TheTate's Xanga

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:48:16 GMT

LIFE'S NOT REALLY EVER SHIT

You know how you have one of those days where everything just doesn't work out right. Well, today was that day for me - or I should say for Sarah more than me....... both of us, really!

Our mini cooper AC is out. The compressor doesn't work or whatever it is. That will cost us a whopping $1,200 plus labor (and remember we just got over the trauma of replacing it's transmission back in January). I'm this close to just pouring gasoline over that damn car and just making it burn slowly until it just explodes into even more itty bitty mini pieces. Frankly, that car is on my shit list right now and I'm just not happy about it at all.

Not only that, Sarah's work hours have been cut by half (thanks to non profit.... such rewarding work, yet lousy stability). It's not fun seeing your wife upset about that kind of thing happening, especially with a job she really values and enjoys. She has a master's degree yet still does non profit work for much less than what she deserves to be paid, and NOW that's even being cut. Regardless, this hubby here isn't thrilled about that. We'll be fine with just me working and her having less hours but I know we have alot on our plate that we want to do with the new house. We'll see what happens within the next few months.

Sarah paged me around 1pm and said I needed to go out to Baton Rouge to meet her at the truck (she drove the truck while the mini was in the shop). Why? Because the key broke into two pieces, the end being stuck in the ignition. Of course, that happens to us today - on the day when everything else is just practically making Sarah more stressed out which eventually makes me more stressed out.

Our internet service sucks so bad. I can't figure out what the hell is wrong with it. Right now, I'm stealing from a neighbor's wireless service even though I have one.....

You know, even throughout all this crap..... I usually have a good head on my shoulders. I told Sarah today that there wasn't much we could do about the bad, but to move on and to focus on the good.

In other words, life isn't ever really shit - it's only how you handle it.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:08:19 GMT

WEDDING OVERDOSE

As of now, I'm stuck at the Buffalo airport in New York. I knew I had a flight out at 5:40am tomorrow morning but wanted to take a chance and see if I could catch an earlier flight without having to pay extra/standby but alas - no luck! I've been editing up a storm and I decided to go dig in all the recent weddings I've shot in the last month and half to post one from each. Thanks again to y'all for being so patient with me and my crazy schedule!

Each wedding has been such a great experience and all the couples have been nothing but absolutely warm and genuine to me. I feel like a star around then because they make sure I'm comfortable and whatnot!

Congrats to the following.......

Danielle and Jeff in West Virgina

Donna and Terry in Louisiana

Jon and Patty in Louisiana

Becky and Bradford in Pennsylvania

Christine and Matt in New Jersey

Justin and Molly in California

Dana and Wayne in Canada

I'm so lucky to have such a fantastic job. Thanks again to everyone for your support!

I can't wait to get home to Sarah and SoHo tomorrow morning. I'll be home for ONE week before I hit the air for Los Angeles next Monday!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:51:37 GMT

DYUSA/NAD

DUH - I BLOGGED THIS LAST WEEK BUT DIDN'T MAKE IT PUBLIC SO SOME OF THIS IS "OLD NEWS". Will be home tomorrow morning so will do some good blog eye candy for y'all all week!

Well, well - I've been certainly more busier than I thought I'd be. I'm actually really enjoying all the workshops and networking here at the Marriot hotel in New Orleans for the NAD conference. I even went to an investment workshop. Now I'm recalling all those times that my parents mentioned to me that I should think about stocks or whatever.... I'm seriously wanting to do something to let my money build up so I got the business card of the guy who did the presentation (I took family photos of his in Austin last year). A very nice guy!

Other than workshops and networking - it's been one big ass party. I love seeing so many deaf people wobbling down Bourbon Street. I always "imagine" if it were like that every day. Not the wobbling, but having this many deaf individuals of such caliber in town all the time! I told a few people, "forget NAD, this is Tate's party that everyone's in town for". Ha! NAD has been a good experience and I look forward to the next one in two years - I'm definitely going because DYUSA will happen again for sure then and will expand that stay into the NAD week as well.

Speaking of DYUSA - how wonderful it was! It was a great time for several people from different walks of life to gather up and really make history happen. I told everyone there that there's always the usual cream of the crop, but that every one of them were the real thing!

DYUSA COMMITTEE - photo by Sarah

Mark my words, DYUSA is here to stay.

I'm off at 6am from the New Orleans airport tomorrow to Buffalo. From there, I will drive to Ontario for Wayne and Dana's wedding festivities! That, for sure will be a blast! After that, I'll get to come home for a good "week" - finally!

I hope all of y'alls summer is going well.

DYUSA'ing-ly yours!
-tate

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:52:13 GMT

JUNE FLEW BY SO FAST

How have y'all been? I've been good. Busy but good.

In the last few weeks - I've been to New York, New Jersey, DC, Maryland, California doing weddings. I think that was a record I've made for my wedding career - seven wedding gigs in one month!

I've been home since Monday just really doing alot of editing from a bunch of individual shoots I've had in the last few weeks. I have one or two more, then a bunch of weddings to get busy on. I'm really struggling with finding a really cool, nice album to put all my wedding prints in for my clients. The ones I really liked have been discontinued, whaaa!! It's a never ending story for me.

Here are a few unseen snapshots from when Sarah and Monica met up with me in NYC a few weeks ago! Alltogether, we got to see Jarrod, Jenny, Moe, Melissa and Shilpa!

Here are a few shots of what I've been shooting this summer!

of course, I love my baby cousin - Lola!

This is only the beginning of the summer for me. While I believe June was the "most hectic" - I have tons coming up. This morning, I'm heading out to New Orleans to join in on the DYUSA festivities! We will be @ the Bayou Segnette campgrounds in Westwego until Sunday (which is when the NAD conference kicks off in downtown!). Tonight, Tate Tullier Photography is sponsoring the dinner for the campers - jambalya cooked by his Uncle Van! IT will be so delicious!!!! Sarah will be meeting me after she gets off work (she's also picking up the food to deliver it as well).

Next Friday, after the NAD conference - I'm off to Canada to shoot Wayne and Dana's wedding so that will be great! I'll get to see my boys - Wayne and Chad - that never fails me of good times.

I've been catching up big time on TV shows as well into the wee hours - I'm loving the amped up season 4 of Weeds, intrigued by the Call Girl show afterwards, loving how classy the "swinging" Swingtown ended up being, really pleasantly surprised by In Plain Sight, confused who he likes the best on So You Think You Can Dance, and most definitely tired of the emotional roller coaster that Army Wives keeps taking me on!

Movies I've watched : Bridge To Terabitha (What!!! I cried the entire ending!!), The Ten (so so), The Invasion (Really good!), Hitman (eh)..... I have Funny Games on me but haven't watched it yet.

Ok, I better get my ass moving. I need to pack up a bit and get my coffee intake then I've gotta jet off for New Orleans!

See you there!!!

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:06:11 GMT

NOR CAL AND STILL BREATHING

I've been in Nor Cal since Wednesday for today's wedding of Molly and Justin in Palo Alto. I'm excited for them!

Last night, we all went to SF's DPHH event in Berkeley at Jupiters for some fun. I got to see Gabe again (as shown in photo) so that was great. Tim Kettering was there as well and it's always great catching up with him. It was a wine/beer only places so I tried to start off with a beer. Drank one.... nah, so switched over to wine. Had a couple of glasses and had a great time. Met some new people as well (tons of new faces in town for SF's Pride weekend).

I better get moving and get cleaned up for the wedding. You all have a great Saturday.

Photo taken by Karina

I miss the wife, the dog, and the new house. I get back on Monday!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:30:08 GMT

STILL UP NORTH

Ugh. Today after the wedding festivities in New Jersey - I joined a group of guys to the Newark airport to see if I could get an earlier flight from there back home to New Orleans. My ticket was cancelled! The reason being when I got the Philly wedding - the clients bought me a new ticket and I took the train to NYC, then train to New Jersey - planning on using my return flight from that ticket. What I never knew was that if you miss a flight - the entire ticket becomes "no value" if it's a non-refundable one. I just wanted to hit myself on the head. I said but it was paid for so it shouldn't matter. "Contract" they said - oh whatever - nobody reads PLANE contracts when buying a ticket (if you do, damn - impressive). I asked for a one way ticket then..... $558 bucks for one way?!?!?!?! WHAT! I begged and pleaded my case - the supervisor got involved and ended up "waiving" me. I now have a ticket to fly home at 7am from Newark! Being stuck in the airport overnight wasn't ideal to me so I hopped on the train once again and here I am now at the CK/Jak casa. I have to leave here around 4am to catch a bus to the airport for 6am to make sure I GET there.

Never a dull moment in my life - I swear.

I'm so anxious to get home and see my new house. Sarah said she got to see the newly painted walls in our home (mom and dad did it while we were in NYC) and said it all looks SO good. I'm ready to be in my wife's arms and see Soho once again. I only have two days to move everything into the house and get some editing done before jetting off to Palo Alto for another wedding gig this weekend. Busy, busy, busy......

I eat almonds.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:08:25 GMT

TRAVELING TATE

Now I'm sitting here in Jarrod and Jenny's place (and oh my god - it's gorgeous!). My view outside is insane. It's off the walls!!!

Here's me with Laura and Kevin after the wedding I shot. They drove me out to downtown Philly to get my first taste of an original cheesteak! I decided on the less glitzy Pat's and my, my - greasy and delicious! Thanks to Laura and Kevin for making my quick stay end with a bang!

Sunday, I got into NYC around 1:30 and got to CK and Jak's apartment for CK's birthday celebration! It was so nice catching up with several people (Carm, Melissa, Dave, Alina, James, Virginia, and meeting new people as well!)

Sarah sent this present for CK from Bourbon Street!

I love being back here. It's like a drug.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:20:51 GMT

HOMEOWNER

Yah, yah. I'm a homeowner now! It's strange because the closing was way more simple than I had expected. It didn't even seem like "forever" like it does for the usual individual. I think having Christian as our attorney that took care of the title papers really helped because we trust him completely and didn't have to read the fine print and whatnot - he read it all out to us into layman's terms. It's so nice knowing people in the right places! We finally met the couple whose house we bought - they were nice and gave us a few surprises! They will leave the swing that was on the front porch and we are so thrilled about that. They even told us a cute story about it, but I'll tell that story to people who come VISIT and SWING on it!

After we were done, Sarah was just so giddy. Me, on the other hand - it's sort of like I KNEW it was our house from day one so I felt like we had bought it officially back then. My excitement hasn't really kicked in other than saying that I bought a house! I think I'm half pitying myself because I have to LEAVE and will be gone for over a week then knowing I only have two days to move/etc before I fly out to California doesn't help. I keep telling myself that the house isn't going anywhere. I think I'm just really very excited to have that piece of my life actually take place and really will cherish my years with Sarah there at the house. We will be starting a new chapter in our lives and not to sound cheesy, that chapter will include a kid or two - so that's really special to me. It's a nice feeling knowing that our new home is WHAT we wanted, exactly. The decoration part is coming soon and that's the funnnnnn part. Mom told Dad after the other day while browsing with us at fabric/decor stores - "Prepare yourself, the house won't look the same." Haha - It will definitely still have it's charm, but the rooms will all be very well thought out and kick ass to the littlest detail. We can't wait.

Here are two photos of two little brothers I shot a few days ago, they're just too fun!

So You Think You Can Dance's elimination ceremony was on last night and I was surprised, but then not. Susie, the Miami teacher, wasn't even in the bottom three. I think she's safe because she's kind of a dark horse type - she's got that "ugh" factor to her because of her hot pink highlights, big fake-ish boobs, and whatnot which I can imagine turns off some people - but when you see her, she has this really sweet demeanor inside and it makes you wonder what's "under" all that exterior. Maybe eventually, the judges will hint to her to change her whole look to help her personality shine through for what it is inside, not on the outside. Rayven and Jamie were the girl/boy eliminated and I was kind of disappointed it was Jamie over that other guy who has better technique (Matt). Kourtni is one of my early favorites but I really see her kind of struggling to find her niche - I hope she pumps it up and proves to us that she has what it takes. I'm still in love with Chelsia. What do you think? Do you think the right people were in the bottom three? Do you think Rayven was robbed? Do you agree with me that Jamie should have stayed over Matt?

The video showing the dance that sent them home is posted below at the end of this entry.

Swingtown last night was much, much better than the pilot episode. I know last week was the "introduction" show, but the storyline last night was so simply stated yet very powerful. The acting is really good, and the look of the entire era is so right on (well, I was born in '78 but it's been really hard to notice bloopers?? Did any of y'all catch anything that was done way after the 70's?).

I'm off to get busy! We have to zoom to Franklinton, LA (outside of Covington) where I will shoot a wedding! Tomorrow early morning, it's off to Philly to shoot a wedding in the afternoon. Oh boy. Fire on my heels coming up soon.

Y'all have a great weekend!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:20:00 GMT

CLOSING DAY!

Today, Tate and Sarah Tullier will be the official owners of Maison Looziana!

We just won't be able to move in until the twenty third of this month. Talk about a freaking tease session. I'm 98 percent thrilled and 2 percent pissed off at the world. I know I'm so fortunate and whatnot, but dammit - I want everything MY way. Who cares if the sellers need that long to get into their new house? Who cares if I have to be out of town for wedding gigs? I could just fump it all and kick them out, move in today, and just sit on my new but old original wooden floors. Eating my milk and cheezit crackers. Oh the glory, and.... the damned tease factor. I want my house NOW!

Ok, vent done with.

We're thrilled with our new purchase about to happen and cannot wait to continue our familia crap there.

I just got in from doing photos of baby Lola this morning. That baby is so CHAMP. Look at this photo for a preview - brilliant!

Also, I did some maternity photos yesterday at my parents home to use the pond nearby. The mother hopped into the pond and we got some amazing shots in the water with the natural surroundings. I cannot wait to show those off.

You know what, I love my job Thank god!

What did you think of So You Think You Can Dance last night? I think technically several of them are excellent dancers but noone is really popping out as much except for Chelsia to me. She was absolute heaven to watch in that purple number and that shakkkkkkke she and Thayne did was excellent. They're my front runners right now.

Who do I think should go home? I hate to say this (I wanted typecasting to not play into this) but Miami Susie is a goner. She seems like a sweet girl but - somethings not there. The charm isn't there.

Mom sent me out this email this morning saying it reminded her of our relationship. We're the opposites on many views........ read below......

Harmony of Humanity

"Your gates shall be open continually. Isaiah 60:11

People often pray for open doors. Sometimes in life we are actually the one pushing on the door and causing it to remain shut.

Nonresistance is the biblical way to an open gateway of good. When we think of being nonresistant, do we connect it with feelings of helplessness or a lack of motivation? If so, we need to know that this is not true, for nonresistance is taking the practical and spiritual approach to life.

Let us think of an application of nonresistance. Without having to consciously decide, we naturally choose the path through the open gate.
Such a practice may be so simple, so practical, that we do not think of that as being nonresistance, and yet it is.

The resistance is often in our own minds, having decided ahead of time on the path that is right for us. We will often go in ways of doing things that never worked, and never will. We try to push ahead instead of going through the gate that is open continually.

Just as surely, we choose the path of nonresistance in our relationships.
We do not force our opinions on others, and we reserve the right to hold our own. We can disagree about things that are especially meaningful to us and still live in harmony and love. In practicing nonresistance, we honor the spirituality within ourselves and within all others.

I have a neighbor that I am best friends with. He is of a different faith, or none, so I know that he does not read Positive Daily Inspiration. He is definitely a polar opposite politically from me. We come together in a nonresistant harmony of humanity – and enjoy each other's company.

What is the key to getting along harmoniously with family, neighbors, coworkers, and every person we encounter? It is being the kind and understanding people we would have others be to us.

We appreciate the consideration, patience, kindness, love, and understanding that are given to us. Therefore, we include these qualities in our interactions with ALL others without resistance. Resistance doesn't come up in us—or them. I have a Ph.D. on living life the other way and that has been foolish self-inflicted suffering.

We enjoy being in the presence of friendly, helpful, uplifting people.
However, we also enjoyed being this sort of person.

Simply stated: We follow the Golden rule in new nonresistance approaches to daily living.

Matthew 7:12 Jesus states, "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do so to them."

As we follow the basic principle of the Golden rule, we avoid friction and inharmonious conditions and circumstances. We avoid this first within ourselves and then from the reactions of others. We draw to us a positive response and cooperation from others. We rejoice that God's peace and harmony are established and maintained as we follow God's Golden Rule in new nonresistance.

God Bless You! Have a GREAT day.

I don't know. I think all that sounds fantastic, so why don't we allow our gay friends to get married? Tell me if I'm missing something in that quote that say's "except gay marriage"? Screw the fact that the bible said that marriage is between man and woman. You ALL know that gay people are human like us and they ARE not the devil, so what in the world is the problem with allowing them to be with the one they love WITH equal rights and respect as a married man/woman couple. I think union ceremonies are just a polite way for religious people to say, "Well, you're nice - but you're dirty in the eyes of God." I refuse to be like that.

Of course, it's not only gay marriage - but MANY things in general where politics and religion are way too overlapped. IT just pisses me off. Mom and Dad told me the other night that I always use gay marriage as my first "point" or arguement. Well, it's such a ridiculous thing to prevent and in comparision to other life threatening issues we have going on in this world - to be such a main focus on how this world is supposed to be run. Get the small shit organized and done with, then we can all get our priorities straight and focus on world peace.

Tomorrow is Franklin, Louisiana to shoot a wedding then EARLY Saturday morning, Sarah drops me off at the New Orleans airport to get my shooting ass to Philly for another wedding gig that afternoon!

New York is next week and I am pumped up! I have some shoots lined up, and some fun events to attend.

Keep in touch. Please share your opinions on anything - you know I love it when we're all honest!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:12:46 GMT

KICKIN' IT INTO GEAR

Life's been busy, good, but busy.

This past weekend - Sarah and I went to New Roads, LA for Donna's wedding to Terry Rowe. She's a coworker of Sarah's and a good friend of ours as well. She planned got engaged, put a wedding together (I give Sarah 85% credit for winging it!), and got hitched in less than 30 days. Crazy in love, huh? The ceremony was very sweet and intimate. I got to get some really kick ass shots and the scenery was just amazing as they exchanged vows at the perfect time of the evening!

I made a blooper @ this ceremony - in the middle of their vows, I was backing up slowly into a corner on the tiny pier and it had rained earlier so was a bit wet still. Out of nowhere, I slipped and feet went up into the air. BAM. Pier shook, everyone paused, and I'm like........ "did that just happen?" Oops.

Here's a found shot of Rayni and I @ Raymonda and Jason's wedding

Did you watch The Mole tonight? LIZ was eliminated! I was disappointed because she was a sweet character. I still have no idea who the mole is. Whadya think?