One of the women gets up and leaves, but I am introduced to the other (the one who handed me a glass of beer) woman.  I assume shes some friend of Dave and Ginny that I had yet to meet, but it turns out Andrea is a stranger who arrived at Christians from the Beer Fest and proceeded to sit at their table and bring a pitcher of beer and a dish of popcorn with her…

A few of her friends arrive and proceed to sit with us, then some more arrive and they decide to head upstairs.  Andrea  proceeds to pick up the remains of her pitcher and head upstairs, with a few “nice to meet you’s” along with her circle of friends.  Except one dude who stuck around.  I head to the bar to buy my pitcher for the table, and when I get back our new friend is still sitting down chatting with Dave and Ginny.  He seems like an alright guy, talkative but friendly.  All I remember is he was a townie, not from “Bay the fsck knows where”.  Shortly after some of the friends come back down and he’s whisked off.

At this point we decide to take over the jukebox and Ginny gets up to put some money in and choose some tunes.  She proceeds to be cornered by one very skeety looking dude with a shaved head, who looked to be mid to late 30’s.  He’s all in her personal space, and she trys her best to politely converse with him while picking her songs… A few songs (Radiohead, Nirvana, etc.) later we;re having a good time and enjoying some good conversation about music and the strength of lyrical vs. musical driven songs, etc.  we feend to box a time or 2 more getting into some Van Morrison, U2, The Smiths, all good tunes.

All of a sudden our friendly neighbourhood personal space invader plops him self down at our table (I think we were magnets for crazies tonight) he starts hitting on Ginny, and I’m trying to do my best “ignore him and he’ll go away” tactic.  he gets a little more serious into the deal when he takes off his coat and sidles up next to her.  She promptly moves closer to Dave, who takes up the “She’s mine go the fsck away” defense and I try to ignore him.

Not once, not twice, but 4 times he tries to drink from the glass of wax encrusted coffee beens that had moments before held the tealight candle that had since burned out and been tossed.  Four times, complaining at least once that the “coffee was solid”!  He starts a incoherent train of conversation that jumps from confusing the Jukebox with a VLT (claiming it can be deceptive and take all your money!).  The conversation segues into pokemon (gotta unite the dimensions or something).  I’m chatting on my blackberry with Jared telling him about this crazy dude and trying to ignore him.  He notices that I’m ignoring him and starts talking to Dave and Ginny about me being too serious, which somehow turns to me being a vampire…  Around this point he picks up the pitcher of beer (only a small bit left) and proceeds to drink straight from it… he’s so wasted he doesn’t give a crap about what he’s doing.

All this time he keeps trying to get closer to Ginny and put his arm around her, and Dave is doing his best to play the boyfriend… arm around her, fending off this psycho and she plays the “fall asleep on Daves shoulder” card…  I get tired of the dude and realize the ignore him and he’ll leave approach isn’t going to work… so I say to Dave and Ginny that it is time to leave…  we get up and make our way to the bar to pay our tabs, quickly leaving the crazy dude behind…

Our last image of him was passed out with his head on the table.

What an adventure, I’m so glad I went out… you never can tell what you’re going to find on George St.

A hotdog and a car ride later and here I am writing this crazy story down so I don’t forget the details.

Hope your Friday night was as interesting as mine, if not so crazy.

We started watching Heroes, we watched the entire first season in a few days. I bought an xbox a couple weeks back… XBMC is a god send

Later,

Jon

Myself and Jessica got married on August 4th, after about 18 months of engagement… that went well and we had great time, I’ll be posting photographs as soon as I get a moment. Several weeks before that we found out I got a new job, a career actually, at Stratos Global Communications. I’m actually a Software Engineer now. So since that was starting this week, we knew we needed a car to get back and forth to Donovans where my job is, etc. Jessica’s parents were awesome and loaned us (which is now payed off) the money to purchase our first car, a 1997 Mazda 626.

So long story short life is coming at me very fast.

The new job is great so far, just had my first couple days and I’ve been doing the typical getting settled in things, getting my computer set up, phone, keys, etc. and of course trying to figure out what it is I’m supposed to be doing. I’ll let you know if and when that happens

So things are progressing nicely, we can actually start thinking about making concrete plans for when she graduates next spring. We’re no longer hanging on unknowns. I’m still hoping to finish my Masters program, and Jessica wants to start hers as soon as she can. We might be in the market for our first house once Jessica gets a full time Job after graduation. Who knows what the future holds, but I’m happy with the present.

I’m still doing some camera work on the Side, right now I’m working two photography gigs, cluing up the Tely 10 road race photos, getting orders sorted, etc. and just this evening we started shooting the H.O.G. Rally for the Harley motorcycle owners group. It should be a fun weekend.

So, this was a big post for me, hopefully I can get the motivation to continue this

Thursday myself, Dave, Hanz and Leigh went out to Boston Pizza. Just hanging out and shooting the shit.

We went out Friday with the gang, hung out at Dave’s place for a while and then headed down to O’Reillys for a while, met up with some more souls there. It was fun times, decent music and good beer. After that we headed over to the Celtic Hearth for some late night grub. Little bit of a hangover Saturday, made the first hour or so of work annoying.

I’m dreaming up some ideas for projects to take on… I’d like to come up with a commercially viable idea. I’m bouncing one around my head for a wireless device. I’m going to look at starting a photography business as well.

On another note, is anyone looking for an energetic cat? Guiness is driving us nuts. She comes with everything you need.

More to come.

Jon

Gotta finalize my half of the guest list for sending out invitations now, should be fun…

I’ve just finished editing the photos from my latest photo shoot with The Neighbourhood Strays , a belly dance troupe whos members include friends of mine. Jenn asked me to do the shoot for their upcoming website redesign. I’ll be posting some photos soon.

I want to start doing more work like that. I got to get my portfolio filled up and get something on the go with that.

Well thats it for now,

Later,

Jon

Christmas was good, even though the holiday was brief. We spent our first Christmas together at Jessica’s parents home. It was a good day, but a little strange not being with my own family. Then on Wrestling Day (Boxing Day I mean) we drove to Grand Falls to see my family. On the 27th we drove to Pasadena to see my Grand Parents, and then to Burlington for a breif visit with Jessica’s Dad’s parents. That was a lot of driving, but it was good to see my Nan who broke her hip a few weeks before Christmas, and it was good to meet Stan and Marie (Jess’ Grand Parents). Then the 28th we drove back to St. John’s because Jessica had to work.

For New Years we went out to a friends place in Topsail… Amazing house, and great times with friends… Photos here : http://picasaweb.google.com/jmilley/NewYearsNicks

I’m working on upgrades to my website and looking at setting up a photography business on the side. For the moment I’m working part time at Newfoundland Camera, I’ve been selling cameras (and accessories, and developement, etc.). Soon I’m going to be teaching classes in beginning digital photography.

Heres a list of the websites that are being really helpfull in my exploration of photography:

• http://www.dpreview.com — Great camera reviews and discussion forums.
• http://www.nikonians.org — discussion forums, articles, etc. excellent resource
• http://www.bythom.com — Pro Photographer, reviews, articles, etc.
• http://www.strobist.com — The bible of Off Camera Lighting (small strobes) (with discussion forum)
• http://www.photographytips.com — Lots of articles on various topics
• http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech.htm — Pro Photographer, tech tips, reviews, etc. (take some of with a grain of NaCl)

Thats a few… of course Google is the best resource…

More updates later…

Check out http://jonmilley.com for more business info.

Jon

So, I’m in Grand Falls – Windsor right now writing this… Missing Jessica who isn’t joining me till Saturday here. But first I’ll back track the story a few weeks…

So 4 weeks (or so) ago I started to feel a cold/flu coming on. I developed all the classic flu symptoms and figured going to the doctor was just going to end with me getting antibiotics that I (mistakenly) thought I did not need. 2 weeks later I’m still suffering with it and it’s affecting my school work, my personal life, professional life, etc. Then one day I wake up with a 100x worse sore throat and I cannot eat, it hurt (alot) to drink even water. So I went to the nearest open clinic and saw a young doctor who said strep throat, 4-5 days with these antibiotics and your be fine.

Two days later that was not the case. I was worse (alot worse) friday evening and I went back to the clinic, but it was really really slow (not one patient came out or went in for more than a few miniutes, and I got fed up and left) next morning I’m there waiting for it to open and get a perscription for different antibiotic and then they never worked.

By Sunday after 4 days of eating a very liquid diet and being sick I was much sicker that I had been before.

So I went to the ER and long story short I was admitted to St. Claires where I stayed a week and ate much liquids.

My back has been aching a bit today, that has me worried… but it’ll force me to be more concious of it during the run up to the wedding.

Next on my update agenda is the back… It’s been acting up lately, not to the point of can’t handle school work for even 5 minutes, but since I’m THE photographer at the wedding (more later) this weekend I need to be in 100% condition. so tomorrow I’m paying (literally) a visit to my chiropractor.

So My Uncle Wayne and his fiance are getting married this weekend. Initially they had asked me to do the photos… At first I declined and said I didin’t have the gear (which I didn’t at the time) and they hired a “pro”. He ended up backing out a few months before the wedding cause he got accepted to the RCMP training program.

So the question came back to me about can I do it… I’d amassed a bunch of equipment of the the interveining months and I felt I could do it.

I’ll post more (and photos after the stress hangover is gone on Sunday.

More on the new apartment (columbus terrace on crosbie rd) in a later post.

Next friday I start a new job selling cameras at the local camera repair/sales shop. Just 2 shifts a week (friday and saturday). I might also have some christmas hours lined up at the other camera shop that could see me working as many as full time hours or more.

Our kitten guiness is so cute! heres a link to a small photo album.

Thats all for now!

Jon

We spent some time in Stevens Point, a bigger town near where she works, went shopping and ate out there. Spent a night in Madison, the capitol of Wisconsin, and did some shopping and went out for supper and a couple bars. It was her friend Erin’s birthday on Saturday and we celebrated that with her.

The big thing we did in Madison was get a tattoo… we both got a small celtic trinity knot on the back of our lower right calf. It’s small and tasteful, and was a good bonding experience.

On the drive back to the camp on Sunday, we encountered a crazy thunderstorm… the rain and hail was so bad that nearly everyone on the 6 lane interstate pulled off the highway.

I think everything is going to be great, I’m feeling much more at peace and relaxed than I was before I went.

I’m looking forward to the rest of my summer, even though I’m going to be really busy with my masters research.

Jessica will be home in 36 days, that doesn’t seem so far away now. I’m going to be housesitting for her parents for the first 2 weeks of July, so that should be great, and I’ll be having a few BBQ parties for sure.

Later days.

Jon

But I decided I had to do something to change this. My feelings have been a real drag on our relationship, and I was afraid I was going to irreparably damage what we have. She means the world to me, and I don’t want a mere two months to interfere with a lifetime of happiness.

So I’m going to Wisconsin. The monetary cost of going will be a drop in the bucket in light of cost of not going. I don’t think for a minute we would have ever considered breaking up, we are perfect for eachother, but I wouldn’t want any sort of a bad experience to taint our feelings from here on out.

I’m trying my best to keep my spirits high, and counting down 9 days rather than 53 is definently bouying my spirits. We do talk a fair bit, but it’s scattered and impossible to schedule, so it was hard to look forward too. this milestone in 215hours is very easy to look forward too.

So I’m flying out of St. John’s at 5:20am on the 21st, and I will be in Milwaukee by 9:20am local time. I’m renting a car and driving the couple hours up to Almond, Wisconsin where the camp Jessica is working at is located. So I’m anxiously counting down to lunchtime (central time) on June 21. I will be there for 3 nights, then a night in Madison and then one last night at the camp before I fly out of Milwaukee at 6:30pm on June 26th.

In exchange for permission to visit the camp, and staying there I’ll be volunteering some time doing maintenance work, etc. Hopefully I’ll get to spend a fair bit of time with Jessica those first few days while she is still working, if not it’s going to drive me nuts

Anyway, wish me luck and good times in Wisconsin.

The other big news in my life is that we have decided on August, 2007 for a wedding date. So far not too many details have been ironed out, but we’re looking at an outdoor garden wedding and reception at Jessicas parents house. My uncle Garry will officiate the ceremony, he’s a Pentecostal minister, and my cousin Erin will be doing a solo, so it will be a very family oriented wedding.

Life moves on, and things I never thought would happen in my life keep coming fast. I’m constantly amazed I found someone like Jessica, and now that we are getting married, I’m so gratefull for all the things that brought us together.

Love life and live each day to the fullest,

Jonathan