Salsa!

Mark and his mom, Melanie, salsa dancing in our apartment.


Salsa: Mark and Melanie from hey jessica on Vimeo.

The Graduate

Mark has worked extremely hard in school the past few years. I can attest to his many late nights studying, perfecting projects and (sometimes obsessively) solving problems. I am so proud of how many cool projects he's been a part of, and I'm even more proud that he has a new opportunity in California working for a company that shares his passion for audio engineering. 

From left to right: Melanie (Mark's mom), Michael (Mark's dad), Elaine (Mark's godmother), Corinne (Mark's grandmother), and Joe (Mark's best friend).

We are all seated waiting for the graduates to walk out.

Click on this picture to make it bigger if you want. This is the Bank United Center where the graduation took place; we are still waiting for the graduates.

Mark is on the big screen on the left. He just shook hands with the UM president as he walked across the stage. Isn't he so handsome?

The Freeman family after graduation. 

The whole group! From left to right: Joe, Elaine, Mark, Joe (again, other best friend), Melanie, Steve (Mark's uncle), and Corinne. 

Mark is showing us his picture on the electrical engineering graduates' board. 

Me and the graduate in our apartment. Congratulations! 

More pictures coming later. I took an overload of photos this past weekend, so I'm only putting them up in increments. 

Also, Mark and I are leaving Miami on Saturday. We should make it to Nashville by Sunday! I would love to see all of you before we drive out west. We will most likely leave the following Saturday to start our cross-country trek. Very exciting! But miles to go before I sleep. (Thanks, Robert Frost!)

"until the sun comes up over Santa Moni-coco-of-life"

Mark and I just got back from Santa Monica, California. We got there on Thursday and came back on the red-eye flight last night/this morning. We went to look for a place to live, since Mark just got a job in Santa Monica.

Once we got from the Los Angeles airport to Santa Monica, we drove through the hills and looked at all the wonderful, new sights! We stopped on this lovely hill to stretch our legs and get some fresh air.

Here's Mark on the same hill talking to his mom.

Then we found this beach, it's a state park in Santa Monica, but now I've forgotten the name. Mark is there in the distance, and I am, of course, snapping pictures left and right.

On that same beach, Mark and I wandered upon this set. We asked some girls on the beach what was happening, and they told us that they were filming a Jonas Brothers music video there. That made this our second celebrity sighting that day. That morning, on our flight from Miami to Los Angeles, we were on the plane with Hulk Hogan's (ex?) wife and son. I didn't get a picture of them; sorry Chels!   :(

Cool beach flowers.

Palm trees are much bigger in California!

Our delicious (and VERY affordable) lunch at Kaido in Santa Monica.

Sipping on some green tea before apartment hunting. 

Orienting ourselves to the west coast.

The roller coaster and ferris wheel on the Santa Monica Pier. At the pier, there are games, artists, musicians, rides, food and tourist shops. At the end of the pier people fish, and it's very breezy. The water here is much colder than in Florida, which cools down the air a lot.

Mark in front of the Apogee building, his future place of employment. We went out to lunch with a few of the engineers on Friday, and everyone seems really nice and inviting. His office is pretty cool, also. We got a tour of the place, and they even have a recording studio in the back of the building. Mark wishes he could start working today!

Dinner Night!

My friends and I try to have frequent dinner nights. I never bring my camera, but since I'm moving soon I decided to document one of our dinner nights! Last night Anna hosted, and below is her Thai chicken in the crock pot. YUMMMM.

Below is my green bean casserole on the left and Anna's coconut rice on the right. 

In the kitchen there's Anna, Sierra and Candy getting things ready.

On the couches, from left to right, that's Chad, Travis, Michelle, Jessi and Mark in the living room.

After dinner shenanigans! This is (left to right) Michelle, Jessi, me and Anna, the lovely hostess.

Mark had to get a picture with his girls, too! I'm really going to miss these guys a lot. They're really great friends. Luckily Michelle's sister lives in LA, so we may get to see her more than we think! 

picnik

Hey guys! If you haven't used Picnik, it's a free online photo-editing website. It's pretty neat! If you've ever used Photoshop, it has similar features, but for free. You can upgrade and get more features for about $2 a month, but I suggest giving the free features a whirl. I edited the image below using only the freebies. Enjoy! More to come later. I miss you all! :)

Happy Birthday KK!

Oh, KK. If only I had a still shot from one of our many music videos (Devil Went Down to Georgia or Did I Shave my Legs for This) to post for your birthday! I think if mom and/or Chelsea can find the tape, we should put it on YouTube. I remember it being pretty awesome! For now this picture will have to do. If mom ever looks at my blog she'll be mad I posted this picture, even though she looks beautiful! (I don't think she ever checks it, though!) Haha.

I love you cuz, and I hope you have a great birthday! You deserve it! :)

A lovely walk around Brickell Key, and a balcony pic

Brickell Key is one of my favorite places to walk. It's really close to my apartment (maybe 4 blocks away), and there's a sidewalk around the entire key. Lots of people in Brickell (the area I live) come here to walk, job, walk dogs, or push their kids in strollers. It's beautiful! It's hard to see because of the camera setting I had (it was letting a lot of light in), but the land in the distance is South Beach.

I took this picture as I was walking on the ledge. Dangerous! Not really, it's pretty wide, and I'm good at balancing. I like to be up high and look and the rocks, which are hard to see if you're on the sidewalk like a normal person. :)

So many yachts on the water yesterday! And sailboats, too. 

Here's a statue that I like on Brickell Key. 

There are some benches behind the statue, and I like to come here during the day to read, write or just be by myself for a while.

This walkway is past the statue and curves around to the other side of the island. From here, if you look to the left, you can see the Port of Miami. They have huge cranes loading giant boats with cargo, but I didn't get a picture of that. Sorry!

Here's Mark from our balcony. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this balcony. And Mark. :)

Hope you all enjoyed the photos! I'm going to try and do better keeping up with the blog so you guys know what I'm up to. :) Love you all! -- J