Blogs are hard.

Consistently updating a blog is surprisingly difficult. I know tons of people who have started a blog at one time or another, and only about 2 that consistently update every day. I obviously fall into that first category, but now that the time has changed and it gets dark at 4:00pm in Birmingham, I'm considering a comeback. The bad news is that our lives are far too tame to be interesting right now but perhaps this will serve as a means of inspiring myself.

I do read a lot of books so maybe I will just talk about those.

- Jeremiah

Halloween

I don't actually like halloween at all, but last year Robby and I carved the best pumpkin ever.



It's the second coming of Christ. Josh Hausen just sent me the picture and I thought it needed to be shared.

- Jeremiah

Costa Rica Wedding (Surfing)

The A Bryan Photo guys just started posting some shots from the wedding in Costa Rica last month. There are some really great shots and you can look at them all on their blog.

Here are a few of the good ones so far. And yes, at first glance they have nothing to do with a wedding.

The whole crowd out surfing -



Here's Drew, the groom the day before the big wedding -



Look at me protecting my skin from the danger of UV rays -



We're excited to see the actual wedding part soon...but for now this will have to do.

- Jeremiah

'I'm On a Tree' and Mean Dog

Anytime you get your own blog post at A Bryan Photo, it's a pretty big deal. So I'm awfully proud of the latest...brilliantly entitled 'Jeremiah On a Tree'. It consists of this one picture -



Even better, here's a great video from our trip to Costa Rica and a really mean dog that terrorized the guests up and down the entire beach. (In a possibly related story, last time I was in Costa Rica I went to Manuel Antonio after our car wreck and the first time I tried to run - after barely moving for weeks - I got attacked and bit by a random dog. I'm not sure if this was the same dog, but I didn't take any chances. Except for this one.)



Man vs Wild: Costa Rica Edition from A Bryan Photo on Vimeo.

I know of at least four people that were bit by this dog while we were there. Oh well.

Surfing pictures to come tomorrow...

- Jeremiah

Balloon Thief

I spent about four days in Pamplona during the summer I was in Europe. I traveled with Dwight (one of my best friends) and we arrived at the start of the Festival of San Fermin. Within about 3 minutes of being in Pamplona we had already given in and purchased the standard attire (which we wore for the rest of the week).

Here's Dwight



And me...



Our time there was part fascinating and part miserable since we had nowhere to sleep (for some reason we ended up sleeping on the ground near a river...and also northern Spain is the windiest place I have ever been) and nothing to do from 8:30 in the morning until 8:00 the next morning. So we did what we could to pass the time. This included wandering around town, looking for cheap food, and arguing with the police who had detained me and taken my camera the first day. However, our nights were filled with two joyous events.

The two things we did in the evenings were attend the nightly fireworks jubilee with throngs of white and red clad Spaniards -



and spend hours at the local fair.

One evening while we were at the fair, someone robbed the balloon vendor. Lucky for us, he didn't steal the vendors money, but his balloons. Few things are funnier than a huge crowd of people chasing some crazy bandit through a fair while the bandit has about 80 large balloons in his hands. We just stood about 50 yards away and watched the clouds of balloons race through the paths of the fair while people screamed and tried to run after him. I can't think of a more obvious thing to steal than helium balloons but the fearless attitude seemed to fit the zeitgeist (I learned that word in high school) of the whole place. In the end, he eventually ran out of sight and I'm not sure if he was ever captured, but I remember me and Dwight just looking at each other as if to make sure we had just seen the same thing. Only in Pamplona...

- Jeremiah

A Year with David Brooks

Some of you know David Brooks and for those of you that don't, let me just tell you that he is very unique. He has lived a life that really does span the globe (except for Central/South America and most of Africa...he has decided he probably wouldn't like those places as much) and in 2006, I spent 10 or 11 months working with him in Europe. He called me out of the blue this morning so I thought I would write in his honor (he's not dead or anything...it just got me thinking about that strange year).

David loves good stories...especially those that are slightly unbelievable or impressive. Thankfully, the 10 Commandments don't say 'Thou Shalt Not Try to Make Others Envious' or David and those that spend time with him could be accused of violating that one. For instance, here's a quick list of the things we did during that year -

- Went to the Olympics in Torino, Italy
- Went skiing in the Alps
- Stayed in the Monastery of St. Bernard in Switzerland
- Went to Cannes, France for the Cannes Film Festival
- Went to the Monaco Grand Prix and drove part of the track at night between races
- Went to Germany for the World Cup
- Ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain
- Spent countless evenings biking along rivers in Tuscany
- blah blah blah







Part 2 -

The above list is the one I would pull out if I was trying to impress people with some of the 'things' I have gotten to do in the last few years and the thing I have realized more and more is that they just wouldn't care. There probably isn't a person alive that knows we did all those things (at least until I press 'Publish Post') and for me that is the funny thing about so many life experiences. For the people that are with you when things happen, the memories are great but pretending like others are going to care is a huge mistake. Everyone out there has remarkable experiences and somehow that makes everything look alike.

So basically I have already gotten tired of the whole 'telling stories' thing because I still don't think they are all that interesting. I may try to post some random pictures with some short anecdotes but the whole thing just feels way too selfish. Thankfully there aren't as many people checking the blog since our trip has ended...if you are still checking, thanks. Since the story thing isn't too exciting, I may just start writing about the economy.

- Jeremiah

Weekend...

I'm not going to post much over the weekend even when I'm trying to stick to a plan...