Group photo!

It all started like most of our great ideas do: with Vicky.  Being in contact with the Cancer Research Institute, she learned about some exciting new treatments that were being researched.  The CRI was asking people to wear white (presumably to represent white blood cells) on June 7 to show support of the research, and then send in photos of themselves in white.  We can do that, right?!  Easy!

 

Now, you go ahead and try to get 11 busy women in the same place at the same time wearing the same thing.  By some miracle, we all ended up at Kelsey's house on Friday at 9:30 pm.  Most of us were wearing white, although Britney was convinced that her bright blue shirt would somehow not show up as much as her lovely white skirt.  After a bit of convincing and a tour through Kelsey's closet (which included some "Can I have this?" "No." "But it will look better on me than it will on you!" "Shut your face."), we finally managed to have everybody in the correct place, in the correct color.  Now that the hard work is done, it'll be super easy to just snap a few pictures, right?

 

Wrong. 

 

So, so wrong. 

 

After enlisting Kelsey's brave husband, Peter, to be the photographer, and taking a couple test shots on the couch, we decided to get more creative and started discussing our photo options.

 

In the front yard?  Too dark.  Under the bright garage light?  Too garage-y.  On the stairs?  Too senior picture.  In front of that wall?  Too white.  And then, eureka!  Kelsey has a red wall in her bedroom - we would show up great against that red wall!  (pause while Kelsey runs upstairs and makes the bed)  So we all traipse upstairs to the bedroom to stand against the red wall.  Only problem is, it's not a whole wall.  It's a square on the wall, painted behind the king size bed to act as a headboard.  Behind the bed.  The bed's in the way.  So what can we do except all get on the bed?  We NEED that beautiful red background for our picture!

 

 

 So that's how Peter came to have 11 lovely women in his bed on a Friday night. 

 

 

 

Life tip: If ever you want to get to know someone a little better but you don't know how to take the next step, have them lay on their tummy on a bed and then sit on top of them while trying to act casual for a picture. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you think it was difficult up to this point, you clearly have never tried to get 11 people to smile nice natural smiles, with their eyes open, all at the same time.  Bri seems to have a remarkable skill of looking at every possible item in a room except the camera.   Liz thinks she looks more natural in a picture if she lets loose with a sudden loud guffaw, even if nothing funny just happened.  Candace, Joan, and Angela were just trying to make the best of having to sit on top of a wiggly giggly pile. 

 

After a few (read: a lot) of terrible pictures, we managed to nail a few nice ones.  But true to American form, if a little is good wouldn't a lot be better?  So we decided to go for another clever pose to get a few more great shots.  I know!  Let's all lay on the floor!  In a circle!  Brilliant!  So we shimmied ourselves into something less like a circle and more like an oblate spheroid.  At one point I heard someone say "I think your boob is in my ear", which is just not a sentence I was expecting to hear today.  Or ever in my life.  Leave it to the Wilderness Warriors.  Once on the floor, it was basically a repeat of the chaos on the bed.  Bri, look at the camera.  Emily, stop looking so smooshed.  Kelsie, move your hair.  Kendra, your feather is in my face.  Bri! Camera!

 

 

 

(Clockwise from the blue hair: Liz, Angela, Candace, Joan, Kelsie, Emily, Vicky, Britney, Kelsey, Kendra, Bri)

Truth be told, we had a great time.  How fun would it have been if we'd just sat in front of a camera, smiled a canned smile, and went home?  No fun at all.  Things got a little crazy, but all's well that ends well, and we ended up getting some fantastic, genuine shots that show who we really are: a group of dear friends who love each other and hate cancer.