that I like to call my life…I have managed to find my biological family.  When I was young, my mother passed away and have a pretty nasty custody battle, I ended up with a court appointed guardian who knew my mother instead of going with my mother’s family.  It was at the point that my guardian cut off all contact with my mother’s family.  Since then, I’ve been able to find them and am in the process of reconnecting.  It’s AMAZING!!!

So me and cable are getting re-introduced after having been apart for almost 3 years.  And oh it feels so good.  My DVR is all packed full of goodness!!

Ok off to unpack and do laundry!!  I’ll post pictures of the place once I get it put together.

St. Patrick’s Day: A Religious Holiday

Despite being ethnically mostly Jewish, I was actually raised very Irish Catholic.  I did not realize I was part ethnic Jew until I was 15. Before that, I lived life as what is called a Black Irish.  Irish decent with some Eastern European mixed in.  I was ranked nationally in both Irish Step Dancing, Clogging, and Scottish Highland Dance.  I would miss school in the name of “religion” of St. Patty’s day ever fell on a weekday.  And I had green doc martens and green chuck taylors that were only worn on that special day.  As I got older and entered the work forced, I would try and take the day as a religious holiday, but my supervisors didn’t by it.

Needless to say I take it very seriously and look forward to spending this St. Patty’s day with my Best Friend, her Man, and Cookie Monster.  Ya you read that right…Cookie Monster strikes again.

Friday…Friday…Steppin’ out on Friday…

So I have had a pretty decent and drama free week.  Not entirely sure it’s been drama free…I did increase my dose of happy pills this week so it could be that there was in fact drama but I simply didn’t give a crap. 

My weekend is packed. 

Friday PM: Laundry and Packing

Saturday: Mid day to afternoon Engagement Photoshoot.  I’m excited.  It’s actually a part one…we are having to do the part two in two weeks.

Sunday: Mid day…bridal shower.  Must go pick up gift card tomorrow when I am out and about.  And a card too…blah. 

So yea.  When I’m not doing something, I’ll be packing.  The Roomie has decided that she is also going to move out which works out great as we won’t be stepping over each other when I try to move my stuff out.  Since we are both doing it, it is a bit easier to make the transition and get all the cleaning done.  It’s the end of an era and boy was it a good one. 

So I have been tasked with the honor of writing a topic brief for a conference I work for on a topic that I’m very passionate about: The right to safe drinking water and sanitation.  I’ll keep you updated on the progress on the brief as it is due about the time I move.  I’m hoping to knock it out tomorrow night.

So Boys…I’m honestly taking a break.  With the exception of the guy friends I have, I’m not actively looking for anything new at this time.  I just don’t have time for it.  And I find that I am ok with that.  Once things settle down…I’m sure it will change.

Ok…lunch time calls.