Here are the topics (of which I may edit slightly here and there):
Day 1-Introduction, recent picture, 15 interesting facts
Day 2-Meaning behind your blog name
Day 3-Your first love
Day 4-Your parents
Day 5-Your siblings
Day 6-A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 7-Favorite movies
Day 8-A place you’ve traveled to
Day 9-A picture of your friends
Day 10-Something you’re afraid of
Day 11-Favorite tv shows
Day 12-What you believe
Day 13-Goals
Day 14-A picture you love
Day 15-Bible verse
Day 16-Dream house
Day 17-Something you’re looking forward to
Day 18-Something you regret
Day 19-Something you miss
Day 20-Nicknames
Day 21-Picture of yourself
Day 22-Favorite city
Day 23-Favorite vacation
Day 24-Something you’ve learned
Day 25-Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs
Day 26-Picture of your family
Day 27-Pets
Day 28-Something that stresses you out
Day 29-3 Wishes
Day 30-a picture
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So, Here goes...
Day 1-Introduction, recent picture, and 15 interesting facts:
Hi, I'm Niamh (pronounced "neeve"). I am a 31 yr old photographer living in Philadelphia. I am the head photographer for a rare book company and also have a little freelance photo business on the side. I live here with a wonderful roommate and a kick ass dog named Hugo. I started riding when I was 4 years old, instigated by my Godmother who owned two backyard horses (we still go riding together when I am in Ireland)...my journey continued throughout 4 countries learning many disciplines and after a hiatus after college (try, an 8 year hiatus) I started riding again. A friend convinced me to start volunteering at an equine therapy center, fist just working with the kids and eventually exercise riding the horses, and I caught the horse bug again. One thing is for sure, it's here to stay. I found myself a terrific trainer in South Jersey and a little family of friends and riders there that make me feel like home.
Here's a recent photo of me as I said goodbye to Kiki-
Interesting facts, hmmmm...
1. I hate peanut butter. TRUTH. I didn't grow up in the US as a child so I had no real exposure to it. The only time I can even handle being around peanut butter is to make bones for Hugo that I stick in the freezer. I can't stand the smell or getting on my skin. Blargh. (*also, see Pumpkin and Watermelon -- I know, I am not American!)
2. I have lived in 4 countries. I was born in Ireland, lived there until I was 3, we then moved to Freeport, Bahamas where I spent my childhood, we then moved to Yorkshire, England and my parents promptly split up...my Mom moved back to the US and after remarrying and several visits from my sister and I later, we decided to move here. I spent my teenage years in Daytona Beach, Florida and moved to Philly a few years after college.
3. I am naturally blond. Hard to believe because I am Irish and I have been rocking this red hair for the better part of 10 years, but it's true. Occasionally it really comes out when I can't get my feet to move in front of one another or my brain turns to scrambled eggs.
4. For the last 20 years, I have lived 4000 miles away from most of my family. It's something I have grown accustomed to but still feel sad about. I have become intensely independent because of my unique upbringing, but have somehow stayed very sentimental.
5. When I was a child I was convinced I was an alien. My older brother told me I was from another planet and would draw pictures of me as a martian. It wasn't until I was about 7-8 that his guise was exposed. My Mom and I had flown to Miami from Freeport to find a dress for my First Holy Communion and she got my ears pierced as a gift. When we got back to the island I jumped out of the car and ran up to my brother exclaiming "Owen, I got my antennas pierced" and the story was revealed to my mother. To this day he still calls me by my alien name "NOID".
6. It took me 11 years of riding to FINALLY fall off a horse. I have always been good at staying on (something I am still good at) and could cling to the side of a horse like a monkey. The first time I fell was with a barn sour pony named Sterling and we slipped in the middle of a jump course. We both fell, I was thrown clear of her, I got up, dusted myself off and my instructor handed me the pony, gave me a leg up and told me to finish the course.
7. I have the attention span of a 2 year old. I'm not exaggerating when I say I have been working on this post on and off all day. If I'm not doing three things at once, I can't get anything done. For example, I am doing real work, filling out a passport renewal form, and writing this, all while chatting online to friends. This has gotten much worse as I've aged and sometimes I feel like I need to be on medication for it. I get distracted really easily, and seem to only work well under very tight deadlines.
8. When I was little I was allergic to everything. I mean EVERYTHING. Including my Mother's milk. We had to keep goats so I could have goat's milk instead. I started to grow out of some of the allergies as I got older but when I started riding I was allergic to nearly everything related to the barn -- horses, dogs, dust, hay, grass, cats, the sun, air...so I demanded to be medicated so I could ride. It was torture sometimes, but I must have built up an immunity to most of because I am hardly bothered by any airborne allergies now, save for black cats.
9. I had a bad case of Pica when I was young due to all my allergies. Not the gross kind where you do weird things with your poo or anything. But I would eat sponges, grass, wallpaper, rugs, and my favorite thing of all time -- LEGOS!
10. I have have had some pretty interesting career goals throughout my life. I'll pull a good cross-section. As a little kid (when I thought my brother would be a pilot for TWA), he and I decided we would collect food and drop it off over poor countries with his plane. When I was a little older I wanted to Be David Attenborough (nature tv show host extraordinaire). As a teenager I wanted to be a reconstructive surgeon (I was really good at art and science). In college I started off studying forensic psychology to become a criminal profiler.
11. I tried out for Wheel of Fortune once as a teenager. I did really well in all the written portions but was told that I didn't have the "wheel of fortune" personality. Sigh. I was a painfully shy 15 year old.
12. I have four tattoos that are all very unique. One is a Shel Silverstein drawing, one is the handwriting of an artist I admire, one is a drawing of a pony that my friend (who is a toy designer) drew, and the fourth is of an owl holding two ropes, at the end of one is a mixtape and the other has a graffiti spray paint can (that ones for my sister and it's on my ribs).
13. One of my biggest hobbies outside of horses is crafting. I spend wayyy too much time on sites like http://www.designspongeonline.com/
14. Sometimes I feel as though I was born in the wrong time period. I can really see myself living in the late 1950's. My penchant for all things mid-century would suggest this and oh, the clothes!
15. I was once nearly blind. I've always been terribly far-sighted and at some point I simply refused to wear glasses anymore and my eyesight suffered because of it. By the time I was a junior in high school I was having migraines 3-4 days a week and couldn't study or read. After visiting with my eye doctor and going through a series of tests over a few months he he said my eyes were deteriorating at an exponential rate and that I currently had the vision of a 65 year old woman. He told me I would be legally blind by the time I was 25. I got a great deal of my reading for classes on audio tape and managed to get through the next two years of high school still in the top of my class. During college I made a huge shift in majors and became a photographer. Wouldn't you know that by picking this as a career I have strengthened my eyes to nearly half the prescription they were when I was 15? In fact, because my right eye is my focusing eye, It's actually significantly stronger than my left. Photography has saved my vision, and while I am still have a tough time seeing without my glasses, I am not blind!!!
Ok, fingers crossed I can keep this up...now to figure out how to make a link so people don't have to scroll through this whole damn thing.
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