that just happened…

So.

Last night Ryan and I (completely exhausted from filming two weddings in a row) had just left a wedding on 39th street and rolled through the McDonald’s off Metcalf and 78th area for a late night double cheeseburger. (yeah, as I write this it sounds gross to me too).

Ryan puts in his order and we round the building.
As we pull up we see a black Volkswagen Beetle with a rather large lady hanging out the drivers door picking up a dime off the ground.
She rolls herself back into the car (with some effort) and pulls up to where the pay window is, only about 3 feet away from it making it physically impossible to “hand” the money to the attendant.
The attendant leans out the window as far as possible (which was quite impressive) when all of the sudden we hear her yell something (completely un-intelligible) and throw a handful of change at the attendant. Change flew everywhere. Bouncing off the brick on the building, off the window, and up off the ground.

Ryan and I put our windows up because we were laughing too hard, and too loud and didn’t want her wrath to turn on us. (We had no way of knowing how much more change she had in the car)

Shortly after she pulled up to the next window without handing any more money to the attendant.

I pulled up and said “is she sober enough to be driving?”

“oh, she’s one of the mom’s of the kids that works here”

“oh, well that perfectly explains it then.”

We finally got to the food window where we experienced our next “character”. Upon requesting Ranch for Ryan’s fries the dude (in an almost muppet-like fashion) says “ranch, ranch, ranch” looking in different directions with every spoken “ranch”. He disappeared from view, then standing about 20 feet from the window yells from the distance with one in his hand. I gather that he’s asking how many so I yelled, “just one is fine”.

“this has been a rather interesting McDonald’s experience,” I say to Ryan.

“why yes, my good man, it has.”

fall in KC

This morning I had breakfast at the Classic Cup with my good friend Aaron.
Like most friday mornings, I get the table, place our usual order and wait for him
to show up anywhere from 5-15 minutes later.

This morning was gorgeous. It was practically room temperature outside with the gorgeous sunrise-colored
light coming over the buildings.

I get to film 2 weddings this weekend and can’t wait. The weather is going to be great, and this time of year is my favorite time to film outdoors. I’ll let you know how they both go!

O’Reilly Photos

“We couldn’t be happier with the pictures Mike took at our wedding. He was so easy to work with and very professional! He was able to capture every moment of our special day!  You can tell he has a passion for what he does and his pictures show he has an amazing talent!  We wouldn’t have had it any other way!” – Christie O’Reilly

some recently posted pics from my website… Jonathan & Christie’s wedding -

Hello world!

Welcome to my blog.  I’m not 100% sure what you’ll find here yet – somedays will be exciting, others may just be random – pretty much like my life.  This will pick up where my “news” feed left off on my website – I’d re-post all that older stuff, but it would show up as current events instead of earlier in the year –  Enjoy!

boredom coma?

Is it possible to go into a coma because of boredom? I submit that you can.
If anyone is qualified to answer such a question I believe it to be me.
One of the many jobs I find myself doing is filming depositions for attorneys.
Why? you might ask – record labels take incredibly too long to pay their bills and sometimes you need to fill the gaps.
Back to what I was saying – Every commercial, movie, and television show you’ve seen where the character is trapped in an incredibly boring conference room while people discuss documents and exhibits – they’re all true. It really is that boring. After 6 years of working with Christopher Video they haven’t gotten any more exciting. I do however find myself rather versed in the law now, and often make objections to questions before the attorney gets around to it, if ever. Today has especially exciting. My advice – don’t get sued, and don’t sue anyone – but if you do, have your attorney book Christopher Video for filming the depositions, and be sure to request anyone but me :0)

Handy things to have in a boring deposition:
- Apple iPhone – loaded with something more exciting than solitaire.
- Your caffeinated beverage of choice, but not too much or you’ll fall asleep from the sugar. trust me.
- Internet. like today. It’s like every Christmas morning rolled into one when you get to a firm and discover you can spend the day online.
- A pen. – basically anything sharp that you could stick into your neck should you find it too boring to go on. (I’ve gotten close many times)

Things I’ve learned over the years in depositions:
- pain medications and “nerve blockers” are different. without nerve blockers you could be “jittery all over” according to one witness. (you’d have to see the video)
- I’m pretty sure I could perform surgery on a sub-dermal hematoma from all the doctors I’ve filmed.
- You can still smell a pig farm filming from an enclosed cockpit of a helicopter at altitude.
- mold in condemned building can grow to the size of a small dog.
- become an expert in something, then testify about that thing. Earn thousands of dollars per HOUR.
- depositions in other countries such as South Africa are still boring. You just get “tea & biscuits” to help pass the time there.
- “not much longer” to an attorney means 3 hours. sometimes more. usually not less.
- apparently you can say “I don’t recall” to every single question in a 2 hour deposition. Including questions about your name and what your profession has been for the last 18 years.

I may add to this later – for now, I’m hoping to come out of this coma soon…