I'm going to start this a little early as my GFM experience started with Tan arriving on the 29th. (Aussie, pronounced 'ozzie', translations in parentheses)
5/29 6:20 am - Drive to Dulles (dallas) to pick up Tanya (Tan, sheila, or "the mouth from the south"). Realize car smells like feet and mayonnaise, pull over to a gas station (servo) to do a little last minute cleaning. Walk into terminal, spy a tall red haired woman at the atm. Figure this particular woman couldn't possibly be Tanya, as she had enough baggage for a circus troop and their monkeys, but sure enough, it was Tan. Did I mention it was 6:20 am? (whinge) Go home, take a nap. Wake up, Tan offers up the first of her vegemite concoctions on buttered toast, and a box of Tim Tams. Tanya accompanies us to band practice. She only cries a little bit. She seems to be fitting in pretty well - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/gfm2004/040602-223052-1396.htm 5/30 - Sleep in as we're doing a late wedding today. Tan and Ash head out and get hair cuts. I, of course, don't notice, and I haven't heard the end of it yet. Tan makes vegemite on buttered toast with cheese. Head out to wedding in Alexandria. Wedding was sort of hipster funky - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/gfm2004/040530-200140-5621.htm Not at all a typical american wedding, but she seemed to enjoy herself. She did get a little snippy (narky) when she missed out on the wedding cake. She managed not to drop anything, so she earns the official designation of #16. You can see her observing here - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/gfm2004/040530-185412-5406.htm She's way in the back to the left of the painting. 5/31 - Ash, Tan and TV head over to Ash's dad's house for a family memorial day cookout. There is no vegemite to be found. Australians make good guests - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/gfm2004/040602-223518-1410.htm I don't think I did any dishes while she was here. 6/1 - Sleep in, then head downtown for the dc tour. Tan is detained by the federal government for 30 seconds for attempted destruction of property - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/tom/images/soup.jpg Tan decides to cook us a good australian meal (aussie tucker). This turns out to be spaghetti with meat sauce (spag bog). She also made a dessert called self saucing chocolate pudding, which basically exploded in our too hot oven. Since it was chocolate we made an effort to eat it anyway, and piled on the ice cream. Tan is amazed at the black specks in the vanilla which she mistakes for dirt. She's not bothered by dirt and digs in. http://www.bigdayphoto.com/gfm2004/040602-223446-1407.htm After dinner we headed downtown to the Black cat to see Beulah. Tan seems to have fun, but is annoyed at that guy at every concert who dances spastically. 6/2 - I have to work today, and Tan is too nervous to take my car out, so she contents herself by taking pics of a rose in my kitchen - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/tan/rose.jpg Yes, she spent a day in dc photographing a flower in my kitchen. Yeah, she's like that. She seems to be highly entertained by the coffee we have on hand - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/tan/nuts.jpg Ha, nuts, get it? Tan screws up enough courage to take a cab to the mall while I meet a client. She's late calling me to pick her up, so I go to the mall and get a haircut. She calls while I'm getting shampooed, and shows up during the cut. It's at this point she starts cracking on my incipient bald spot. (twit) Decide to buy some pants, go to the Gap, see a "vintage" t-shirt that says Australia on it. Tanya travels 10,000 miles from Australia and I end up buying an Australia shirt at the Gap. 6/3 - Cotty calls to say that he has accidentally broken the British air traffic control system. Something to do with his mac...they're only too happy to see him leave, so they send him to NY. Norm calls to see if it's ok if he passes out in the bushes when he gets to GFM. I tell him I don't mind. Tan and I drive to Dulles to pick up the van, and she manages to drive my car home without killing anyone. And she only stalled 3 times! Crikey! Some sort of girly ritual occurs at this point - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/gfm2004/040602-223558-1412.htm Or maybe they're comparing stomachs, I'm not sure. Get ready to go out to Marrakesh - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/gfm2004/040603-190500-1426.htm http://www.bigdayphoto.com/gfm2004/040603-190638-1432.htm http://www.bigdayphoto.com/gfm2004/040603-190654-1433.htm Head to Marrakesh restaurant where we meet Christian and wife, Dan and wife, Geoff and girlfriend, Stephen and beer. We eat with our hands (feral), and watch a belly dancer - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/gfm2004/040603-201424-1452.htm Head to National airport to pick up Cotty. Tan teaches us how to walk like models by leading with our pelvis', and we swish right up to Cotty and whisk him home. Cotty has to open his gear - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/gfm2004/boxes.jpg Tan always does a little dance when people open presents - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/gfm2004/dance.jpg The obligatory self portrait - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/gfm2004/selfcottan.jpg And try out Cotty's Pentax 50/1.2 on my 10D - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/gfm2004/50.jpg 6/4 9 a.m. - Get up, start packing. Geoff and Wendy show up, and we head over to Ledo's to pick up the 15 pizzas. While waiting we buy an ungodly amount of junk food and beer at Trader Joe's. Cotty and Tan decide that Trader Joe's junk food isn't junky enough, so we go to 7-11 for fritos, oreos and slurpees. Mmm, good. (nice) Cotty forgets to pick up Certs. 11:30 - The road trip starts. 12:30 - We drive down 66 a ways and stop for lunch at Hardees. 2 - Guts start churning. 5 - Stop near Mt. Rogers for gas, and we're able to show Cotty and Tan a Piggly Wiggly sign. I feel my work is done, but we continue. 7 - Stan calls to see where we are. Of course, we're at the Jehovah's Witnesses drive-thru waiting for Tan to get over her car sickness. Where else would we be? 7:45 - We arrive at PDML central and just about everyone but Mark Roberts has headed up the mountain for the first presentation. We help Geoff pitch his tent while there's still light. None of us has had the 3 month training necessary to pitch this particular model, so it takes us 10 minutes, and we nearly poke out 2 eyes. 8 - Before introducing the speaker, Don congratulates Tanya for being the furthest traveled attendee. She's not in the room. 8:05 - Arrive at the lecture hall, sneak in under the dimmed lights. Even though it's dark, we recognize Frank from 20 feet. 9 - Lecture ends, and we finally get to meet everyone. As usual, it's great to see old friends, and it's just as great to make new ones. 9:15 - Head to PDML central. In attendance at some point or another are Adelheid, Jostein, Doug, Bill and Phyllis Owens, Cotty, Frank, Cesar, Graywolf, Steve and Debbie Desjardins, AnnSan, Bruce Dayton, Marnie, Mark Roberts, Stan, Cory, Bob S and wife, Geoff Moes and Wendy, Tom Reese, Charles Braswell, Tanya (I refuse to call her fairygirl), Don Delurker, the rest of the Delurker men, tv, and some other lurkers who shall remain nameless. I'm sure I've missed someone and I apologize. Gimme a break, I drank a fair amount of that rotgut rum (bundy) - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/tan/040606-124820-4898_std.htm 2 - Amble off to bed, fall asleep though it sounds like there are 2 grizzly bears mating outside the window. Oh wait, that was Doug snoring. 6/5 5 - Gate boy awakens. Realizes Tan is sleeping in the van he needs to drive down to the gate. It's early, so he doesn't really care. 6:30 - Stan comes down to get Tan to take her shooting. 6:40 - Tan returns for camera. 9 - Before introducing the speaker, Don congratulates Tanya for being the furthest traveled attendee. She's not in the room. 12 - Pizza boy starts cooking, and soon starts serving - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/tan/040606-024824-4805_std.htm Afterwards we do a group photo - http://groups.msn.com/BillOwensPhotos/shoebox.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID= 80 2 - Tan and I go to the the sanctuary to look at the animals - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/tan/deer.jpg http://www.bigdayphoto.com/tan/otter.jpg http://www.bigdayphoto.com/tan/tv.jpg Cotty and Frank meet us. Tan goes back to the van to get more batteries. 5 minutes later she comes back to ask where the van is. I suspect Frank took some interesting shots here. 3 - Norm shows up, and turns out to be the funniest person on the PDML. Sexy too. Almost pretty. 4 - Head up to the top of the mountain to check out the swinging bridge - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/tan/040606-060242-4852_std.htm Head down for dinner, and sit at a table with a Pittsburgh equities trader. We explain the whole pdml thing and she is completely amazed. Or dismayed. I can't read people that well. At this point a few pdmlers who aren't hardcore landscapers decide to skip the 7 pm presentation by Bill Fortney (which I had seen 2 years previous and is excellent). It sort of snowballs out of control and about 10 of us end up at pdml central - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/tan/040607-023546-4946_std.htm 7 - Before introducing the speaker, Don congratulates Tanya for being the furthest traveled attendee. She's not in the room. 7:30 - I realize one of the reasons Tanya came all this way was to learn to use strobes, so we pull the AB out of the bag and have a mini workshop. Norm helps us nail down our exposure - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/tan/040606-095742-4864_std.htm And Cesar agrees to be a model - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/tan/040605-193934-8152_std.htm 8 - People start to go insane. About 4000 pictures are taken with *ist-D's without any viewfinder usage. http://www.bigdayphoto.com/tan/040606-125016-4899_std.htm http://www.bigdayphoto.com/tan/040606-145822-4938_std.htm 9 - Gate boy sells his soul to Mark Roberts to get him to do gate duty the following morning. 11 - Doug and tv get out the guitars. The crowd is in awe and shows it's appreciation by telling us to get off the coolers as we're blocking the beer - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/tan/040606-141932-4927_std.htm Later, Mark Roberts shows us how to play and sing a proper song. 6/6 8 - Wake up and go to breakfast. Tan puts ketchup (tomato sauce) on her bacon. 9 - Settle into the auditorium to listen to presentations. Don has learned his lesson and doesn't say anything about Tan. 11 - Listen to Doug and Mark present the winners and dishonorable mentions for the contest. Doug is really good at this. 12 - We're all disappointed Frank didn't place. We're pretty sure there's a conspiracy. http://www.bigdayphoto.com/tan/040607-024754-4956_std.htm 12:30 - Tan starts to get introspective - http://www.bigdayphoto.com/tan/040607-023706-4951_std.htm And we start saying our goodbyes. Tan gets a little teary at times... 2 - The DC contingent hits the road. 10 - Arrive home. Look for vegemite. So anyway, there it is. Tan was dropped off Monday am with a few tears, Cotty was dropped off Monday night with a few laughs. As usual, it's hard to leave GFM. Once you go it's hard to stay away. Hope to see you all next year. tv
