The Worst Day Ever

I'm pretty convinced today was the worst day ever.
I don't know that anything else is going to be able to top it for a long, long time.

This morning I set off back to school after a really nice weekend home. Everything was going alright until I got pulled over around Rantoul for going 73 in a 65. How stupid is that? I was lucky, though. The cop was nice and just gave me a warning, so I plan on... not telling my parents about this one. Never been pulled over for speeding before this and I always figured if I did it'd be for going like... 90. 73? Whatever.

Then, I got back to school. I missed my first class, because I was late after being pulled over. I went about my day as usual when I get a text from like 3 different people in my frat telling me to come home from class immediately, that there was an emergency. In my rush home, I tripped and fell into the gravel. How graceful.

I left class and when I got home, the entire chapter was there, as well as some police officers. One of my very dear friends and frat brothers had passed away that morning. No one knows what happened. He was out for a jog and he just collapsed and died. Vince was the last person I'd ever expect this to happen to. He was a smart kid, active.. in good shape. He didn't do drugs, got good grades, played rugby... Sure, he could party hard, but he wasn't stupid.

The next couple of hours were spent crying, hugging, crying some more and just being shocked, which I still am. I went to a church with some of my other frat brothers. Sure, it was catholic, but I just needed somewhere to pray so I went. Since then, I've just been crying off and on and feeling sick to my stomach. I'm just shocked and kind of scared. It could have been any of us.

This kid who was just texting me on Saturday night and making fun of me is no longer here. I'm still kind of expecting him to show up at the house and be like "Haha, hey guys. Just kidding about that whole dying thing."

Vince, you're such a jerk for leaving us like this.
You were so looking forward to turning 21 on Friday... I hope they give you a huge party up in heaven. Your happiness and enthusiasm were contagious and your laughter infectious. Your shenanigans always amused me and the house will never, ever be the same without you. Rest in peace, man.

The rest of this week is going to be very difficult, but somehow I just need to keep going. Life is precious and we all need to make the very best of the time we have. If this ordeal has taught me anything it is that we should all be grateful for our lives and everything that we have, because you just never know.

Its Over! Its Over!

Critique is over!
It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be :)
Of course, I haven't gotten my grade yet but I still feel pretty good about things.

I have NOTHING due tomorrow.
Wow.

So, for the first time in almost two weeks I am going to bed before 2am!

Life is good :)

[Until the next critique, of course.]

Critique Blues

I hate critiques.
I hate them so much.
Especially when I have an instructor that has incredibly unrealistic expectations and classmates who seem to be able to meet those expectations with no problems while I'm struggling.

Do I think I'm capable of being a designer?
Yes.

Does it still make me feel like crap?
Yes.

I think its just because I'm super overwhelmed right now. I need a break so badly. My brain can't process all of the things that I have to do and thus I run out of ideas and can't come up with new ones. When I'm as stressed as this its hard to make myself do the work that I know I need to do.

I have a midterm critique next Wednesday.
I'm going to be evaluated by pros and I don't feel like my stuff is up to snuff. That is stress right there. Pure stress.

I don't know what else I would do if I didn't do graphic design. Its just hard to have a major that makes you feel horrible on a daily basis.

I'll get over it, though. I swear.
I just need to get past these next couple of weeks so I can finally have a break.


Currently I Want:
- A hot bath
- Stir Fry or any other decent food
- An evenly heated room
- Snow
- For Typography to disappear
- Sleep
- Sleep
- Sleep
- A very large cocktail
- IDEAS

X-Acto Knives

Let me just start off by saying this:

The very last thing an exhausted and frustrated art student should be using is an x-acto knife.

That being said:

OW.

So far I've poked myself in two different fingers, put a nice scratch on my thumbnail and made a little slice in the top of my hand. None intentional. At least none of them bled too much as x-acto cuts usually do. Seriously. I have so many projects going on right now its borderline disgusting. I feel like its time for another list.

This week:
- Typeface designs A - P finished for Wednesday
- Drawings of typeface inspiration due for Wednesday
- Projection experiment due for Wednesday
- Comic book sketches due Tuesday
- Psych Midterm Tuesday
- Pledge Education night on Wednesday [must attend because I have a pledge kid]
- Dinner with pledge kid
- Work on typography papers for Wednesday
- Acetone Transfer for Monday
- Gig Poster sketches for Thursday
- Cleaning house for Homecoming on Thursday
- Apartment hunting
- Drinking and Debauchery on the weekend [aka Football and Alums w/ alcohol]


So clearly this is going to be a busy week. Some of it will be fun like apartment hunting with the boys [yup, I'm living with 3 guys next year] and football on the weekend but life is basically going to suck until Wednesday. After Wednesday I can relax until.... eh, next Monday? Sort of?

Sheet Music

I want to buy some new sheet music...

We have a piano in the house and I want to use it. Its a super old piano and I doubt its been tuned within the last fifteen years, but it still works. Maybe I'll see if I can petition to get it tuned. It could really use it and I bet there are others in the house that would like to see it tuned as well. There are some other piano players in here, some better than me since I'm so desperately out of practice.

I remember back during my horrendous freshman year of college I would go down and lock myself in a practice room in the basement of my dorm for a couple of hours at a time just so I could get away from my room and my roommate. There was a piano in each practice room, but they were less cool than the one we have at the house... still, they were tuned haha.

Anyway, just random thoughts. I figured I would post to pass the time until the Grey's Anatomy premier later. I'd take a nap... but for some reason I just don't feel like it today. I was so tired this morning and had such a bad headache.. but now I have energy and am super awake. Guess thats not a bad thing. Probably due to the delicious espresso royale oolong tea I am currently drinking. Yum. Perfect for a rainy day.

On another note: Rainy days should stick around until the first frost. It makes the aphids go away : )

Sometimes life kicks you right in the balls.

Today started off as a pretty good day.
I was running late for class, but still managed to make it in time to get my caffeine fix beforehand. Aphids weren't too bad this morning, though I still had at least ten of them stuck to various parts of me by the time psych started [not to mention the one I fished out of my eye, ew!].

Still, it wasn't bad.
I had lunch, which was good. I don't always have time for that.

Of course, then I got outside and it was pouring rain.
Well, lucky me I remembered my umbrella. Of course.. I was wearing shorts and flip flops and it had gotten cooler outside. I made it to class pretty wet from the waist down, but still not entirely in a bad mood. My mood worsened over the course of class because I was freezing the whole time, but I was convinced I would get over it.

After class I walked home warmer and happier and stopped at my car to get my laundry that I had left in there. From there... it all went to hell. First, I slipped and fell into a mixture of mud and drywall dust... and so did my laundry. The guys working on the garage got a kick out of that. Humiliating? Yes. Now I have to re-do all my laundry. This, of course, sparked another thought. They're working on the garage.. do I need to move my car? The answer, of course, was yes so I had to move my car about seven blocks away and figure out this buildings parking garage which is super confusing. Walked back home and got hit with a bunch of mud falling out of trees.

This, in turn, attracted more aphids of the aphid plague down here and I got back to the house with a large amount of the stupid little flies on me and had to wipe them all off. Gross. What else now? Are the washer and dryer going to break down? The refrigerator already did.

Did I mention I'm pulling an all-nighter tonight?

: )

Labor Day Weekend

Coming home this weekend was nice... except for the fact that I was sick for most of it. Not like a cold, flu nasty sort of sick, but an infection so I was just tired the whole time. I slept for most of Friday after I got home and Saturday.

Saturday, though, I went to my Aunt's house with my parents despite swearing to myself that I was going to do everything I could to avoid going. See, I don't get along with my Dad's sister that well. Well, no, we get along, but I'm not a huge fan of her. Still, I somehow ended up going and it went a lot better than I thought it would. First off, cousin Danny's baby is precious. I wonder if I should still be calling him Danny even though he's married and has a baby... Old habits die hard. Anyway, he was the chubbiest, cutest little thing and he was quite the flirt. Adorable. And he's named after Grandpa. The food they served was mostly old recipes of my Grandma's. It was funny, because although I don't remember them, they smelled and tasted like she would have cooked them.

I saw my other Aunt too. Its sad, seeing her the way she is but I was glad to see her nonetheless. She's funny. She has her moments where you'd swear that there was not much wrong with her mentally. My cousin said a smart ass thing and without missing a beat she told him to shut up like she probably would have a long time ago. She even remembered to ask me how school was, which was pretty impressive.

Anyway, after that was another party on Sunday. A surprise party for my friend's mom's 50th birthday. The whole time she was bitching about how she wasn't technically '50' yet and that nobody was allowed to tell her that she was. It was hilarious. I was only there for an hour or two, because one by one the friends that I had that were there decided that they didn't feel like being there anymore. I say 'friends', but I'm talking about one person pretty much. Another girl and I stayed until almost ten and then left.

The next day we had all agreed to go to the parade since we always go to all the parades. We have for the past few years. I had volunteered to drive everyone, so I got up around 8 in the morning to get ready to pick them all up between 9 and 9.15. I get a text while I'm in the shower that one of them "doesn't feel good" and is no longer going to go. Yeah, I believe that one. Not. She has a great history of lying when she doesn't feel like doing something so I'm pretty sure she was full of shit. How nice that I came home to see her and she didn't feel like seeing me. Anyway, the other one texted me a little bit later that she couldn't go either because she had to run 16 miles. She's training for the Chicago marathon. I know that, but couldn't she have told me that last night? So I finally texted the third one to see if she still wanted to go and no response. So, no parade and I got up super early for no reason when I was still kind of under the weather just to see them.

Kind of a downer.

But it wasn't a total loss of a weekend. I got stir fry and I got to spend time with my puppy and I'm pretty sure I almost have my mother convinced that we should get another boxer around Thanksgiving/Christmas. Two is better than one. We've heard it from so many people. If you have two of them, they're less likely to misbehave and they won't be so crazy when people come over. Makes perfect sense and since Jack is out of his mind he could use another dog to balance him out.

Fingers crossed!!