This is my girl, Trisha. She had me at “roundhouse kick to the face.” I’ll explain later.

Yes, this is the same girl you’ve seen on my blog several times. When we first started working together at an insurance company, she thought I was stand offish…a mild snob. I thought she was nice but that she could definitely warm up a bit. Neither of us realized that there was a connection there…we just didn’t know it yet. We were wrapped up in our jobs as people tend to do. Not once did either of us try to reach out in over a year of working in the same office.

When I changed departments and she became my trainer, we clicked instantly. It was like we found that person that could get us through the long, routine days of insurance. I looked forward to going to work for a change! Laughter flowed, candy was shared, office politics were discussed. We talked about Chuck Norris. A lot. One day the Chuck Norrising got out of hand when Trisha pretended to give me a roundhouse kick to the face, only to have her size 5 shoe fly off into the reception area. I cried with laughter. The receptionist didn’t.

This girl should have been born in the 40’s. She is a total pinup! And those shoes…such good taste!

It’s official. I’m now engaged! With the help of two of our very dear friends, Trisha and Clint, my amazing boyfriend Jeff proposed to me on a perfect snowy Sunday afternoon in Newport Village. Almost 4 years together and almost the same amount of time as friends before that. He and two of our close friends turned a planned Christmas photoshoot into some pretty awesome memories.

The first few photos were before I knew what was going on. I was just sassy, by myself, in front of the camera. Then the couple shots. There were some pretty good shots for the Christmas cards. Before we really had time to change locations or angles or anything to make the photos more interesting, our friends kept saying, “We need more poses!” This had all been planned down to that last line and before I knew it, my guy was on his knee asking me to marry him. PRO-posing. Shutters clicked, I cried, his hands shook (just a little) and we were engaged. Champagne flowed briefly before we headed in to celebrate with our friends.

It couldn’t have been more perfect.

Finally! The rain has stopped in Vancouver. All I have to say is I’m glad it hasn’t been cold enough to snow or we’d all be buried in 100 metres of white stuff. On this glorious, magical, sunny day I also wrote an exam for a course I’ve been studying for ages. Alllll about the theory behind group insurance benefits, which is supposed to help me in my day job. We’ll see about that. Fingers crossed I passed!

As if to say, now you can celebrate it’s all over, the clouds vanished and the sun was out full force today. It was beautiful! I haven’t felt the urge to reach for my sunglasses in weeks. Of course they weren’t in my purse because my umbrella has become my accessory of choice. To top it off, I finally get to come back to blogging since I’ve been so wrapped up in studying these past few days. What a great way to start December!

As promised, I’m posting some pictures of my very bestest friend and partner in crime, Trisha. I snapped these on one of our Photography Missions this summer up the hill at Simon Fraser University. She’s tiny but she’s fierce, isn’t she?

I have a great friend, Trisha, who got a Canon 40D for her birthday this summer (lucky girl!) and was very anxious to learn how to use it. We started going on photography missions to various locations throughout Vancouver so that she could get used to this new chunk of equipment. For example, flowers were a good place to start so we went to the gardens in Stanley Park for her first assignment. We had an action day, and a mid-day sun day (totally wished we thought to have a sundae afterwards. I’m a geek.) Our boyfriends also begrudgingly came out for a portrait mission…The list goes on.

One day we decided to take our cameras up to Simon Fraser University to do a photo shoot to practice posing and directing people in front of the camera. Who needs models when we can photograph ourselves! We shot in the open air of the Quadrangle for most of the afternoon. Basically, the Quadrangle is a big square outline on gigantic stilts with dozens of classrooms inside. Dreary inside, beautiful outside. Trust me, I took many-a-class in that building. We tried to act like models in front of the camera, and hot shot photographers behind the camera. One do-gooder student walked by us and told us he made money taking pictures of people and it was useless to have the flash on in daylight. He wished us well and carried on. Such helpful people wandering around! However, the flash was to subdue some shadows on the face. Thanks though.

We had a great time goofing around! Oh my friend was a bossy little thing but I loved every second of it. She was a natural! When we started to get people staring at us it made me nervous but she did a wonderful job helping me relax. I love the shot where I’m “holding onto the wall for dear life, but must look soft and feminine while doing it.” Nailed it.

My photos of Trisha will come in a later post. Here’s some of her 40D love.