Womp womp.

Uh oh, I've forgotten to write down memories of my life, and now they've been forgotten. I always remember to actually record thoughts and little moments because when I find myself wondering "where has this month/week/year gone??" This is the place I'm supposed to go to find out.

I suppose it's been really amazing July, from what I can remember. Not that I was drunk and blacked out, no really I wasn't, but time just moves so fast that I can hardly keep up. I spent the last three weekends away from home, camping (Jul 2-4), in Philadelphia on the world's greatest trip with less than 24 hours of planning (Jul 7-14), and visiting Arcosanti, as a friend described as "a hippie paradise that looks like Luke Skywalker's aunt and uncle's". That's EXACTLY what it is (Jul 16-18). Between all the craziness of getting lost in the woods (which was not too fun BTW, but I'll spare you the miserable details), spontaneous cross-country flights, smoking in a swimming pool teetering on the edge of a cliff, and countless other adventures that are leaking from my memory by the minute, being home has become something of an exotic thing lately.

Having been home only in downtime between long days interning and fast weekend adventures, it feels so good to just sit down and be at home. The smell of my dish soap and the feel of my bed are things that I can't describe, but it's intoxicating and probably just like Martha Stewart always says but no one ever listens, "It's a good thing". I love my apartment! :)

So for today, I went to work as usual, and worked on a column and some doors. Quite mundane, quite regular. We had thursday meeting, like always, and it was so gloomy that I could hardly stay awake. It's monsoon season, and the clouds are getting so heavy but it refuses to rain. The dam at Tempe Town Lake broke a few days ago, and the lake was absolutely drained when I saw it riding the bus today. Weird stuff. It's like the world is hating on Tempe, taking all the water and putting it in the air to make the 115 degree weather seem even hotter. Yes, it is possible. TGFAC, I always say. Thank god for air conditioning.

It's called air conditioning, not fair conditioning.

It's officially summer in Arizona! Just a few days into the over-100 degree mark and I already want to die. What makes it even worse though, is that I don't have air conditioning in my car, and that my new apartments air conditioning+insulation is ancient and it sucks. Basically, it is very hot, all the time. I remember a long time ago I read an article about this couple that went an entire summer without air conditioning at home, and I'd always wanted to try it myself. Now I'm sure this couple lived in a place that was a better designed for the desert, but these people probably aren't as badass as me. It seems that I should be able to survive on shade and ventilation alone, since people have been living in the desert for pretty much forever, and I'm sure most of them didn't die. I imagine it'll be a pretty awesome feat to accomplish, and it'd be great for mother earth as well as my ego! But the real reason is, electricity is expensive, and I like to buy shit with my money :)

One Thing I Hate: Hipsters

I'm a huge fan of digging through piles of garbage at the thrift store for hours only to find that one perfect thing, then someone has to go and ruin it by going all, "Oh that's cute did you get it at Urban Outfitters?" No, I did not. I know what I like well enough to pick it out from a pile of shit I don't like. What did you do, hop down to the mall and stock up on some mass-produced, overpriced vintage reproductions? Yeah. Yeah, you did. And you look terrible.








:)

Ridiculous, Holy Crap, etc.

Life never ceases to amaze me. Shortly put, every time I think I'm falling into some kind of rut it throws something new in my face. It's amazing.

To say the past week was intense doesn't really cover it completely. After five days of working nonstop on studio, surviving on naps and late-night junk food, studio is done for the year (almost). There's only some closing work to do, a small layout and some class blog updating. I got design excellence again, which is probably the best part of this semester because I freaked out, and cried, and worked so hard on this project that it's nice to see it all pay off.

I got my dream internship today, with Architekton, and even though it's not an official internship (I don't think) and I'll just be a SketchUp monkey for a few months, I'm so excited and scared to be working for my dream firm and to even be getting paid for it (albeit it's like minimum wage. Who cares). I am so glad that even when life kicks me down and slaps me in the face and kicks dirt in my eyes, sometimes things just work out so well in my favor. It's like someone out there is looking out for me... in their spare time... but every once in a while takes some time to make my life awesome.

I guess I'm still riding on cloud nine since in the last week my life changed from questioning whether or not I wanted to still be an architect, to being put on the perfect path to being a really great one. It's weird. But awesome. I'm so thankful sometimes, for the life I live :)

Cruch Weekend

It didn't really hit me how easy this semester was compared to last semester until me and Molly ditched class to lay out by the pool, and I still wasn't that behind everyone else. Ehh, studio this year is not really challenging at all, which is nice because last semester nearly killed me. But anyway, it's saturday morning/almost noon and I'm all refreshed and ready to get back to work for reviews on monday. The best thing about reviews is making a really long list of things you have to do (and including ALL the little things you'll do today, like eating lunch or brushing your teeth) and just constantly be crossing things off of it. It's kind of lame, but it is motivating when your long list dwindles away throughout the day.

Today I have to (for reals, not with the little motivators):
- Go shopping!!! (for model supplies, ha ha)
- Build a 1/16" site model
- A 1/32" diagrammatic model
- Update diagrams
- Site plan
- 2 Site sections (which are almost done thanks to staying up late last night, YES!)

See you monday, I'm cooking up things to eat in studio today, and then I'll be moving into my desk for the remainder of the day/early tomorrow morning.

On a side note, in Maison Talisa (my $100 apartment decorating adventure), I've got everything I need except for a smaller chair for my sewing table (the one I have now is huge, and I can't walk past it to get to the door, ha) and a shelving unit to get all the garbage off my table and off to the side of my table. There will be pictures, someday, when I clean up a little. :)

Working Out

I started thinking about working out today, cause I keep waking up and my body is so sore all the time. I then realized that for the past few weeks my workout routine went like this:
- bike to class, walk up the stairs (1 mi)
- bike home from class (1 mi)
- walk to the end of the block, steal a 1/2 cinderblock, walk back (2 reps)
- wash bath mat, struggle to lift its waterlogged ass out of the tub and out the door (I swear it was like 20 lbs)
- pick up Butter and drag his fat ass back inside when he makes mad door dashes (10 reps)
- bike to paper store (3 mi)
- hitch a ride back to school cause 3 miles was really far. Lift bike into Molly's car. Ouch.

Imma be in such great shape soon.

It's Good to be on Top (again)

Studio grades were sent out today, and once again I'm at an A! If you don't look at last semester, I'm doing so well in school. It makes we wonder, if my teachers didn't hate me so much last term, would my grades have been better? I really wish I had argued for a B+ instead of just taking the B, because dang my reviewers just ate me up and loved it. I thank the lucky shoes, and maybe would have gotten the B+ had I thought to wear them to my exit interview.

Class was cancelled tomorrow, so the model that was due tomorrow is now due friday! It is so weird being home and having nothing to do. I just cleaned and played with Butter. Now the apartment is clean, and now I'm just laying in bed wondering what regular people do with their lives after they get out of class.

It's been raining a retarded amount here lately, for being in the middle of the desert it's really been quite cold and rainy. I'm excited to get out of here for a bit, even if it's going to get colder the closer we get to the coast (and Disneyland! and Pink's Hotdogs!). I feel like I haven't left Tempe/Phoenix/Scottsdale in ages. I think the last time I left the greater Phoenix area was winter break. Too longgg.

Hello, Life.

I feel like every time I come to blog about something, all I really have to say is how long it's been since I last wrote something. It's always been a long time, I guess. Sometimes I think I just don't have anything to say.

I cleaned my shower today, and washed the dishes. I have a new table that I dumpster dove in pieces that I need to put back together so my rice cooker doesn't have to sit on the floor anymore. It's so sad how little space there is in my apartment, sometimes. I think about moving to another place sometimes, or moving into a house to make rent cheaper. Really, I could get it down to like $300 if I really wanted to, and that is tempting sometimes. But at the same time, I love having a place of my own, because I get to decorate it how I want and it's always so nice and quiet. I think Butter likes it more than I do.

So it's been so long since I wrote something, that I didn't have the chance to introduce the internet to Butter, my 5 year old, 18 pound(ish?) Maine Coon. I've had him for almost a month now, and I thought it would be more work & responsibility to have a cat, but it's really not. He's just content with napping and eating and playing with shiny things. He scratches the walls and doors sometimes, but when he does I just charge at him saying "noooo" and he gets all freaked out and runs away. It's pretty easy taking care of him. Sometimes he needs brushing, sometimes he gets restless, but in general, he takes care of himself. I like him!

It's spring break in two weeks! I'm excited to do the same stuff I do every other weekend, only this time it'll be a week long and hopefully more sunny. We've got plans to go to California, the motherland, and go to Disneyland. I'm excited! Also excited for Diddy Riese and Felipe's french dipped sandwiches, and maybe we'll even venture out to freaking Tito's Tacos, MMM. I'm also excited to take everyone to my favorite beaches, and to have a bonfire (without the model burning and everything) and enjoy everyone's company late at night and outside studio. It's funny sometimes, when I think about it, that I spend so much time in studio. I spend way more time there than I do here (at home) and it's kind of weird cause I bet my rent here is more expensive. No, maybe not.

I'm in the middle of a constant strain of finding-losing lately, and I'd really prefer it if it just stopped. Between losing my bike, mouse, flash drive, and other mouse, and finding my checkbook and camera charger it's getting kind of hectic, and it makes me really want to just lock up everything I own in a big safe and never let anyone near any of it. But for the record, the only things that haven't been stolen at least once, is my car and my laptop, so I'm taking this moment to cal it now that my laptop will get stolen soon. I hope it doesn't though, obviously.


Every time spring semesters start, I always find myself thinking how they are gonna go by so fast, because for some odd reason they always just zoom by. It feels like just yesterday that we were doing the hot future project (WINNAAAAH) and then all of a sudden spring break is just around the corner, and final review just around that corner. And then, holy shit, I'm gonna be in my last year of undergrad. Like really, college is going by so fast. Which is why I need to start writing shit down more often.

It's been soooo long since I last wrote something here.

New Year, New Broken Promises

I really like that at the start of the year, we make ourselves promises that we know we're not going to keep. We probably don't even try anymore, actually. I know I make the same resolutions every year, but mostly it's just copy + paste from last january so people think I've got ambition, or something.

1. Work out + get abs of steel! ABS OF STEEL
2. Don't procrastinate, take it one step further and get work done early.
3. Be nice to everyone
4. Take more pictures

Happy New Years.