Scribbles in the Dark

forgot to set my alarm last night and was very VERY late to my first class this morning. specifically, i woke up 15 minutes after it began. but all was well - i made it to the second half of the class, and the sky had been blessing the ground with water since before dawn, and continued to do so until midday.

i like rain.

long day yesterday, and today as well. this week i've had shifts at work for the first time all semester. this is good because it means i am earning money, but it is bad because now i don't get home until after dinner time, when i am used to leaving university in the early afternoon. takes several hours out of my work time.

much to do for studio tomorrow, and still have not finished wedding invitation designs. alas, i am busy.

oh lord i have so much work to do for tomorrow:

-finish maps for urban environments presentation ETA 2232: victory!!!
-study for logic test ETA 2327: quit half-way through... so let's hope i pass.
-studio: put urban diagram sketch into adobe; write out concept/argument; diagram conditions and program; print context photos; some other stuff that i know i am forgetting... ETA 0220: i have been awake for over 20 hours, and must be awake again in less than six. i give up.



i want star trek. *grabi hands*

i love being in college so much right now. i mean, sometimes it really sucks, but on days like today i feel like i want to be in college for the rest of my life.

jim had work at 6am this morning, so i was up at 5am with him. i got back to my apartment at 530 and tried to go to sleep again, but i shouldn't have, because i only actually slept for about half an hour before i had to get up at 7am again anyway, and then i was sleepy. it wasn't worth it. but, whatever, anyway: i got up at 7am for the first site visit we had to do for our project for taylor's class (structures ii, or "materials and methods ii" according to my syllabus). best 1-1/2 hour lecture i have ever been to in my life. i wish structures class was always like this instead of boring monotone lectures and busy-work textbook readings.

a lot of what we talked about on-site was stuff we had already covered in class, either last semester or in the past couple months, but it was so much more interesting to hear the architect talking about it this morning in the context of actually dealing with it, and being able to see the effects of it and ask questions about specific things we could look at. the site is incredibly interesting from a structural and programming perspective, and there was a lot of background that we would never have understood about the project if we hadn't talked personally with the architect while on-site. it was incredible.

then the five of us went out for brunch at house of pies, and had great conversation about our degree program, the profession as a whole, and the wonderful food at house of pies. i feel like now in third year we're all finally realizing what it is that we want to do with our lives, where we want to be in a decade as far as our career is concerned, which is what nick brought up. it's interesting to see how five different people, who've all been going through the same program together for three years now, have such completely different goals and passions all within the scope of the degree we're taking. (and i'm finally learning how to get around in that area on the other side of 59, between midtown and the medical district; normally anything i need to do there is right off of the highway so i never need to take the backstreets, but yesterday and today were both adventures in navigating.)

(yesterday, on the way to drop off glass at the recycling center, kathryn and i took a couple of accidentally-on-purpose detours, into rice village and another nearby neighborhood, and the homes there are gorgeous, i mean absolutely stunning. i want to go back some day when i have more time. i love those areas of the city, i just never have a reason to go over in that direction, so it was really nice to be there and have the opportunity to make random turns and get lost in those beautiful old neighborhoods.)

basically, i love my life right now. i am full of win.

engagement party last night was so fun!! there were twenty people there including jim and i, and i knew almost everyone. we had the party at olive garden and it was so~o tasty!! and then we went back to my apartment and played apples to apples, which i've never played before. kathryn set it all up and got all the invites out, and there was even cake and flowers! and veronica got me a gift, which was pretty awesome, too. and then after everyone left i went over to jim's place and collapsed, i was so exhausted from this week. but i got like nine hours of sleep- and i actually slept- and i didn't have anywhere important to be this morning, no work to rush and finish. kathryn and i went to the rec this morning (and the weather was absolutely stunning), then we went to the bank and the grocery store, and it started pouring just as we were leaving the heb, but by the time we got back to the apartment it had stopped raining. *shakes head* that's texas for you.

so today and last night were amazing, which makes up for how everything from tuesday to friday morning absolutely sucked. (well, i had an okay crit on wednesday, but that was about it.) i haven't been sleeping well or very much at all, and i'm getting more and more uncertain about how my education is gonna play out. i talked to jim about this last night: i'm going to finish my degree, but i don't know if i'm going to try for my license afterwards. i just don't like what i've learned so far about architecture as a profession in the states. maybe it's different in other countries, or maybe i just don't know enough architects, but as much as this is what i've wanted to do since i was three years old, i don't know that i could handle becoming the kind of person that architects seem to be. so maybe i'll be a drafter. *shrugs* we'll see.

ETA: booked the church this past tuesday, and tomorrow i'm putting down the deposit for the sanctuary and reception hall. excitement!!!

.......

my brain stopped working about half an hour ago.

.......damn.

so i think in about an hour, maybe an hour and a half, i'll head back to my apartment to shower and eat something before i have class at 830am. i left my apartment at 8pm, after a quick dinner and a run to texas art supply (more basswood, damnit) and i drove then, so i have to go back, at least long enough to move my truck so it doesn't get towed in the morning, 'cause i parked in the teachers' parking lot. *smirks*

in other news, i am newly convinced that i want to get the laptop over the desktop. the convenience factor is just phenomenal, and the fact that i even found a laptop that both suits my needs and is within my budget ($500) is incredible. but today was hell, running back and forth between the computer lab and studio, not being able to have truitt look at my drawings, and to add insult to injury, i'm still, again the only one in my studio without a laptop. bugger.

sana is taking a nap in the sleeping bag under my desk, so i need to stop typing so loudly. ^____^

EDIT: dude, a copper just came by the studio and made sana and verdin stop sleeping. really. it's technically illegal. and i have to take my sleeping bag out of the building. *grumbles*

k'ploch!

assuming i actually passed all my classes, i am now exactly half-way done with my undergraduate degree. woot!!!

today was my last final exam, for structures. i felt pretty unprepared for it, which is kind of a bad sign since i thought i did fairly well on the midterm and i got about 60% of that- it's on a point system, and i got 93/150 points. which is an a, but none-the-less not as well as i thought i'd done. and i don't think i did as well on the final this morning. the good news is that i only need 14/200 points to pass the class, which i'm reasonably certain is in the bag. the bad news is that i need... probably an a in this class in order to bump my gpa up enough to counter the c- in studio and keep my scholarships. and i need 104/200 points to make an a in this class. here's hoping.

in other news, i've been incredibly moody the past few days- snappy, and swinging back and forth between upset and giddy. no idea why, but it's making me not want to be around people- i don't like being that way. (this might have to do with how homeless i've been feeling ever since nanashi (my laptop) died. i hate having to borrow computer time from my roommates, and walking all the way to the library is about as frustrating, but i don't really have a choice. it just makes me uncomfortable. i try not to usurp a computer belonging specifically to someone else for anything but work, but i still feel like a lame-ass moocher doing it, and it upsets me. *sighs* whatever.)

the end.

........

*gasp* okay, studio is officially over!!! ( unnoficially, however... )

.... i want sleep desperately.

still to do:
final draft of history paper due by thursday
tuesday meeting at work 11a-1p, meeting with truitt 330p
wedding stuff: pick venues, dress shopping, reception party list - check theknot.com
documentation for studio
re-do section model and finish perspective drawings
secure loan for next semester
advising for honors course next semester
study for and take finals: bachman & taylor
gynocology/uti appt
post graphic design pic
compile portfolios for engl1300
laundry!!! (oh god.)
finances/ balance checkbook
work out spending for studio, bachman
help sana on her model
state inspection for marshy on wednesday morning
buy christmas gifts - jim, family/friends, secret santa
monday church 11:30am
2nd year crit on monday @1pm, visit after church?
save and print and put together fic 'zine
new cougar card

(also, i had thoughts about body types. my fiance is hott. *grins*)

(i don't know whether to be ashamed of or take pride in the fact that i had to look up those lyrics. deutschland uber alles! *lol*)

msn.com ( continues to be entertaining. ) and in other news, i'm making good progress on my first model- all the walls are cut, my floors are traced out and i'm just waiting for the shop to open so i can cut them up, and i've started on the columns. the only other thing inside the building is the bookshelves- which are gonna suck, but whatever- and then i can glue it all together, add the window mullions, and hit my head against the wall trying to figure out the roof. joy.

so, barrack obama is the next president of the united states of america, our 44th, and the first non-white president. this presumes failure on the part of the multiple groups that have sworn to assassinate him. i will take this moment to say that he had my vote (regardless of circumstances) and that nonetheless i am worried for our country, because i didn't like ANY of the four presidential/ vice-presidential candidates in this election. but i think obama's ideals are alligned with my own (more than anyone else running, anyway). the greatest concern i have now is in how democratic the legislature has turned out to be after this election. i wanted to have obama in office with a split-party or republican congress, because i think that way we can have smart, conservative laws passed under a liberal lens- which i think is what we need. unfortunately (for me) that's not what happened.

well, either way, what we have is a situation that is quickly going down the crapper, no matter who the president is. and i think people need to wake up and smell the sewage instead of continuing to dream that everything is gonna be fine.



in other news... god i have so much work to do. *seppuku*