Entries by TATIANA

Today I decided to check out Clark County Wetlands Park since I never been there before.
It's on the East side of town, far out on Tropicana and I live on the West side of town.
It's getting hot here in Sin City and I made sure to bring water for Chhaya to drink and a spray bottle filled with water to mist her with. There was nothing really exciting to see in the Wetlands Park. Sunset Park is way better!
Just a bunch of dry bushes and crispy tall grasses that I learned is called reed. And a bit too hot. Dawn or dusk is the time to go to Wetlands Park, at least on a sunny day this time of year. I did finally arrive (after a short walk) to a pond so yes, there is water in the desert. No bathing in the pond though, it's some sort of a protected wildlife area. I might go swimming somewhere tomorrow. Maybe, haven't decided yet.
Right now I am waiting for somebody to come and fix a flat tire that I got. One of life's nice surprises! Hello, flat tire.....FUN! Then I'm going to go and take care of some errands and find some food.

So I got annoyed a few times in the last couple of days over small stuff but still stuff that is ANNOYING. I went to the post office because I have a package to send to my Mom and some Valentines Day cards. There is a small post office up the road inside a party supply store.
I went there. I guess they close for lunch every day between 2-3, like I said it's a small post office where the only person working gets to go on a lunch break. Fair enough. I get there and the person working rolls her eyes when she sees me cause she is on her way to take her beak and taking care of a customer is definitely not want she wants. I can understand that, so I say...."Is it already 2?" "Yes", was her reply before she ran off. OK then, I look at the clock and it's 1 50.....so ten minutes that I could had sent off my stuff. And shortly after an older lady arrived, I'm guessing around 70 years old. She too was hoping to mail something before 2 and was rather disappointed. Yes, I know getting your break is important. Especially if you are starving. When I exited, the postal worked stood outside and smoked. Hungry for nicotine. This is a government job, so do your job right. But what is really annoying about the post office is that today I found out that they changed some stuff regarding international mail.
It's still super expensive, around Christmas I usually pay $200 plus to mail stuff off to family and friends. Well, the labels you need for declaring what you are sending abroad are no longer available at the post office. You have to fill the label out online and print it out.
I'm assuming they are trying to save money on the cost of the labels. Well, what if you don't have a printer. Helloooooo? Not everybody has a printer. Or a computer for that matter. So I went to Kinkos to take care of this annoying label crap, filled it out and then the US post office website was experiencing some difficulties and told me to return another time. So no label. Thanks a bunch US post office. BARF!
Now to the next annoying incident. At Sambalatte - I go there a lot. The latte is rather pricy there, so I expect to get milk all the way up to the rim of my cup so I don't have to top it off with cold half and half. About 50% of the time I have to ask the barista who made my latte for more milk. No, I don't want an inch gap, I want my cup/mug full. Today the barista had a bad attitude when I politely asked for more milk and I'm super nice to all of them in there. Like I was asking for something impossible? Just fill the freakin' cup all the way, do it right the first time and you won't have people asking for more milk. Yes, when a latte is $5 plus some change and a tip (!) I expect it to be done the way I want.
At Sambalatte they have some intricate coffee alchemy mystery stuff on the menu, in case you want to "enhance your coffee adventure". I haven't done this to my drink, I just order my usual vanilla latte. That I want enhanced with hot frothy milk all the way to the top.
Thank You!

What have I been up to the last couple of days? Just some stuff. Went to Red Rock (usually I go there about once a week).





Had latte, this one while shopping at the Fashion Show Mall.



Found some weird store toting itself as a survivalist store. Some people are preparing for the end of the world, aka "preppers" or survivalists, so I got curios and had to see what they had in there. Thought that maybe they had a vanilla latte supply for the next 50 years or so in case I get stuck in a cave somewhere. But it was more of a fun store. Lots of fun photo opportunities though, so I might have to go back there. Me and my new friends.





Went bowling with Julia and our significant others last night. It was more like a crazy bowling convention. I thought Julia was going to break either the floor or the bowling balls cause she was throwing the bowling ball down the lane, basket ball style. But it was fun to bowl, I think it was like ten years ago last time I did it. I managed to get 90 something points.





And some random pics just because.......

I have done a few more shoots and even some videos in the last week. This is all for fun and nothing serious. I like photography and I think it's fun to have pics of myself and I am not a bit ashamed to admit that. Everybody else that takes selfies likes pics of themselves just as much as I do. I just happen to be lucky enough to know people that are willing to sacrifice their precious time and take pictures of me. And yes, I take selfies too. Tons. My phone is not called a phone, it's called " the selfie machine".
Barry gave me two prints. One is one of my fave pics of myself. We were shooting at some abandoned crazy looking area outside Vegas and came across a chair, then I found a light bulb laying there and that resulted in this badass pic. I think it's from 2011. And the black and white is from a hot spring in the Lake Mead area and I think it's from 2007 or perhaps 2008. Now I can frame them and hang them up. Cool!



Then Wolf came over and we took some pics and he shot videos of me. I'm not used to video, I have no acting aspirations whatsoever and watching the result, yourself in movement, is both strange and fascinating. Kind of like hearing yourself speak on a recording, it doesn't sound like you had imagined you would sound like. So yeah.....the video was weird to watch. It's short (about three minutes) and I don't speak, Wolf added some beautiful music to it. After watching it I decided that I should had concentrated more on my posture and sticking my butt out (didn't even cross my mind) and I should had washed my hair (looks like bleh) but I was not prepared for any video taking. Oh well, maybe next time. Here are some stills taken from the video. Chhaya participated too!









And a pic from the shoot. Look how cute Chhaya's face expression is......! Awwwww the baby!



Photographer Wolf189

It's getting hotter here. My favorite time to be in Vegas is between October and April.
After that I think it's just too hot and the sun burns my pale skin. Me and Julia spent yesterday afternoon at MadHouse Coffee, taking pics with our lattes so we can earn free drinks. I love everything free and I will torture Julia to walk for great lengths in the sun so I can save a few dollars on random stuff. Hey, it's in my blood! I can't help myself. Sometimes I even haggle. You never know unless you ask.....right?
The other day I drove to a gas station on Lake Mead and Losee to get cheap gas in the middle of the night......when I got out of the car and saw all the crazies running around the place, I wondered for a few seconds if I would make it out of there alive or with all my belongings.
I don't think I will get gas there again, even if it's cheap. So far the cheapest gas was two Sundays ago, $1.97 9/10. I get excited over bargains. Maybe I should take up couponing?
That might very well be my natural talent.
I found a "Smile On A Stick". I had one years ago but it disappeared, now I have one again. You can have lots of fun with it, I have some ideas already......

Yesterday before I was getting ready to meet Julia to walk a few laps around the park on Buffalo and Washington I stopped in at Trader Joe's for a free coffee. I love Trader Joe's......you get small coffees for free and they also provide cream and sugar. Perfect!





When we started walking I heard some kind of commotion behind us somewhere. I turn around and see a guy and a girl fighting.....it looked like he was being violent with her and there was lots of yelling. I got involved and started yelling loudly for him to leave her alone and that I was going to call the cops. He threw her purse hard into the ground several times and she was crying. Then he left and she was picking up her stuff that was scattered all over.....So we decided to approach her to see if she needed ANYTHING. Well, to make a rather long story short. Her name was Becky, 19 years old. Boyfriend 22 has been abusive towards her for the last two months. Including slapping in the face, pushing and choking her until she blacked out. She had decided to leave him and he was not happy about that (of course). Typical abusive and manipulative guy, telling her it's her fault when he gets mad and violent towards her, making her be with him only and not with her friends. We comforted this crying girl. She said she was embarrassed to be crying and we reassured her she had done nothing wrong. The boyfriend appeared behind us a few minutes later yelling nonsense like "bitch" and bla bla bla, I told him to stay the fuck away or he would regret it. Then we gave her a ride home to her Dad's house where she also was living. We told her to NOT go back to this "boyfriend" even though he most likely would try to win her back with sweet talk and I love you's. He at 22 is still living at home with his Mom, that according to Becky he would be verbally abusive to and he already had done some time for an incident involving violence. Typical loser and an abusive loser too. Me and Julia told Becky that she has her whole life ahead of her and with no ties like having kids together with him, she must cut him loose and move on to a bright future. We also told her that statistically women that get badly hurt and/or even murdered are usually the victims of a husband, boyfriend or an ex. We gave her our contact info if she needs us for anything, like help filing a restraining order or talk etc. We have her address and we are going to make her a really cute V❤lentine's card and send it to her. Outside her Dad's house we all hugged. Becky said she did not know what she would had done if we had not been there when all of this was going on with the boyfriend. We were simply at the right place at the right time.
And both me and Julia are really glad that we were there when this happened.
A few weeks ago I assisted another girl in distress. I was walking to my car after shopping at the Miracle Mile Shops when a girl came up to me and asked me if I could help her find her car. She said she had asked several people to help her and nobody would. She was a bit tipsy and I was concerned whether she was going to be able to drive home but she seemed OK, just somewhat frazzled and worried. It took maybe 15 minutes of looking and then we found the car. She wanted a hug too at the end. Sometimes you just have to do the right thing, even if it's taking an extra time out of your day or your comfort zone. Imagine if that was YOU going through something upsetting and there was nobody there willing to help. What an awful feeling! Speak up when witnessing something wrong. Do something if you can help.

Be kind. Easier said than done. I always say that actions speak louder than words. I came across this picture hanging on a wall in a store the other day and decided to snap a pic of it.
I think it ended up fitting this blog entry......