CURVEBALL

The leaders... or whatever they are called.

Dedrick and Me at the Opening Ceremony

The Kemper Area is an Amazing piece of work

Amazing inside as well

Annd the Casino

Tuesday afternoon we had our orientation.  There, we met Bill Chamay...(SP)  He is the director for the Skills USA Photography competition.  What a nice guy.  I've been very fortunate thus far to be surround by such positive and welcoming leaders.  The orientation was just an overview about that the competition would be like.  It was also a a session full of redundant rhetorical Q & A.  I've never heard so many questions and the same answer about dress code.  Those people (you know who you are) ,I'm sure, could hear my sighs and feel the rolling of my eyes! grr!

Anywho, since day one I've (as well as everyone) been under the impression that one round will be a portrait shoot.  I've practiced communication with the model, light patterns, ratios, etc!  Well, yesterday, to my dismay, Bill announced that this year the portrait portion will be scratched and we will be doing a commercial shoot in place!  WTF, was my initial thought.  I wasn't going to outwardly sweat it though, I didn't want my competition to see me faultier.

Once the orientation resigned, I immediately sent the Harkinator an email.  She called me shortly after.  She had a quick lesson over the phone with me on commercial shoot.  Rules on shooting plastic, glass, texture, etc.  This definitely was useful, and helped me a lot!  Thank you Mrs. Harkins!  You really came through on this one!

We then met in the lobby and were bused over to the Kember Arena for the opening ceremony.  It was another Pep Rally.  The show was opened by a personalize video from Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs.  He sent us his best and wished up luck.  The night was full of surprises!  The had a the SkillsUSA NASCAR Driver come out and have a few words.  Later in the show they had a host from the Speed Channel speak with us.  They also had the winner of Oprah's Big Give speak with us.  He was very motivating and inspiration.  Overall, through all the cheese, the show sent a great message.  It was also live cast over the Internet.  I had my parents and friends on text message for cometary. 

The night wasn't over.  My friend Dedrick and I went don't to the lobby bar after changing clothes.  On my way down,  I met my new friend Skylar on the elevator.  Skylar happened to be from Georgia as well.  We talked for a minute and I asked him if he wanted to come down for a beer.  He then proceeded to talk about going to a casino and somehow he got the hotel to shuttle us out there for free!  The casino was absolutely dead.  We met some interesting people though and actually had a blast!  We returned to the hotel around 1:30.

Whatever, I can have fun while I'm up here.  Jealous?