Rant Session Needed

There are some days when complaining is just necessary. This is one of those days. 

It's a rainy, yucky 50 something degree day here in Rochester. It's week 5 which is exactly halfway through the quarter which means lotsss of projects and such to complete. I'm also in the middle of a cold complete with sore throat, runny nose and feeling hot/cold. It's wonderful. Today was one of my two long days; classes from noon until 9 pm with two breaks at 1 and 5. Except today my 2 pm class ran over so I didn't end up getting out until 10 minutes before my 6 pm class leaving no time for any dinner other than one of those applesauce cups. So, basically I was in class from 2pm until 9 pm straight. Got out at 9 and then went and got myself a smoothie (yumm, good suggestion mom!). Waiting around until a floor meeting at 10:30 to discuss how the heck our bathrooms are getting so messy and full of junk that.

Now, I should probably end this and go get my laundry out of the washer before someone steals it or spills it all over the floor. 

Blog Worthy

So, you've all heard of a "message in a bottle" but have you heard of gummy philly cheese steaks, soda and pizza and tissues in a bottle?! I didn't think so. 

Eric asked yesterday if this was considered "blog-worthy" and as a matter of fact, it's extremely blog-worthy! Even the person working the post office downstairs had to laugh at it when I went to pick it up. Of course, it did take me about 5 minutes to figure out how to open it :) Ashley must have thought I was nuts. We were looking around for some kind of opening... duh! Under the label. Some guy down the hall walked past and was like "Can't you just take the stuff out of the top of it" Oh goodness. Thanks Aunt Barb, Uncle Joe and Eric for the awesome, awesome package... err, 2 liter soda bottle!

Busy Beaver

It's been one full weekend.. and it's only 8:00pm on Saturday. Friday night after classes Ashley and I went over to Gracie's and picked up waffles for Wonderful Waffle Wednesday! We came back and watched two episodes of the OC until Ashley fell asleep and I had to throw a cow at her. Worked on some homework in the lounge. I didn't want to paint in our room because it gets too messy. I'm working on this project for 2d design. We had to come up with a recognizable object and then make a pattern with it.. I chose pretzels because they're yummy. I think it turned out pretty neat? It looks a little funny on the computer.


After a few hours of homework we watched the last two episodes of the OC! We finished season one, yay! That took forever, there was never enough free time to fit a whole episode in. Went to bed around 3 after talking for a while. This morning I set my alarm for 10 am although i guess I kept pushing snooze because next thing I knew it was noon and my phone was ringing. Turns out it was Nicole.. she's from Columbia too and her family was up here for the RIT Open House. She's looking at the school for graphic design too so I said I'd meet up with her and show her around. Kicked Ashley out of bed and we got ready in 10 minutes or less and made it over to Gracie's to meet up with them. After lunch we came back here and I worked on some more homework until Nicole was done with her portfolio review and then I could show her around the dorm rooms and such. Went to dinner with Ashley at 5 and then Drake came in here and bugged us so much that we told him we'd hang out.. just kidding, we wanted to :) Walked over to Park Point for an outdoor concert they have going on. It was pretty decent, the music wasn't that good but it's really nice outside so it didn't much matter. All of the restaurants are finally open so people were giving out lots of free stuff, yay again! Met up with some of Drake's friends from elementary school back in St. Louis and hung around. Walked back and now we're waiting until 9 for Drake to come back and come to a comedy show at Ingle Auditorium with us. Tomorrow is homework, homework, homework. I have 240 gesture drawings to finish by Tuesday as well as another project for 3d and a paper for writing. Tomorrow night there is an ice cream social in the Sol activity room, wherever that is. It's one busyyy weekend!

Wonderful Waffle Wednesday

I think I'm going to have to do something about this having 4 hours of classes on Fridays for next quarter, it's really a drag. Currently I'm sitting outside of Webb Auditorium after my noon lecture class, creative sources. I like these little breaks between classes where I can just chill on a couch in the art building or library but then again it's an hour wasted because I could be painting or working on some other homework. 

Yesterday was one long day. I'm not exactly sure why it felt so long but by the time I got back at 11pm, I was exhausted-- and then proceeded to stay awake until 3 am. Okay, so I'm not the smartest person ever. But after 6 hours of intense classes sometimes it's nice to just sit around and relax. Last night I tried something new...after my 6-9pm 3d class I met up with my friend, Evan, and we went swing dancing! It was actually a lot more fun and a lot easier than I expected. I don't think we'll be going to any competitions or anything anytime soon, but it's fun anyway.  

Tonight is Wonderful Waffle Wednesday!! Yes, it is Friday but who wants to say Wonderful Waffle Friday??! Ashley and I have made it a routine that we get a waffle once a week on Friday and we bring it back to our room at watch an episode of the OC. It's nice to have a break before getting right back into homework. I never really feel like there are "weekends" here since there is always something else that needs to get done. Sure, I get to sleep in a little later, but I probably end up staying up until 4 am anyway so it doesn't make a difference. 

It's so hard to believe that next week is WEEK FIVE. How in the world did that happen?! We're halfway done with 1st quarter. You know the odd thing? Someone just told me today that we only have 11 more quarters until we graduate. I don't even want to think that far in advance, I hardly even know what i'm doing tonight! 

Let's Kill the Misconception

I can't even count the number of conversations I've had within the past week that go something like this...

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other person: so you're an art major, huh?

me: yep.

other person: awesome! so you don't have any homework and have like 3 classes and can hang out all of the time! that must be really cool. 

me: *stares blankly* actually I drew tinfoil for 30 hours last weekend and then got my piece ripped to shreds and did it again! oh yeah... and I have 7 classes.  how many do you have?

other person: four.... 

---------------------------

I mean, whatever, people can believe what they want. After talking to a bunch of art kids yesterday we've all been dealing with the same conversation. Definitely not saying art is easier than engineering because I have NO clue about any of that stuff but it's frustrating to be seen as being in a "slacker" major when it's really not at all. At least I don't think it is.. 

Time to go draw more tinfoil! 

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Who knew Monday could be such a good day?

Well, half of my day was said in the post below this one. So this one will recount the facts since 1:30 this afternoon. Had the 2pm 2D class. Today was a critique day since we just finished up a major project. Critique days mean we sit around for 3 hours talking about everyone's work and what we like/don't like about it. Sounds easy but it gets quite long and boring after a while. I've been working on this project for about 3 weeks now-- I think. I honestly cannot remember if I have mentioned anything about what this project was before, so I'll recap. We had to bend wire, photograph it, cut it up, piece it together and come up with something that uses line, repetition, movement, etc. I had one idea going for 3 weeks, it was pretty decent, however, there was something about it that just didn't seem to work. To get around this I went home and tore it apart. Sounds violent but you never know what else you can do until you try and I have a serious problem getting around my first idea so it's best to just destroy it all together. I'm SO glad I did because I'm pretty happy with my final piece-- and it even got an A! No small feat at this school... so it feels pretty good every once in a while.

I took a picture today of my 3d project too, but the picture came out so horribly because of the odd lighting in the room so I'm embarrassed even to post it up here. I'll see if I can get a better one tomorrow if it's not ripped apart by then.

I've been working on yet another tinfoil drawing tonight--due tomorrow. Went and played volleyball with some guys over at the SLC for a break from homework. Ended up playing doubles because there were only 3 other guys on the court, oh well, not bad for a Monday night. It was pretty nice because two of the guys have played before so there was always someone to set plus I got to pass a lot since the guy on the other side is a huge hitter. I think i'm going to play volleyball tomorrow night after class with Andrew's (Ashley's boyfriend) intramural team. We'll see. My class ends at 8:50 and the game starts at 9.

Anyway, I'm off to watch another episode of the OC with Ashley before bedtime!

Yay Weekends!

This weekend was pretty relaxing. Spent most of yesterday working on my 2d project-- lots and lots of gluing. Too bad I forgot that rubber cement has latex in it and i'm allergic to latex.. that was interesting. Went to quiznos for dinner last night with Ashley around 9 because I guess we were such good kids doing homework and we forgot to go to dinner. Yeah, the dining hall closes at 7 here. How stupid. Anyway, worked some more on projects and then two of the guys from next door came over and watched 60 minutes on our tv so I stopped to watch it since it was an interview with Obama. Later I went and watched some really dumb show with Drake called Stella. He tried to convince me it is better that gilmore girls (which he says is a biohazard...)... I don't think so. Worked for a few more hours and then hung out with Ashley and watched the OC until around 3:30. I love weekends! 

It's been a rather relaxing morning. Woke up at 9 to get ready for my noon class (had some printing and gluing to do) only to find out that it was canceled! Yay! I'm not exactly sure why, but we got an email around 10 saying that it was not going to be held today so I've been wandering around getting stuff done until it's time for my 2pm class. Re-organized all of my drawers/closet so that my clothes were easier to find. Finished up my project for 2d, worked a little on the tinfoil (due tomorrow), caught up on emails, and put up more pictures on my wall. It's kind of nice to have an unexpected relaxing morning since I finished most of my homework this weekend. 

Got a few more things to do and then i'm going to head over to building 7 to pick up some things before 2d. 

Yayayayay It's a good day and it's only 1pm =) 

Arts & Crafts

"Look Mom, I can balance a water bottle on my head!" ... So this is what our Saturday nights look like...

This is what happens when you have to work on an art project in a 10 by 15 room. Luckily, I just finished so i'll be able to sleep on my bed tonight, yay! This is a project i'm working on for 2d design. We had to take wires, bend them, photograph them, manipulate the photographs, cut them out, and then glue them all together on a 10 in by 40 in piece of paper. I'll post a final picture tomorrow.

Ashley and I went to NRH on Saturday afternoon to paint bricks to hold our door open.

Turn Right

Friday afternoon Ashley and I took Heather to the airport (well, Ashley drove since she has a car on campus.. i was just the direction-er). Having not been out much lately, we got a little.. uhm, lost? But it was okay. My favorite part is when I was reading the mapquest directions and they said "Turn Right" that's IT. No, turn right at elm street, just turn right. How silly of them. 

park point, the shopping place that RIT just opened in August.

After dropping Heather off, we went to Red Robbin! Yummm. It was nice to have some non-gracie's food.

How Many Kropogs to Cape Cod?

Ever feel like just dropping everything and taking a full day break? Unfortunately that is not really possible around this place. 

It was so nice outside yesterday, hard to believe that 60 degrees can feel too warm for a jacket. Maybe i'm adjusting to this whole cold weather thing? I hope. Woke up around 9:30 and went to this FYE "coaching meeting" which basically just means I had to sit in my professors office for 45 minutes and talk to her about adjusting to college, it's some mandatory thing we have to do twice a year. After the meeting I went and got a wrap from gracie's and then took a walk around campus before picking out a spot under my favorite tree for lunch. 

Spent the rest of the morning/afternoon in the 3d studio working on my clay sculpture. Had class from 2 until 9. Except we got out early, yay! Drew models in drawing class, it was okay. He mostly just told us stories all class and then we worked for the last half hour. Next class were drawing for three straight hours. 100 gesture drawings, anyone? I actually really like that class. After that was 3D and since we just finished a project yesterday we had a whole class critique.. which went pretty well! My piece was picked top 2 in the class. Not to brag or anything, but it's kind of a big deal when something goes right around here because there really is not a lot of praise. College is a huge shot to your self-esteem (if you had any to begin with..). I actually like critiques a lot, except when they make you talk to the whole class about which piece you think is the crappiest and why. 

Pretty much just hung around the dorm room/hall  last night. Went to get frozen yogurt with Ashley! Yummm. Watched hour and a half of football with Drake in the lounge.  Hung out with Andrew and Ashley. Then, stupidly, we decided it would be a good idea to watch a 45 minute episode of the OC... at 3 in the morning... Whoops. Luckily, we got to sleep in until 9:45 today. Yay for Fridays! Just had my creative sources class which is a giant lecture for 50 minutes and then we have to write an essay about it. Really easy. In half an hour is my Raster Imaging class which is easy as well. I sit there and do work for another class or play around on the computers. It's kind of annoying because I already know how to use photoshop and last class we were learning how to zoom in and out of a document... for about 15 minutes. Oh well. One easy class every once in a while is not a bad thing when you have 6 other hard ones.. 

Tonight after class Ashley and I are going to the airport to drop someone off and then going to Red Robbin! Yayy. We decided it was a good Friday thing to do. Making, yet another, trip to the art store and then coming back here for an improv show in Ingle Aud. Yay for not doing homework on a Friday night!