Summer's Beginnings

Below are two blog posts in one, talking about the beginnings of my Summer break.




May 20, 2011:  San Diego Work Trip

     A few days after school was out, I had a trip down to downtown San Diego for work.  The California National Guard was having a large conference at the San Diego Bayfront Hilton Hotel, right next to the Convention Center.  Originally, I was supposed to drive down at 5:30 am in the morning to get to the event, but I was able to drive down the night before and stay in a hotel in Hotel Circle.  I got to the hotel, and hundreds of uniform military personal was all over the place.  I had thought this was just a youth event, and not an entire Cal Guard conference.  I found were I was supposed to be, and we began the event.  My job was to help the youth film and put together a 5 min video about the life of a military child.  We walked around the convention center area, on the water front, to film some of the video.  We also asked general public to interview us about what they thought lives of military youth was like.  Filming went well, but we ended up taking more time than needed, because some of the Cal Guard staff felt the youth needed to stop to play games throughout the day.  One of the biggest shockers of the day was lunch.  They had a buffet ready for the youth when we had returned from filming.  There was chicken nuggets, french fries, fruit and veggies, and a few drinks available.  As the youth got their food, so did I, thinking that everyone was eating this meal.  Real standard for an event like this.  As I was near finished eating lunch, I noticed that servers brought very fancy meals, around ten plates.  They had roasted chicken, a rice/ couscous side dish with pesto dressing, very nice veggies, and a Tiramisu cream desert.  These plates were for the adults in the room.  I was shocked!  I felt it really pathetic that the youth had to eat a basic simple and standard meal while the adults ate this very fancy meal.  I felt it to be very rude.  I had learned from my work that military personal tend to treat youth differently than what we do in 4-H.  We try out best to be equal with them, and show them respect, which is why we call them youth.  Military staff tend to call them kids, and put themselves way above the youth, which I feel is pathetic.   After lunch, we finished the filming, but ran out of time to do the editing.  I would have stayed in San Diego to help edit them, but I had to leave the city, for I had a very long day the next day.  A husband of one of the military staff knew video editing, and he took the footage in order to edit the video for the youth.  I drove home, which on a Friday afternoon was a bad idea.  Took 3 hours to get home with traffic.  Ill never do that again.

May 21, 2011:  Sectional Field Day/ 30th Anniversary Party Photography Shoot

     This day was a very long day.  It started out with me driving out to the California 4-H South Sectional Field Day at Mt. SAC in Walnut, CA.  As always, the teen council was doing a food booth at the event, and since I am a volunteer for the teen council, I had to go to support them, especially when out adviser wasn't able to make it that day.  I left the house at 7:30 am, and when I got into Walnut, I first stopped off at Stater Brothers to buy a few bags of ice, which I was donating to the food booth this year.  When I got to the food booth, everyone one else was showing up and beginning set up.  After everything was set up, I walked around to say hello to many of my 4-H friends.  I was able to help out for a little bit at the food booth, but I had to leave at 10:00 am.  It made me a little sad that I had to leave super early, because one of my most awesome best friends was coming to the event, and his mom was the honorary of the event this year.  I wanted to be there to see my friends Matthew Smith and Kristen Weeks, and to be there to support Matthews mom, Mary Ann, but I had to go off to a photo shoot back in Highland.
     Scotty's grandparents, Bonnie and Ken, were having their 30th Anniversary Party this day, and way back in January, I was asked to be the photographer for the party.  Because Scotty's family has always been nice and is awesome, I agreed to be the photographer.  I got home from the food booth in Pomona, got dressed, gathered my camera equipment, and headed over to the East Highland Ranch Clubhouse on the corner of Highland Ave and Cloverhill Dr.  I arrived 15 mins before noon.  Everyone was still setting up.  I first started catching up with Scotty and his family before I got down into taking the photographs.  As people began showing up, Bonnie (Scotty's grandma) had me go with them around to take group photographs of family and friends with her and Ken (Scotty's grandpa).  About 30 mins go by, and lunch was ready to be served, which was from the Mill Creek Cattle Company Steak House.  Everyone got their food, and I walked around and took photographs.  I finally was forced to stop taking photos and grab some food.  I grabbed some food and ate with Scotty and the younger crowd.  It wasn't long before activities started back up, and I had to finish eating fast, and get back into the game with my photos.  I stayed till around 6:00 pm at the party.  Amanda, my cousin, was coming home from Afghanistan, and I wanted to get home, so I can try to see Amanda before she drove up to Oregon the next day.  Sadly I was unable to see her, for she didn't land till late. 

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