Captured

There are some photographs that make you smile for one reason or another every time you see them. Sometimes they are candid shots that take you back to a moment or sometimes they are the posed shot where everyone looks their best, and that's how you want to always remember them. I was recently looking at some of my photos and found some group shots that I just love. I think they are mostly posed shots, but they capture something that I love. So I figured I'd share them.

This photo was taken at Anna's wedding shower. It was at a fancy golf course or something, so we all had to dress up. But we all look our best. Sara will complain because she's pregnant in the photo, but whatever. Its one of my absolute favorites of all of us. I feel like we look like the group I always wanted to be a part of...the pretty girls who have done alright.

I feel like to fully appreciate the above picture, you have to see where we started, five (maybe six) years prior:

This is one of those pictures where we may not look our best, but that's how we looked. I love these girls still today, eleven years later!

This is another one of those perfect shots. Sure its posed, but we all look our best...and that background...that was the actual sky that night. We were all just so happy.

Just one more...for now...
Senior year. This was our 'family' Christmas card. Yup, we sent out a card with all of us on it to our friends and family and we were darn proud of it. It was one crazy (and slightly hellish) year, but we leaned on each other and made it though. Thanks roomies!

I could load this up with my favorite photographs, but I'll stop here.

Dork.

It used to be an insult to be called a dork, and depending on the context, it still can be. But that being said, I've learned to embrace the dork that I am and confidently roll with it.

I was a tall, lanky, smart girl in school who played in the band and loved science and math. It was the perfect makings for a dork. I wasn't taunted or made fun of in school (at least to my face), I was comfortable in my dorkiness and wasn't really bothered by it...I hadn't embraced it yet, but I knew that I wasn't a bad person and I had plenty of friends. It wasn't until sometime in college that I embraced the fact that I was a dork, I was just a little off from 'normal' and that was okay.

It hit me the other day that in the whole dating process while I'm looking for a tall, good looking guy who's smart, confident, stable and funny, I'm much more attracted to someone when they let it show they too are just a little dorky. While in the fairy tale world, I want the perfect guy, the truth is that would make me uber self-conscious. I would be concerned that I would say the wrong thing or make a fool out of myself. The truth is, when a guy shows his dorky side, I find it endearing.

But there is a line...its not all that 'fine'....its just there...maybe a sliding scale...

Yes, I find it endearing when guys have a bit of a dork inside them, but I'm not looking for all dork. No need to be obsessed with Star Trek or Worlds of Warcraft. I'm not looking for conversations to continually focused around our solar system, the beginning of time or how awesome computers are and how much he knows about them.

But if he lets it slip that his favorite show is MythBusters because its fascinating, or that he can recall random facts that can only be used in trivia games, I find that sexy.

I'll admit it... I ♥ Dorks.