ShanaVerstegen.com Blog!: 11/01/2002

Pictures by Jim Forrestal

Here are links to the pictures I had taken a few weeks ago. The modeling ones done by Lori Smith will be posted as soon as I receive them in a few weeks.

Photo 1
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A Few Changes

I've been playing around with the design of this site, and will continue to do so for the next few weeks. I also received more pictures from Jim Forestall (the above is one of 8 new ones) and I will post them here over time. I will get the photos from my photo shoot with Lori Smith in a few weeks and will use those in the change around of my website.

I'm beat...sleepy time for Shana.

HAHAHA

Little Red Riding Hood is skipping down the road when she sees a big bad wolf crouched down behind a log.

"My, what big eyes you have, Mr. Wolf."

The wolf jumps up and runs away.

Further down the road Little Red Riding Hood sees the wolf again and this time he is crouched behind a bush.

"My what big ears you have, Mr. Wolf."
Again the wolf jumps up and runs away.

About two miles down the road Little Red Riding Hood sees the wolf again and this time he is crouched down behind a rock.

"My what big teeth you have Mr. Wolf."

With that the wolf jumps up and screams, "Will you knock it off, I'm trying to poop!"

The Best Weekend of My Life

Well, I'm back in Madison, and very very happy. :) I finally have some food in my belly, and I had the weekend of my life. I guess I will start from the beginning...
Early Friday morning I caught a plane to Connecticut...rented my car (a brand new silver neon!!!) and met Miles. After a yummy sushi lunch, we drove to New Jersey to meet Kenny (Beautifit Talent Agency). After checking into our hotel, Kenny took us to probably the most fancy restaurant I have ever been to. It's called The Assembly, and it was just incredible. The shrimp in the shrimp cocktails were bigger than my fist! During and after dinner we listened to a wonderful Jazz Band play.

An incredible bodybuilder, Debbie Leung, was also there for the weekend for the photo shoot. She is the sweetest girl! I was so excited about meeting somebody new, especially somebody who is very familiar with that I go through in the fitness world. Be sure to check out her website...she is just beautiful!!!

Okay, Saturday. We got up fairly early (after staying and listening to the band until late) and began our drive to the Pochonos to do a photo shoot with Lori Smith. What a beautiful area! I am constantly shocked by how incredibly beautiful the east coast is. Lori lives in a house made from an old barn...and it is just amazing! Very artistic, rustic, and roomy. After getting our hair and make up done, we drove out to this beautiful lake to take the first few rolls. I had my "lumberjack" themed pictures taken inside of an old covered bridge. Poor Debbie had to actually go into the freezing water for her bikini photos...while even on the shore I thought I was going to freeze to death doing mine. Miles and Kenny did a wonderful job of holding screens and reflectors...they sure got their workouts in! When Debbie and I decided we could no longer feel our extremities, we headed back to Lori's studio. We got some GREAT shots in a few different outfits, and were much warmer. :) After about 8 hours of shooting, we decided to pack up. Time to eat! Kenny took Debbie into New York City to see Times Square and Central Park. Miles and I have already seen that, so we decided to take a relaxing evening to ourselves....at the Cheesecake factory! Yummy!!! Before we left, Miles gave me my graduation/Chaunamis (Christmas and Chanukah) gift. It was one of those super fancy Elf cameras!!! Miles truly listens to me...I only mentioned ONCE a long time ago that I would love to have one of those cameras...and he remembered! Oh yeah, I have a boyfriend that listens, and those are hard to come by. The meal was great, except during the appetizer I learned I have a strong taste aversion to cilantro...hehe, I made quite a scene. We went back to the hotel and managed to watch about 10 minutes of Dumb and Dumber (gotta love Jim Carey) before we crashed.

Sunday we totally slept in, and met Kenny in the lobby around 11ish. He took us to his very fancy country club for the most incredible brunch I have ever seen. An entire room was filled with fancy food! I tried little bits of everything, but couldn't manage to fit much in my stomach. :) While the others chatted, I fiddled with my new high tech camera. After stuffing ourselves, we went to Kenny's office to watch some of Don "The Dragon" Wilson's new stuff. I got to hang out with Don a few year ago, and he is one of Kenny's best friends. We watched one of his most recent pay-per-view fights, and his latest movie, "Redemption". We then went to dinner at Park and Orchard, the most popular restaurant in New Jersey. We all were still a bit full from brunch, but managed to enjoy yet another incredible meal. Then it was off to Broadway. Kenny managed to get the four of us SECOND ROW seats for the musical Chicago. The weekend couldn't have gotten much better than that. Only a few feet away from Billy Zane, and the most amazing musical I have ever seen (okay, so I've only seen a few, but STILL). After the show, we went around the back of the theatre to meet some of the cast. Although I REALLY wanted to meet Billy, Miles and I decided we should probably head out because we had a long drive back to Connecticut. We said our goodbyes to Kenny and Debbie, and drove back.

Monday I didn't get to sleep in too late because I had interviews at health clubs around Middletown. My favorite was a place called Planet Fitness. The first thing I was told when I talked to the director there was that customer service and making people feel happy and comfortable were the top priorities of the gym. Right away I knew this was a place I wanted to be...I had not seen a lot of friendliness in other gyms. This place is VERY similar to Supreme (where I work now...and wish I could stay at forever). Everybody that works there is incredibly friendly, the facilities are small, yet very clean, and they have an exciting list of classes offered. I was beyond excited to find a gym similar to what I am used to.

After the interviews, Miles took me back to Japanica (the Sushi place that I have a feeling I will visit on a daily basis once I move out there) and I was finally able to try other things there weren't so healthy! Yum!!! My new favorite ice cream is ginger ice cream...holy crap that stuff is good.

Next I met with Coach Curry at Wesleyan to discuss my position as assistant track coach there. All went well...I have the job! I also got a chance to finally meet the athletic director there; a very nice guy. In fact, I am still amazed at how friendly everybody at Wesleyan is. While Miles was in practice, I went for a run through the beautiful campus, and lifted a little. We then met up with Annie and Kelly (friends of Miles) for dinner at this wonderful Thai Restaurant on Main street. I was beginning to notice a trend of yummy food occurring this weekend. Annie and Kelly were awesome! I don't know where Miles meets his friends, but he knows some of the coolest people! I am so excited to spend more time with them when I move out there.

All good things must come to an end...as it did at 4am on Tuesday morning. I caught my plane, and my daddy met me at the airport in Madison. He surprised me with a fancy breakfast (yikes, more good food!!!) at the Edgewater Hotel here in Madison before I went to class, so that I would be able to give him full details of my weekend. The only thing that would have made my weekend better would be if my dad was there too.

So that was my weekend. I made several new friends, got some wonderful pictures taken, spent yet another amazing weekend with Mr. Right (Miles) and had my new life after graduation handed to me on a plate.
For those that are interested, I will have the pictures back from the shoot in a few weeks. At that time, Mike and I will make some changes to this site, and of course post the pictures.
Have a good day all.