Hola, Mexico!

I enjoy waiting for vacation as much as being on vacation, because everything is still ahead of us - so much time for each other, the sun, the ocean, flip-flops, good books, day trips to Maya pyramids, breakfasts, good time with friends, a wedding to photo-shot and  to dance at! ......

Any all-inclusive resort cares about their overworked guests a lot by providing very limited and very expensive internet access, so don't be too hopeful to hear more from me this week. Many stories and pictures to share when we are back, and for now a preview of this weekend's photo session.

It is amazing how much you learn with every new photo you take. I love this photo, but also see how I would retake it a little better. What do you think I have in mind?

Thoughts

I think our self awareness sometimes plays it gently and makes you realize your big life changes in very unexpected ways. Last year brought a lot of new: new place to live, new status to adjust. I knew these things happened factually, but in reality this all just hit me. Just now, really.

Driving home a minute ago I thought: I am driving home to MY OWN HOUSE, from a NEW house of my friend, waiting for a HUSBAND to come home... and, I am a go-to person for my PREGNANT friend, when her husband is not around.

Wow!

And yet, this ALL still doesn't make me feel like an adult. And, I hope, this will never change. :)

Changes, Spring, Goofiness ...

There is one fact you don't know about this blogger - she has been laid off!

It happened a month and a week ago and left me feeling a little strange in the beginning. I even cried a little. (Ok, I bawled my eyes out in the office of my biggest boss with a presence of a nice (not sarcastic remark) HR person). But the hard feelings went away very quickly, giving room to the spirit of opportunity and a good change. 

I am very much obliged to my then boyfriend (now known as husband :) making me listen to "Who Moved My Cheese?" one time, when we were on a wavy road heading to Hershey's, PA. I owe my swift transformation from despair to hopefulness and joy to this 45 minutes story. Several years ago I pointed it out to a very depressed colleague of mine when she was leaving our company. Strangely, she reappeared on Facebook just days ago with the following message: "I will never forget "Who Moved My Cheese?" THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU I appreciate it more than you may know."

Our beautiful Spring also helped out - I am enjoying no work situation, when everything is so bright, young, fragile and beautiful. I can't say there is a season I don't like - I really do love all of them,  but Spring is truly special: after all the snow is gone, spring steps into its powers so vivaciously, it takes my breath away every time.

Surely enough, good changes came along much quicker than I even expected: I am starting a new job soon, and it is going to be sweet - literally and figuratively! More things on career side of life on this blog soon, I promise!

For now, to end this post on a goofy note, here is how Andrey and I looked on outrageously warm April day:

I know, you are thinking - why "goofy"? Well, we look goofy to me in this picture. :)

I will: Maryana & Maksim

It is always special, when your friends are getting married. It is especially joyful to see two people clearly so good for each other to grow from being a girlfriend and a boyfriend to a bride and a groom-to-be! I remember the weekend we first met Maksim, I noticed a new glow to Maryana's already always bright personality. And, the frame of Maksim's arms around Maryana looked so good!!

There is another side to M&M: the guys visited us 2 weeks ago and from the minute they stepped into our house I stayed in bended over from laughter position pretty much the whole weekend - such a couple of comedians!

The bride and a groom graciously let me put them in front of the lens for a couple of hours, and since the weather didn't even think to cooperate, we took a stroll underneath the glass roof of Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens. Next time you think this is a good place for a shoot, check the calendar and make sure that Easter bunny is not making appearances in the gardens - an oh-so-cute army of toddlers was a little bit of an obstacle for our romantic photo session. :)

Maryanka, Maksim - we are so exited to share your day with you at the end of the month in ..... Mexico!!

Maryanka, you are stunning!!

Portraits

We spent most of the last year making a million of choices from Buffalo neighborhoods to garters, candles, cakes and veils to bathroom tile.It left a little time for photography, but I managed to snap a photo here and there. Here is the recap, part 1: portraits - my friends and coworkers.

Kristie became my first victim, and this is a portrait from my very first photography session:

Toronto, Distillery District session with Tanya 

Coworkers

A mistake, but I like it

The world spins around you faster when you spin faster yourself!

Ever since we moved into our house I was waiting for the world to start spinning a little slower....

But it never happened. I thought I just need to get through this crazy, busy time and then I will have time to breathe, reflect on our wedding, house buying, house remodeling, honeymoon.... But it never stops, it just spins faster with more things just adding into rotation. 


So, I decided to just blog about things that are happening now and then gradually weave in reflections on oh-so-beautiful and important events of the past 6 months.

So, most recently I visited NYC very spontaneously. And ... fell in love with it again. As I always do. St. Valentine's day is actually, despite the cold, is a perfect time to visit this never sleeping city. This year it also fell on Chinese New Year, so this was a joint celebration. I think I was "drunk" just with pure energy of seeing so many different people in the subway, on the streets, in my most favorite place in NYC - Central Park. I must have been a New Yorker in my previous life - I feel right at home there. 
Here are some iPhone snapshots from the trip:

 

On the Q train, heading to Manhattan

Ah, coffee shops!

  

Hearst headquarters - I work for the company within Hearst, 

BUT we are not within THIS building, .. I wish!

a view from the 29th floor of the Hearst Tower ... oooh!

My favorite place in NYC - Central Park

St. Valentines Day in NYC :)

Shopping! 

After this little NYC LOVE note, I've yet to explain the headline of this post. 

I think we are just used to say that the world spins around us. In reality, though, it is US who are spinning,we just want to accomplish more and more in less and less time. So, really, we control the speed of our life. 

For me the life pauses when I blog - everything freezes in the air for my examination. I missed blogging.

The Honeymoon took a loooooong time. You don't beleive me?

Hm..... I am back again. From the honeymoon. Yes, it took 2 months. ..... !

Ok, I am a bad lier, and feel guilty that during this period of my life - wedding, moving into a new house, honeymoon and first holidays as a family  - I didn't blog. Clearly, it is  a crime, at least for my own sake.

To make up for this major miss I am going to be putting the pieces together in the next posts and recreating the beautiful picture of this fall's happenings.

For a sneak peak - Thailand, of course. The most beautiful beaches I've ever seen... So far... :) !