Moving my shit again.

I have moved my blog back over to myspace hell, because i am a silly little school girl who loves the drama.

You can find my latest ranting and ravings at http://www.myspace.com/tomsphoto

So long, little brother.......

Its taken me almost 2 weeks to post about this, as everyone knows, my brother Chris comitted suicide on August 11th.

I honestly still can't believe it happened. As much as I knew it would happen sometime, since he said it would over and over again, to actually have to say that my brother is dead just makes me sick. I get physically ill thinking about it.

I was in Colorado for 2 weeks before he died. He called me in a very scary state, telling me he needed me out there as soon as possible. I got out there as soon as I could, which ended up taking some time thanks to work, and quite honestly, I told friends that I was expecting to find him dead when I got there, since he knew exactly what time I would be there.

Luckily, he was alive. He was in really tough shape mentally and physically, but he wanted to get off all the prescription meds he was taking, and see if he could get himself to a better place. We went to his doctors and agreed that we should do that, so he went thru the withdrawals with me there and finally around the middle to end of the first week he was feeling better. While he was withdrawing, I went thru his place and dumped literally thousands of percocets, vicodens and oxycontins down the toilet. I could not believe he had so many pills in his house. It looked like a pharmacy.

Into the second week, we went back to his doctor and he was put on Effexor to try to get him out of his funk. He actually seemed to be doing ok, but on Friday, when I was supposed to leave for home, he had a mini breakdown and begged me to stay for a few more days. I agreed, and we hung out for awhile, talked more, then I went out for a little while with his dog Max so he could take a nap. When I got home, I told him I was going to lie down because I had a headache, and around 8pm I woke up to get some dinner. I opened his bedroom door, and he was snoring away. I went and got dinner then went back to bed. I woke up around 530 Saturday morning and found a note saying he had killed himself.

Of course, there was drama with my father over all this, that was to be expected, and I finally got Chris home to my mom's grave on Sunday. I did a little ceremony for him and spread his ashes at the grave. All his friends turned out, as did a lot of mine.

As I sit here now, I am so sad I want to cry, but I can't. I know he is finally where he wanted to be, and for that we should all be happy.

Rest in Peace Chris. I miss you.

My Pal Max.....

I have been out in Colorado the last few days with my brother, and while staying at his place I have officially been put in charge of his little Boston Terrier, Max.

Max is a handsome, hyper dude with a sunny disposition, but he also has his dark side. He farts like a smoke machine. He and I were hanging out on the couch last night and he was blasting these monster farts, bad enough to almost make me gag. I never thought any dog could possibly do what he was doing. He was making my farting ability seem like Glade air fresheners.

Max's ability would most certainly be appreciated by some in Fire Alarm, where fart offs are common on my shifts. Even some of the ones you would never believe launch an air biscuit have been known to let them rip when working with me. I don't know if thats an insult or complement, however, nothing makes this fat little monkey giggle harder than a schoolgirl than a well executed fart.

If Max does come home with me, fire alarm better be ready. Max is my new secret weapon.

Max is the handsome bastard with the pink nose.

Colorado again!

I flew back out to Colorado this weekend to help out Chris, my brother. Other than the fact he is sick and just needs me to help him out for a few weeks, its pretty good. This is the 3rd time I have been out here in a year, and every time I come out, I just don't want to go home.

Today its about 95 out, but its dry and nice. Hot, but dry. Big difference then when I left NH. It was 90 and hot and humid. I am a fat guy, and fatties like me HATE humidity. Out here, at least I can go out and not have my man boobs be dripping like a river the second I get out the front door.

Anyways, the trip out was fun. I flew from NH to Chicago with a Harley granny next to me, and since I was wearing a Harley shirt, she figured that we would chat about bikes the whole trip. I think she finally got the clue that I wasn't really into chatting once I got my Ipod on, so the rest of the trip was uneventful. We actually arrived at O'Hare 25 minutes EARLY, which rocked, since my original layover was like 45 minutes. However, once we landed, the flight from Chicago to Denver was delayed almost an hour and a half. I got to spend about two and a half hours wandering around O'Hare. That was about as exciting as pulling the lint out of my belly button. Once we were getting ready to board, it was apparent that the flight was going to be FULL. I was thrilled at that prospect since the only seat I could get was a middle seat. I figured with my luck I would get someone as big as me on either side and we would look like a row of jelly donuts.

I got on the plane, and found that one lucky recipient of my largeness was going to a be skinny chick with the windown seat. Once I planted myself in the row, her eyes rolled as if to say "fucking GREAT." Not that I blame her. Once I was sitting a pilot proceeded to plop in the seat next to me. Luckily he was not a big guy. We ended up chatting the whole flight, since he had a lot of the same interests as me- fast cars, big trucks and faster bikes. He told me that the next natural progression for me was to go to flying school, since that is the ultimate speed freak hobby. He owned a share in a Cessna, and was saying how flying is like crack.....super addictive and super addictive. Just what I needed to hear. I would get into that and the next thing Kerri would know there would be a Cessna sitting in our driveway. I am fairly confident that would get me a solid boot in the ass and a visit from her divorce attorney.

We ended up in Denver, and it was sort of humid here (at least that was what everyone was saying.) I got off the plane and out of the terminal and was thrilled to not feel humidity. When I got to Chris' place, I was watching the news and the weather monkey was rambling on about how bad it was out and how he thought it was one of the most humid days he could remember. Obviously he's never been to New England.

The last few days have been doctor appointments, and a lot of hanging around the house with Chris and Max. Max has been his typical Boston Terrier self...hyper and wanting to play every minute. He fianlly gave up playing with me at one point because I drilled him in the ass with a giant tennis ball. I think it was an accident....but who knows.

Jet lag has been kicking the crap out of me. I dozed off last night around 9pm (here) while having a conversation with Chris, and woke up like a half hour later. Chris told me he thought I was dying or something by the noises I was making. Apparently I snore. I dragged my ass to bed, and of course woke up at 5am wide awake with nothing to do. Great. Now I am tired enough to go take a nap, since Chris is sleeping that is exactly what I am gonna do.

Andrew the Racing Machine

I finally got to go to Rye BMX last night and watch Drew do some racing.

I hadn't seen him do the track since last year, and I was really impressed by how much better he got. it was the first of the New Hampshire State Series, so the points went to him getting a (hopefully)#1 plate for 2007 at the end of the year.

Drew's 20" class had 4 riders, and him and his buddy Daniel traded wins the first two motos, and Drew won the last one, giving him the overall win.

Drew also raced his 24" cruiser last night for the first time, and he flew on it. He literally rode it for the 1st time a half hour before the race, but he took right to it and did great, keeping up with the 16 year old he had to race.

Drew now has 1st place in his age class for both 20" and cruiser, and if he finishes this way in 2 more state races, he will get the #1's for the year! Needless to say, I am incredibly excited for him.

Great Job Drew!!!!!!!

We're Back.........sorta.

For the longest time, I have been basically doing nothing with my enormous camera bag, mainly because I have been relatively uninspired to shoot.

Time's a changin'!!

I have (along HOPEFULLY with Mr. Photomedic) agreed to start working with a studio up here in Manchester.

I will be co-ordinating all marketing activities and doing a lot of the general business workings of the studio. Now, I know some of you are saying, "Well sheeeet, that sound familiar!!!" and you are exactly right.

Two years ago I went to help out a "friend" with his up and coming venture- a photo studio. When I walked in there, I felt the vision. I wanted to make it a success. I handled a ton of marketing for him, basically got his first shoots filled up with potential clients, started a photo club for him, my wife started his whole modeling program for him, then we were basically just swept aside once the friend got what he wanted out of us. Needless to say, that put a huge damper in my enthusiasm with photography in general.

That changed last week when I walked into the studio Photomedic has been shooting at. The second I walked in, I got the feeling this place could be really, really special, and I wanted to do it again. The place is super cool to shoot at- huge hi-key wall, garage door for car/bike/truck access, good amount of floor space. I talked with the owner, and we hashed out a deal to get that place up and running and to hopefully make our mark on the photo scene here in New England.

Keep an eye here, we'll be posting stuff on our blogs talking more about the studio as we go along.

What a great picture!

Great subject, great model, great lighting, great photographer........gotta love it when it all comes together!!!!!!!!!!!!!