Tuesday, July 31, 2007

This blog should be called TheTravelFiles

Posting today from beautiful Lindsborg, Kan., home of the Bethany Swedes...

Yearbook camp Number ... Oh, hell, I've lost count.

It's going well so far - good kids who are engaged in what we are trying to do.

Living in the dorm is far from Shangri La, that's for sure. No TV, no internet access, prison beds, sheets and pillows, and this morning I shared my shower with 3 ginormous spiders.

Ick. I. Hate. Spiders.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

i heart wifi and i heart sirius 23

okay, so here I sit at jeff and kat's - checking email and updating blog on the pool deck. god, i love wireless internet, and satellite radio - "here I go again" is playing on hair nation.

we moved into apartment in kc, just back in doodah for the weekend = i'll be adding photos as soon as i get back to kc. love the apt., miss all my wichita peeps.

i ain't wastin no more time, but here i go again.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Leaving the home office

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's here. It's officially the last ChittumFiles post from the Holyoke office. As soon as I get this posted, and Adam checks his email one more time, we're shutting down the Mac to pack it up for the move.

I'm so glad I got to attend one last book club at Kat's house. It was a small group in attendance, but a good time nonetheless. I said goodbye to some of my oldest Wichita friends - Jaime and Denise. I can't believe how long it's been since my first year at the Eagle. (And Denise still thinks I'm 22! Keep it up, girl, keep it up!)

Kyle and Lauryn got to meet tonight, as well.

First, they had their own toddler book club.


Then, toddler book club became a lesson in sharing. (They're both only children...)!


Aunt Jill with the original coolest babies in town, who are now among the coolest 2-year-olds in town.

Dinner at N&J last night was excellent as always. I love this photo of Lauryn and Adam. It looks like she's thinking, "This guy's full of crap!"



And, thanks to Lauryn's parental units, I will be in satellite radio heaven during my trip to KC tomorrow! Yes, Adam and I are now the proud owners of a Sirius satellite radio system. I. LOVE. IT. We've been listening all day while we were packing.

Photos of the new digs to come on Friday!

By the way, check it out: It's a red-letter day! I've finally made it to the Big Time - I'm on Lori's World!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Maybe some day I'll rid myself of job-A.D.D.

Yes, yes, changing jobs is always exciting, and I'm excited about moving to K.C., but I am SO over moving. I guess I am not cut out for a nomadic society. I hate shoving stuff into masses of boxes and loading up the truck.

Can someone out there please invent the magical mover? Just wrinkle your nose like Samantha on Bewitched and it's done in a flash?

I told Adam that next time we do this, we should just hire movers and be done with it.

BUT, I did get to do something semi-cool yesterday. My Uncle Mark is letting us use his car trailer so that we don't have to sell our souls to U-Haul. We brought it down from K.C. last night, and my little car was small enough to fit inside. So, to save gas, and to save me from dying in a horrible fiery car crash on the turnpike, we loaded up the Vibe and I rode in the cab of Mark's truck.

After 10 solid days of Yearbook and Newspaper from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., I was in no shape to spend 3 hours on the turnpike in the driver's seat.


This is me, being very Michael-Knight like and pulling the car out of the trailer. There's Mark on the right. It was all very Kit-Car and "Knight Rider" esque...



And like I said, I'm sure the neighborhood association will have their panties in a wad over this. Oh well. It's so nice to come right out the house, down the porch and straight into the truck. Maybe this will be the first time we move that one or the other of us doesn't throw out our back. Cross your fingers. Hmm, I just noticed - I think my favorite part of this photo is that it looks like there is a Pepsi truck sitting in my driveway next to our red car. Too bad we're not receiving endosement money.

Tonight Adam and I continue the "World Tour" of our favorite Wichita restaurants before we leave. On tap? N&J Cafe.

On a completely unrelated note, I hear Lindsey Lohan got aNOTHER DUI last night. Wasn't she supposed to be in rehab? Chalk up another awesome role-model moment. At least Paris Hilton is ACTING like she got religion or a conscience while she was in jail. Let's at least try to put up a good face, Lindsey.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Post-Quaff (in more ways than one)


Here's a pic of the KC workshop crew at the Quaff bar on Quality Hill. That's Mike, me, Jeanel and Gene Simmons, er...Shannon.

Finally posting from the friendly confines of our Holyoke house. But, the trailer is parked in the yard (I'm sure the ladies of College Hill will have the police at our house first thing tomorrow morning), and we're officially really packing stuff up.

I tried to photograph the trailer, but the camera battery is dead (Adam had camera, I had charger for the last 10 days), so you'll have to wait til tomorrow for that one.

We tried the new little Japanese place near our house for dinner after I got home. It feels like I can't remember the last time Adam and I actually ate a meal together since I've been on workshop overload. But, nothing like moving to bring two people closer together, right? It's oh so much fun.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Hey Bartender

Maybe I've opened my own bar in KC?



One more night of yearbook workshop, and tomorrow I get to go home. Phew. I'm ready. I don't think I've been away from home this long without Adam since I went to Berkeley in 2005. Don't get me wrong, I love to travel, but it's a lot more fun when we do it together, and when there's more play than work!

I'm not gonna lie...

the iPhone sure is pretty, and its features are pretty darn sexy to anyone who is into techie-geek crap.

That being said, I'm not sold on it. I was messing around with my new friend Shannon's iPhone tonight, and I thought - here's a great idea - I'll get online and do a blog post from the phone, just so I can say I did it.

Well, being at a yearbook workshop, of course we were in a hotel where once again you had to pay for wireless access. Not a big deal for an iPhone user, right?

Wrong. Its built in internet network was WAAAY too slow for me. I don't want to go back to the days of dialup.

So, in conclusion - iPhone looks good, but operates a little too slowly for me at this point. I guess you just have to make sure you can always get to a wifi network.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Stop No. 4 on the 2007 Summer Workshop Tour

The Downtown Marriott, Kansas City, Mo.

It's the three-day Jostens Adviser University. Today was exciting - I finally got to see a copy of the photo textbook that I contributed to. It looks amazing, and it's incredibly cool to see my words in this book. All summer long people (yearbook teachers) have been asking when it would be ready, and it just rolled off the press last week. I venture a guess that it was the most sought-after item in the resource room today. Everybody was talking about it.

I'm staying at Ma and Pa's tonight. I'm beat, so I'm going to hop in the hot tub for a quick soak, and dreamland won't be far behind. (I have discovered the best part about hot tubs - they make you fall asleep really fast when you get out.)

Wow. I just read that, and you can really tell that I'm more "mature" these days. I remember a time in my not-too-distant past when "hot tub" and "party" fit like a glove. Now, it seems I'm more interested in a little downtime. I haven't had near enough this summer.

Note to Amy: Pretty sure I left my phone charger in the room, if you could kindly pick it up for me. (Have to do this - not sure if Amy has found phone/gotten new phone yet)

Bed time for Bonzo.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Live and local from Rusty's Last Chance

Okay, this is the epitome of blog coolness for a K-Stater journalism nerd.

I am now posting sitting on the front porch at Rusty's Last Chance. Too bad I don't have a digital camera, card reader, etc., to give you visual proof. You must know, though, that the wireless network PIMPTRESSES. What the hell is that?

I just ran into one of my all-time favorite Collegian sports writers, little Joshy Kinder. He's now the sports editor of the Manhattan Mercury. Weird.

Once upon a time, I drove to Iowa State University in Ames with Josh and Frank. They were freshmen, I was the worldly older woman. We tooled up the road in my little Geo Prizm, but we had to stop about every 45 minutes so that Frank and Josh could chain-smoke a half a pack of cigarettes. We arrived in Ames, covered the basketball game, and proceeded to return to our respective hotel rooms.

Little did I know, but I found out the next morning...Frank and Josh spent the entire night awake, watching scrambled porn on their hotel room TV. Ah, to be a freshman boy in college (I guess).

All right, I'm told it's time to leave. Everyone is getting impatient. I guess I'll have to update later.

Here's to $2 Coors Light Pounders. Cheers.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Stop No. 3 on the 2007 Workshop Tour

Posting this week from Manhappiness, Kan., home of the 2007 Flint Hills Publications Workshop. My good friend Tim Janicke and I are advising the workshop newspaper - the Kedzie Krier. It 's tough to take 12 high school students from different schools, get them mixed in and comfortable with one another, pass out some story and photo assignments and POOF! produce a paper in three days. Somehow, though, we always manage to thread the needle. Our big production night will be Wednesday, so I might be a tad bit prickly that night. Out of 12 students, only four have InDesign experience, so the actual production part of the process might get a little kee-razy.

Something new this year (because we're just gluttons for punishment, I guess) is the eKrier. We're taking the Kedzie Krier online. Check it out. I continue to be amazed at the talent and dedication of these students. We have live stories posted 10 minutes after an event ends, and then we'll add to the story for publication in the print edition.

•••

A Chittum Challenge update: I'm hovering around just 2.5 pounds lost - the summer of constantly being on the road has been a little tougher on my motivation and habits than I expected. That being said, though I did haul my ass out of bed at 6:30 this morning for a run near our hotel. I'm so glad I went - it was actually cool outside this morning, with a slight breeze.

It's fun to run through Manhattan and reminisce about where my friends lived in random houses, or strange apartment buildings where I THINK I attended some party once or twice.

And, those of you who went to K-State will appreciate this for how it illustrates my re-dedication to the Challenge - this morning, in the Union, I had yogurt and an orange for breakfast. I DID NOT EAT UNION B&G! B&G is usually a staple of my workshop diet. Not this year...

We'll see how I do by Aug. 17 when our marathon training begins. I would just like to shed a few if for no other reason than to make the running easier.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

I want somebody's butt, I want it now. I'VE HAD IT!

I want some butts!

Okay, okay, so I know they are tiny in these images, but nonetheless...

Reason no. 895 I will miss Wichita: Every year during the McConnell AFB Air Show, I can see the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds from my front porch. Yes, the show might not be as spectacular as being there up close, but I'm also in relative comfort, compared to the throngs of people who paid good money to stand on an asphalt tarmac in 100-degree heat. I'll take my Diet Dr Pepper and airconditioning over a $5 bottle of water any day...

The view from my porch. That's my house in the extreme right of the frame, my neighbor Rachel's to the left of that.


It really does sound like the tower flybys of "Top Gun" fame, but lucky for me, I wasn't drinking coffee at any point during this airshow!


"Snot-nosed bastards do a flyby of my tower at over 400 knots!"

Texas - It's a whole other country

Yeah, where I allow someone to perform "surgery" on my splintered foot with a pocketknife.

Backstory: The Friday night before I left for Dallas, I watched back-to-back episodes of "Man Vs. Wild" (my new favorite show, by the way...mmm...Bear Grylls). About 1 a.m., I trudged back into the office to put our phone on the charger, and stepped on the nastiest something-or-other I have ever seen. It was shaped like a burr, but looked wooden. I pulled it off my foot, gimped around for a couple of minutes, and crawled into bed. (Adam was at work, so he was of no help.)

Why this little piece of #@$^ was in our office, I'll never know.

When I woke up the next morning, I realized that this tiny burr on steroids had left an appendage behind right in the ball of my foot near my pinky toe. OW. OW. OW.

I toughed it out for a day, but after day one of the workshop (on my feet talking the whole time) said foot became a little sore.

Emboldened by a 32-oz. Miller Lite, and perhaps a little angered at its cost, I asked if Aaron or Ryan could attempt to take out the splinter. They're both climber-hiker-outdoor-survivorman (outdoor dogs, Travis?) types, so if anyone could do it, they could. Trouble is, our only tool was Aaron's pocketknife. After "sterilizing" the knife with a lighter, I grit my teeth and he went to work.

It wasn't OVERLY painful, but now I think I'll know the answer next time a doctor asks "Is it a sharp pain? A dull pain?" I've never been asked this question before, but now I know what dull pain is. It's a pocketknife breaking through a callous on my foot.

He pulled out a nice chunk of splinter, and I went on my merry way. This is why everyone needs to have at least one friend who is a photographer. All photographers are MacGyver types - they get jobs done, no matter what the tools.


Photos by Jeanel Drake.

Friday, July 13, 2007

This is what happens

when you get a bunch of photographers together for a week and add a dash of beverages to the mix.


It's the Dallas workshop photo crew. This was shot at Mike's Serial Bachelor Pad. Mike is the one in the middle of the back row. He's a freelance photographer in the Dallas area, and he was the leader of the pack for the photo sections of the worksop.

Here's the funny thing about Mike: He taught a KJI workshop that I went to when I was in high school, so I guess I've known him for 15 years, but we haven't seen each other since then, except for about 4 times this year. It's a frienaissance.

On the couch, laying across everyone else, is Jeanel, a photog from KSU and Shawnee Mission North. Our paths never crossed at North (she's too young) but our lives have been eerily similar at some points.

In the green, Aaron. He lives between Big Bend National Park and Big Bend State Park in Terlingua, Texas. Here's the thing it's always so hard for me to wrap my brain around about Texas: It took Aaron nine hours to get to DFW. That state is so freaking huge. You can drive all day and all night, and still be in the same state, depending on where you start and where you end.

In the yellow shirt - Dale Jr. Okay, no, just kidding. It's Ryan, but he could be Jr's twin. I think he said he had three people (in one day) say he looked just like Jr.
Back left is Aaron's childhood friend, Chris (inside voice). He was up for a visit.

On the right is DJ, one of Mike's roommates. This guy does the most incredible woodworking I have ever seen. See the very corner of the coffee table in to the left of the frame? He made that. It's all very antique and moody looking.

Luckily, Mike's crash pad was only about 10 minutes from the hotel, so we did our evening hangouts there instead of the local pay-to-drink establishment. We were near an airport, so when we did actually go to a bar that first night (Champp's - and no, that is not a typo) a 32-ounce Miller Lite was almost $7. The two reason we didn't go back there? a.) I'm a cheapskate, and b.) Two "p"s? Really? What is the reasoning behind that. I find it highly annoying.

Anywho.

Monday, July 9, 2007

Deep in the heart of Texas

Okay, not DEEP in the heart of Texas. Just in North Texas - Dallas/Fort Worth, to be exact.

Teaching at the largest high school journalism workshop in the country - 700 students. We've got 120 just in the photography sections.

There's no internet access at the hotel, so you'll have to excuse the brevity of this entry and the lack of postings for the next few days.

Just wanted to let you know that I'm not dead!

Saturday, July 7, 2007

"Rumor Has It" your movie has a slight problem.

Okay, only true yearbook nerds and yearbook advisers would notice this.

In the movie "Rumor Has It" (romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Costner, supposedly chronicling the family "The Graduate" was based upon), there is a scene where Sarah goes to visit her Aunt Mitzi (Kathy Bates, hilarious as ever). Sarah is digging for information about a man her now-dead mother had a fling with the week before she was married.

As they are looking through the prep school yearbook, Aunt Mitzi says "There he is!" And she points to a photo at the end of a row of portraits. However, his name is the FIRST one listed for that row. So, either the pretend yearbook staff had a really bad portraits section editor, or the movie had a really lazy props and/or continuity person.

Anybody else notice this when you saw that movie? I saw it in theater with my mom last year over Christmas break, and noticed it right away. Then, I watched it on cable last night and there it was again.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Live from Baghdad, er...Wichita

Okay, I know I'm a wuss, but I gotta tell you - I just got back from a walk through my neighborhood, and the illegals were flyin'. (Fireworks, not immigrants.)

Tonight, the fifth of July, the din of fireworks is constant, everything from fountains (legal) to freakin' mortars that put the city's display to shame (pretty sure that's illegal). While walking, I had to time my steps so that I wouldn't be in the path of an errant something or other.

Thankfully, most of the driveways I passed featured grown men lighting the firecrackers, not small children.

Tonight, before you go to bed, think about everyone who isn't lucky enough to be spending their Independence Day holidays stateside, and send them some good karma. I can't even imagine what it must be like to face the danger of REAL mortars or RPGs or IEDs or whatever the weapon of choice is these days day in and day out.

I'm reading "From Baghdad, With Love" now. It's about a Marine Lt Col who "adopted" a puppy while serving in Iraq in 2004. For those of you who don't know, the Marine Corps is WAY against such activity. It's a great book - just started it today, and I'm already 80 pages in (had plenty of time to read during our GARAGEAGANZA today). But, I hate to read about how Marines are drilled and drilled and drilled and drilled to become desensitized to killing, because that makes their job easier. Logical, I know, but I hate to think of my former student who is in Iraq right now, and think of him going through that training. He was one of the nicest, most kind-hearted kids I had at Derby. I just hope he's doing okay.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

The only thing that should be wearing a sweater right now

is your bottle of beer! Check it out:

Keep your hand dry and your beer cold with this Chittum-created Beer Cozy.

Monday, July 2, 2007

In the news

from befuddle.co.uk - the home for drunk celebrities


First of all, Happy 21st Birthday to Lindsey Lohan! I guess she celebrated a little too early when she got a DUI with traces of cocaine in her system. Who needs to be of age when you're a Hollywood starlet? Do they throw 21st birthday parties in rehab?

Second - check this out:

Don't you read the news?

I would like to meet this woman, so I could say Na nanny boo boo!
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