Photo Shoots, Part 2

Last month we posted Photo Shoots, Part 1, starring Neill and Fran Power, and this is the second part.

This past December I was featured in McHenry County Magazine, a lifestyle magazine in McHenry County (obviously), which is where I teach. The editor of the magazine contacted me in November about being included in their annual "10 Intriguing People" edition. I was a little taken aback since I do not consider myself to be particularly intriguing (see, for example, my recent posting on how I spent my spring break), but I was, of course flattered and excited.

But I was even more excited when Stephanie (the editor), asked if I'd "mind" wearing diamonds for the photo shoot, since they were also covering a local jewelry store for the holiday edition. My reaction: "Um, sure. I guess I'd be okay wearing DIAMONDS."

They did my hair and makeup and draped me with diamond jewelry that I did not get to take home. The photographer, Melissa Emory, was so much fun and put me at ease, which was helpful since making smiling faces and looking really, really excited about touching my face for two hours was a little...odd. And I didn't realize until they started taking the pictures that I'd be on the cover! Ack! Here it is:

Hi! I'm on the cover of a magazine!

And here are a couple of the pictures from the shoot:

See that ring on my finger? It's a lot of diamonds. I didn't get to keep them. But I really wanted to.

It was very, very cold outside.

But what was even more fun was that very few of my colleagues at school recognized me--I think because my hair was all curly and I wasn't wearing my glasses. So there were a lot of "Hey! I didn't even recognize you!" statements for a while. And one of the lovely ladies in the counseling department was even upset because she thought they made me look too "suburban." I think she wanted my tattoos on display.  I tried to tell her that it was cold, but she had none of it.

So, I was a tiny bit almost famous for a couple of weeks! What was great, though, is that they asked for a quote from one of my students, so one of my favorites (I have one hundred favorites every semester) Uli, an MCC soccer player and all around excellent student, was quoted in the magazine.

So, there are our photo shoots! So intriguing.