Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Category: my life

  • Trying New Things

    Something you may or may not know about me – I can be a little stubborn about trying new foods. For one thing, I’m kind of picky about textures. And for another thing, I feel like if there’s something else amazing out there with tons of calories that I’m going to get addicted to, it’s best if I don’t try it. However, if it’s something relatively healthy I guess I could give it a go. Enter my first experiment of many to come: cottage cheese. I’ve never tried it because it looks repulsive to me. So I was at the store a few nights ago feeling brave, and I wandered over to the dairy section. I figured I shouldn’t go for straight-up plain cottage cheese, but I’d get this fun kind with fruit on the side to ease into it. And I picked the flavor (peach) that had the fewest containers left on the shelf because that must be everyone’s favorite, right?

    Yeah, I didn’t like it. The “fruit” on the side wasn’t really fruit so much as it was kind of a sugary gel, and the cottage cheese itself is just not my thing. The creamy + chunky texture creeped me out. I’m lactose intolerant anyway, so…onto finding something else to try. (Side note: You didn’t think you’d be reading about cottage cheese on my blog today, did you? I like to shake things up and get CRAZY every once in a while like that!)

  • Depeche Mode at Nissan Pavilion

    If you read my post a few months ago about getting to see Depeche Mode in concert for the first time, you know how excited I was to finally see them, and I wasn’t the least bit disappointed at the show last night. If only the 32 year-old me could go back and tell the 12 year-old me, “It’s okay, you’ll get to see them eventually,” that would have been helpful. Although if I found out it would take twenty years for the appropriate stars and planets to align in order to see a concert, I might have had another dramatic pre-teen meltdown. The show was incredible and a good mix of nostalgic songs and newer tracks. And thankfully the weather held up, so it wasn’t at all like the last time we were at Nissan Pavilion for Radiohead. Professional photography equipment wasn’t allowed and they did do bag/pocket checks so I’m glad I didn’t try to sneak my gear in, but I did take a few snaps from far away with the point-and-shoot.

    Just showing you where our seats were (in the covered section, but not super close to the stage):




  • Operation Beautiful

    I just ran across this website via Facebook, and I absolutely love the concept so I had to share: www.operationbeautiful.com. From the website: “The mission of Operation Beautiful is to post anonymous notes in public places for other women to find. The point is that WE ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL. You are enough…just the way you are.”

  • Buried Alive!

    I’m not sure why, but I feel really anxious when I let the blog go without a new post for more than a week. I’ve been really completely buried in work and to-do lists for the past couple of weeks, so I’m just not able to post here as much as I’d like to lately. But I did want to say hello, and that I’m still alive even if buried in work!

    I did manage to complete one of my 101 in 1001 tasks though, because once I bought the software to do it, the task didn’t require a lot of my attention. Item #89 – Transfer my skydiving video and my high school play/musical video to DVD is complete. I also found a few more videos around the house, including a video yearbook from my sophomore year in high school. I didn’t put the videos on DVD yet, but they’re converted to digital files at least. And once I have a spare minute, maybe I’ll grab a clip of my skydiving video and put it online. The part where I’m just about to jump out of the plane and you can see me rattling off a few nonsensical (maybe four-letter) words is kind of funny.

  • Mr. & Mrs. Marks

    I can now cross off #9. Change my last name on my 101 in 1001 list! Chris and I got married in October 2007, but I just hadn’t gotten around to officially changing my last name until now. It’s funny that it took me so long to change it, considering how badly I wanted to do so when I was little. When I was in elementary school, kids used to always tease me about the name Solo. They would ask if I was related to Han Solo from Star Wars, or they would ask me where Chewbacca was, and I absolutely hated being teased about it! I couldn’t wait to get married and change my last name. I would constantly pair my name with other boys’ names and figure out what sounded best (anything but Solo). Somewhere along the way as I got older, by the time I was in high school, I started to really love my name. People would tell me that it sounds like a movie star’s name, and I loved that. The Star Wars jokes were still lame, but in an endearing silly kind of way, and it was fun. Now when people ask if I’m related to Han Solo, (and yes, they still ask) I just say he’s my uncle or something.

    When I married Chris Marks, I was torn about the prospect of changing my name. I love the sound of “Susan Marks” and I like the idea of Mr. and Mrs. Marks, but I also truly love my maiden name. Plus, I wanted to continue to run my photography business as Susan Solo. So, in the end I just decided I didn’t have to choose – I legally kept all of my names by turning my maiden name into a second middle name. So you can call me Susan Solo, Susan Marks, or Han Solo’s niece. 🙂

    I don’t have a photo to document the completion of this item, so how about a picture of Chris and me on our wedding day, courtesy of my sister: