salvation mountain.

yesterday i went on an adventure to salvation mountain with alisha, josiah, and kevin.

seriously the coolest thing ever.

check it out! 

can i please do something awesome and meaningful with my life please?

on the way there we stayed on the 10 a little too long and ended up in the middle of nowhere. 

it was a cool place for a quick photo tho.
the self timer feature on cameras was a wonderful invention.
seriously i have had a great summer so far. i have loved spending time with lots of different people and getting to do some awesome things.

1 month down.

3 more to go!

now, make a fist. slowly ease it up underneath your chin.

when i was in jr high the cool thing to do was to go to the mall with your bff find matching shirts, buy them and then go to photmakers to get pictures taken. 

you could get 50 wallets each for 20 bucks or something.

then the next day you go to school and pass them out to 50 of your closest friends and write something sentimental on the back like "hey gurlie, i am sooo glad we r friends. stay sweet. don't ever change. love rachel."

found this photo while cleaning my room. i think that this is me in 7th grade with my friend eleanor. well i mean i know it's me and eleanor, but im not sure what year. 

you got to pick the background and the color. if you were a ba you would get flames, but we simply chose the cosmic blue background. sometimes they would put random pillars in the background. and the fist under the chin was a must.

im afraid.

i have never really been one for new years resolutions. 

but this year i decided that my goal was to become a better photographer and just to be more confident. 

i really don't know what im doing. but im trying to learn. im reading lots of photog blogs and stuff, but its hard for me to just go out and shoot. i guess i just feel pressure to be good, but i need to accept that there is just this learning stage i need to get through. im kinda intimidated by the friends i have who are photographers, because they are al really talented. when i really should just ask for help. 

today i asked my little bro, jacob if i could go into our backyard and take pictures of him.

i liked a few of them, but i think this one is my fave. 

you should also check out his myspace music site. 

secret outing #2

i surprised heather, jackie , and julia with lunch at tio's tacos.
its this crazy sweet mexican restaurant. the food is kinda nothing special. well heather's chicken burrito was real good. so i recommend the chicken burritos.

but better than the food is the crazy art. the owner of the resturant has taken a bunch of random junk and turned it into fountains and statues.
so i never know weather to put the expiation above or below the pictures. today we are going to go with above.

a man and woman made out of toys. the womans dress is made out of barbie dolls. this is a chapel made out of old bottles. there are seats and an alter and a holy water holder thing on the inside. the ceiling is painted . its pretty remarkable.
a muffler band.
all of us! also these benches were pretty cool. they were made out of old bed frames.
mabe i will add more pictures once julia gets hers online.

i have pretty much have been blessed with some stinking awesome friends who accept random outings like this.

so as an art major i am allowed to sit here pondering art and beauty. what is art? is this stuff art? is it junk? does art have to beautiful? aesthetics? color? composition?
kinda off topic, but also related- i realy want to take a welding class. like i think if i got a torch and a bunch of steel i could make something pretty rad. mind you this is just a hypothesis. but i do want to try.

i think its awesome that the first verb in the bible is created. and i mean i am created in God's image. so now i need to get out there and create. and be creative.

thanks mlk jr.

thanks to the awesomeness that is martin luther king junior i had a awesome four day weekend (four-day because i never have school on fridays).

friday- i joined cindy, holly, and monica at pf changs. we feasted on yummy food (crispy honey shrimp is my fave) and had a great time. i love that place. riverside has really stepped it up restaurant wise. later that night kristin and i went to the movies. we saw atonement. it was pretty good. a nice mix of artsy stuff, history, mystery, suspense. the film moves super slow at times, but besides that and the glamorization of smoking it was two thumbs up. and im really a fan of the green dress kiera wore. its so glamorous. good movie. i would recommend it.


saturday- i slept way way in. and then cindy janai and i went to java bliss to get our study on. but they closed at 7 so we had to bounce over to my house for great conversations, homework, and guitar hero.

sunday- church at the grove. i went to "big church" and i think im learning i have the attention span of a junior higher. the service highlighted some of the trips that the church went on this past year, and educatated the members about the importance of going to the ends of the earth.

the past year and a half has been awesome in regards to my mission opportuinities. i got to go to mexico, chile, utah, and cambodia. but i really dont know what the Lord has in store for me this summer. Back to cambodia? hatti? utah? costa rica? tibet? job? summer camp? san fransisco? i just dont know...

after brunch janai and i watched a good ten hours of prison break season 2. it was intense. great show.

we went to sandals at 7. and i really dont know what to say.
ok i will say that sometimes all the "stuff" gets in the way of worship. and i know its not about whether or not i like the particular song we are singing... but whether or not it is pleasing to Gods ears. but for me smacking a beach ball around during the singing of Queen's "we will rock you" was pretty distracting from the reason i sing.

we came back form sandals and watched more prison break.
i fell asleep to this...

monday- kristin woke me up in time for lunch. following a 2 1/2 caf expierence we had a mlk photo shoot.

then some more prison break. we plowed through most of season two. we only have 2 episodes left! seriously and amazing show. i can not wait for season three to come out on dvd. (i cant watch it on real time tv because every single commercial break is a clif hanger and im too impatient to wait a whole week for a new episode...so i just wait months and watch it all in one foul swoop)(i know. fell swoop, but i have been saying fowl for years)

then i went to jonnie mac and drew's apartment. we played guitar hero.

i cleaned my room. did laundry. read some. painted my nails (gold sparkley). ate a few lemon heads. thanks for staying with me through this lonnnng blog. i think this is my longest yet. or maybe i just put some big pictures up in here to deceive you.
:]

a saturday fulla riverside pride.

if i was a gangster i would for sure be in one of the gangs that is all about riverside pride.
i would get 951 tattooed on my back.
i would have a fatty rain cross sticker on my car.

saturday morning i DARED TO CARE.
pretty sweet way to start out the day. i would estimate about 300 people from the grove and the path of life shelter were there. we divided ourselves into groups and set off to clean up downtown riverside.

my team was pretty hardcore. we were out in a a dust storm cleaning up train tracks. my legs were sore today when i woke up. im not used to using the "bending over and picking up trash muscles" they are very similar to the "rice planing muscles" i used in cambodia.
(im at the end of the row planting with the locals.)

after the clean up everyone ate lunch together.
hot dogs + chili + cheese + onions = gas.
:]


then saturday night emily, cynthina, stephen, and i went to the mission inn to look at the lights and have a crazy intense photo shoot.
kettle corn!
pretty lights.
spider pig, spider pig, does whatever a spider pig does.
more pretty lights.
mish.
giant orange!
how much longer will this behavior be accepted? i really love taking pictures with my friends. but i cant picture a mature 20 year old doing this kind of thing.