[Photobooth]s are great for weddings, fundraisers, festivals…pretty much anywhere fun can be found.

The last week of our lives has been an all out what-were-we-thinking kinda week. We went from Boston to Clearwater, Clearwater to Gainesville, Gainesville to Clearwater, Clearwater to Atlanta, and as I write this we’re on our way from Atlanta to Lavonia, Georgia to see Mike’s grandparents in a 26-foot Penske truck [think about how huge that is] on our way to Boston. [Yes, I start my day job on Friday morning! Crazy!].

Part of that craziness was due to our best friends’, Kelsey and Kevin’s wedding. From Friday afternoon to Sunday night, we packed in a Scavenger Hunt, Rehearsal, Rehearsal Lunch, Bachelorette Party, and a Wedding – and trust me, that was no easy feat. But it was awesome.

It was awesome to see two people we love so dearly find True Love, and along the way find one another. It was awesome to work with our Uncle Warren, who was the main photographer, and share a passion together. It was awesome to see people we haven’t seen in ages. To create new inside jokes. See random Power Rangers in downtown Gainesville. To drive my friend to her wedding, and tell her she was the most beautiful Bride I’d ever seen.

There was sweat. There were tears. And there were more tears – after I got the chance to let reality sink in. That my dearest friends are not only married, but that we can all do life together again – in Boston. My heart is so happy to enter this coming season of our lives, and so full of love for this couple. Kelsey and Kevin, you deserve only the best that life has to offer, I’m so proud and honored to be your friend, Matron of Honor, Second Shooter, and Photo Booth Operator.

I love you Boo Boos.

Over the last 5 weeks, we’ve been living in and out of friends’ homes to move to Boston. During our time, we met someone named Albert who was in a similar position – looking to find a job in order to officially move to the Boston area. In order to help him do that, we wanted to work with him and bring him on-board as our Marketing Intern.

Here’s what Albert decided to share upon taking our offer.

- AB

PS: #30 is my favorite.

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35 things I’ve learned in 24 years

1.     I like books.

2.     I hate cable television.

3.     I hate talking on the phone.

4.     I like face-to-face conversations.

5.     I like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

6.     I like Acoustic music that sounds like it was recorded on a cell phone.

7.     I use to write in the high school yearbooks “see you when I’m famous”.

8.     I don’t want to be a neat Christian guy.

9.     I really enjoy being quiet and letting others talk as I just observe.

10.   I play the drums. I “dabble” (if you will) on the guitar.

11.   I was raised by women, and my God I love my mother and sister.

12.   Matt Chandler is my hero.

13.   I like collecting journals and cigar boxes.

14.   I don’t think you can put a price tag on fun.

15.   I like wearing dress pants casually.

16.   I don’t claim to be a very confident person.

17.   I don’t like being touched.

18.  Jay Z, John Mayer, Bright Eyes, Eminem, Bob Dylan, BB King.

19.  I really enjoy naps, but I hate having to go to sleep at night.

20.  I am 24, and this imagination of mine is still running wild.

21.  If you’re happy, I’m happy. Sincerely.

22.  I’m really not a fan of modern technology.

23.  I like basketball, and don’t have the athletic ability to play any other sports.

24.  Never underestimate the power of thinking “yeah I’d like that”.

25.  I like going to the theater and to plays.

26.  I like Independent films.

27.  I wish I could sit and talk with Martin Luther King Jr; he’s a hero to me.

28.  I think God hates kids dying of unclean water in Africa, and I want to do something about it.

29. “I don’t know” and “I’m sorry I was wrong” are the two best things I ever got ok with saying sincerely and frequently.

30.  The best decisions I ever made was when I was six. I peed my pants in front of the love of my life and I gave up trying to be cool           then and there.

31.   If I’m your friend, I want to be the best one possible; the “I will brush your teeth for you if your hands are broken” kind of friend.

32.  I always keep a journal on me incase I just have one of those epiphanies, you know? Like I am able to connect with some next level thoughts, some 2014 stuff or something.

33.  I don’t have any kids, but I pray and plead for them often and ask that my shortcomings as a future father/husband will not reflect their views of God and that they will know His inexhaustible Love.

34.  I want to write a good story with my life, one that causes people to just sit in the theater even as the credits role because they know they just saw something beautiful and worth mentioning to others, that inspires them to be something more, something better.

35.  I’m looking forward to the memories of right now.

See you when I’m famous,

Albert

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Oh, and I figured it was time to share some fun pictures from our 4th Annual Booze for Boobies Photo Booth with Lynda’s Ladies! We donated our time to help raise money and help end breast cancer, and I’m so happy with what we were able to come up with. Constructing the boards entirely too late at night, and getting back into crafting, definitely made me miss and reminisce about creating Bulletin Boards as an RA.

To see all of the pictures, click here. Contact us if you’re interested in having a Photo Booth at your next event!

Change. It has been my worst nightmare and has become my greatest hope. Let me share…

When I think of my own life, most of it has been spent hating change. Growing up, I remember wanting nothing more than for my parents to stay together, to grow up in one house, and to live in one place. None of those things happened; although, I’m still banking on living in Chicago one day. As I got older, I began to see that the things around me were out of my control. And as I’ve gotten even older, I’ve realized that the one thing I can control is myself. My actions, my words, my thoughts, my attitude, and my perspective. The latter being the most important.

Over the last few months, I feel like we’ve been nomads – excuse me, we have been nomads since leaving our apartment in Atlanta the end of May. From Atlanta to Clearwater, and Clearwater to Boston, we’ve found that things look nothing like we thought they would. The biggest *change* being that our lives will be lived in Boston for an indefinite amount of time. I cried my eyes out the first time I really thought we’d be moving here. Our best friends called to say they’d decided to move here, and much to their surprise, I wasn’t cheering them on about it. I hung up the phone, went into our bedroom, and boohooed over funny things – the stuff that you don’t realize matters till your ideals clash with your realities.

My ideals – for my children to know the beach before they saw snow, to grow up running in sprinklers, to have a house, with a yard, and a Vizsla puppy. I wish they weren’t all such vain reasons, but writing them out again, I feel that ache. The ache that things have changed, namely my priorities. We didn’t come to Boston because we decided to love the Red Sox over the Rays, or because we have a fondness for shoveling our cars out from feet of snow. Obviously not. But we also didn’t come here for more obvious-seeming reasons – jobs, city-life, etc. Although, those are all great reasons, they weren’t enough for us anymore. We did that in Atlanta, but we knew that this move needed to be different.

Where we were in our individual lives and in our marriage was nothing short of desperate. You know that feeling when you get in a rut and you just feel like you can’t get out of it? That’s where I was, and I’d argue its where we were as a couple. I’d gotten to that terrible place I never thought I’d be – drained, exhausted, and dead inside. From doing absolutely nothing to the point that I couldn’t stand it anymore. I thought if I wasted one more day, I’d go mad. But then, days turned to weeks and weeks turned into months. Then in March, we visited Boston for Mike’s Spring Break together.

It was gloomy and dark, and the sun set at 4:30 p.m. It was also cold, but warm enough to put your coat on and grab some sushi with a dear friend. So one night, I did just that, and had a very important conversation. I asked them why they came to Boston, and how they knew it was the right decision. The response was so simple, but it got my attention quick – “it was the only thing that made sense.” And I have to agree that that’s where Mike and I found ourselves too.

So in short, we moved to Boston for the church and ministry here. We knew what we were laying down, but we also knew what we were gaining – purpose, vision, people to look into our lives and help us wholeheartedly. Over our 5 weeks here, we’ve met new friends, reconnected with old ones, and now we leave tonight for Clearwater to begin our goodbyes at home. But can I be honest? I’m really sad to be gone for even 3 weeks [August 12th I begin my new job!]. I have so much life-giving purpose here, and it feels like a new beginning. There’s now Kickball! on Saturday nights with random college students we’ve met. Or our new Marketing Intern, Albert [you'll meet him soon]. There’s new places to try, and good seafood has re-entered our lives. Oh, and the diversity at our supermarket isn’t limited to an “ethnic foods” section – there’s a Brazilian, Mexican, Chinese, etc. section, and that’s *if* you wouldn’t rather just go to a local deli, market place, etc. NYC is a $30 bus ticket away, and Rhode Island, Maine, and Connecticut are just around the corner too.

More than just moving to the Northeast, I feel like we’ve moved to another country. There’s a new way of life to learn, public transportation, new accents, new cultures, etc. Everything is new, new, new to us, and rather than getting into a paralyzing fear, I’m so excited. This place has so much to offer and our hearts are full to give back.

Holy cow, we are officially moving all our things to Boston over the next 3 weeks, and I am so happy that I love what that change has given us. It has truly given me hope for the future ones to come, and I get to enjoy it all with my no-longer-a-student husband, Mike.

Yay for us!

So for those of you who don’t know, today is my [Mike] father’s birthday; although,I probably should have written this post on/around Father’s Day. It’s been a crazy few months being married, graduating from college, being married, moving home, being married, and moving to Boston, and my Dad has been there through it all encouraging my wife and I and offering his wisdom whenever I asked for it. He has always been there for me. Period. Its something that I’ve taken for granted, but looking back there was never a time when I called him that he didn’t have time to talk to me.

He has been a great role model for me in my life. He has been married to my mother for 28ish years, he worked hard to put himself through college, he is patient, he was diligent at his job to provide for his family, he overcame 1 year+ of paralysis in his arms…He even got me interested in most of the things I still love today like baseball, computers/electronics, and architecture. He’s a great man, and if you ever get to know him, you are a fortunate person.

Thanks for being a great dad…Dad. Happy [redacted]th Birthday!

Preface: The images in this post are from a group installation project called Tangle Jungle now featured on Sucker Punch Daily.

I’ve come to the end of a road. I’ve been a student for 21 years straight, and now I’m not. Well for now anyway. I have enjoyed being a student. Part of my identity was in the fact that I was a student. I’m a nerd, and over the years I have acquired tons of useless information [like the fact that a parsec is a unit of distance not time] lots of practical information [like lining up all the plumbing fixtures along one wall can save a ton of money in construction], and a little bit of wisdom [I'm not always right]. Its now time to take all those things I have learned, all the experiences I’ve had, and all the relationships I’ve made and move forward into the professional side of my career.

As Ashley and I move to Boston and I look to the beginning of my professional career with confidence [mixed in with a ton of fears] knowing that I worked hard while I was in school to prepare myself for this. To be honest, I know that God has a plan for us here, and there is nothing I can do to mess that up. We are looking forward and believing for great things to happen in Boston. I’m excited to see what happens…

And as is traditional [read cliche] in a yearbook format: the shoutouts.

To My Wife: I could never have done it without you. Thank you for putting up with late nights, shifting schedules, exhausted evenings, and unfinished [read not-started] chores. Thank you for encouraging me to reach my full potential. Thank you for loving me when it was hard. I love you.

To my Family: Thank you for supporting me the whole time. You’ve always been there to encourage me or give me advice and I thank you for it.

To Josh: Thanks for being a good friend, for keeping me on track, and for giving me advice on how to be a husband. I enjoyed every one of our conversations and I appreciated the depth to which we could get into certain topics. Thanks for weathering all the short jokes, UF jokes and Mark Driscoll look-alike comments. I hope we will get to work together in some way or another in the future.

To Cole: Thanks for helping Ashley and I transition into life in Atlanta. I will not forget the hospitality you and your mom showed me. Thanks for being one of my closest friends for so long, for being there for me when I needed you. I cherish our friendship more than you know and hope it can continue in the future. Thank you.

To Daniel: I have very few friends that I can have conversations with for hours, but your are certainly one of them. I do however have plenty of friends who have no problem rippin’ on me whenever they feel like, and you are certainly one of them too. I appreciate all the memories over the years between FIU and Tech. I look forward to the day my kids will call you “Uncle Dan.”

To Emilio: You’ve endured more jokes than anyone I think, but what can I say, you make it easy. Ha! Thanks for making study abroad in Genoa fun and interesting. Thanks for having my back. Thanks for always being willing to help out. You’re a talented designer and you have a lot of potential. Don’t let it go to waste.

To Aaron: To be honest man, I wish we had become closer friends sooner than my last semester there. You are stand up guy, and I really appreciate having you as a friend. Amanda is lucky to have you as a husband soon. You have a skill set that a lot of people would be lucky to have, and I hope you find the job you’re looking for after graduation.

To Joe: I got so much out of our friendship in such a short time. I wish we had started basketball Mondays sooner.

To “The Girls”: Thank you first for being such good friends with Ashley. I appreciated her having friends at Tech who weren’t a bunch of nerdy guys like me. Thank you also for all the brownies, cupcakes, and cookies that I was treated to. And finally, I did have fun on our group camping trip, regardless of how hot it was.

To Luke: Thanks for dominating the lecture series with me. I think we started a tradition that will not soon disappear from Tech. Thanks for showing me between two ferns, for encouraging the man beard, and for always being willing to help out.

To George Johnston: Thank you for being concerned with the academic process you set up for your students. Thank you for having an open door  to give advice and an open mind for suggestions. Your dedication to students in unparalleled, and I’m thankful that I was at Georgia Tech under your leadership. Thank you.

To Mike Gamble: There is a reason your studios and seminars fill up before all the others. You genuinely care about your students, and it shows in your classes. I appreciate you taking time to mentor me, encourage me and help me along during my graduate school career. It was honor working with you on the lecture series. Thank you.

To the IMAGINE Lab: You almost caused to leave architecture and go into game design. Ha! I had a lot of good times there, and thought of it less as a job and more of a fun time. Thank you for mentoring me and teaching me everything you did.