Compliments and Trail Mix

I got a compliment in an email recently from my most notorious instructor. It took me by surprise, as positive feedback from this person is rare. In fact, I was told to be proud. This actually scared me, I guess for several reasons - I'm being noticed, and I have expectations now. I've always been taught pride is bad, and humility is good, so I'm also hesitant to take this to heart. You know, the higher you are, the farther you will fall when you suck the next time, and that will hurt even more. And everyone will hate you. I just hope I don't fall flat next time and have any past success be credited mainly to luck. There are enough egos at school, they don't need another...as a classmate has said, sometimes the school isn't big enough to house them all.
But I am enjoying myself more now, I don't know if it's because the burden of concepting is over and it's time to construct, so I'm just used to little sleep and finding time constraints don't always hinder my creativity. I also am starting to like trail mixes, like the kind with nuts and seeds. I've always hated that crap, but now I feel like a hamster. Well, that's my random note for the day.

6:30 am on a Sunday?

It's Friday at last, though Wednesday nights often feel more relaxing for some weird reason. I still have to get up for a meeting tomorrow, and as I went to bed at 5:30 am and woke up at 9:00, and was in class all day, I'll be taking it easy tonight. I actually did have plans, but fortunately I have very understanding friends. I promise I'll make it up during those two glorious weeks in March!

So it's been busy, chaos. Sometimes I feel good about a class, and others (most) I'm just barely hanging by...I need to have 3 bags/boxes designed for Tuesday, and 3 3d comps of each (9 total, and don't forget those boxes have to have a re-use, relate to my civ, incorporate my animal, unique handles with an AOF, involve a color harmony that uses color of my civ, and somehow makes my interviewed child's life better pertaining to their problem). And after that class I gotta meet for my production class and pull something together for Mr. Allen Jackson and Co. I am enjoying the 50 card set project though.
We've had a last minute 6:30 am Sunday meeting on "time management" from Mr. President of PC himself, but it seems things just take me longer than one can ever imagine..and that longer just needs a day with more than 24 hours. I haven't been playing a very good wife, but we did go out last weekend which was much needed.

As for other things, I really like these little boxes of Silk Chocolate milk. Rubber cement erasers are miraculous inventions. My in-laws will be coming in April for 10 days, then going to Florida for 10 days. Pig is happy at work, and I enjoy the distraction my job offers. Ok, until next time...

Pigs go marching on...

My eye turned red and started swelling shut thus week, but I haven't had time to go to the doc. It's getting better though - I think my eyes just want a little more closed time.

Work piles on and on...suddenly those first weeks don't seem so bad...just sketching and concepting, did it really take so much time? Now things are moving into making and producing - stuff that can't be done just hours before class..which is how a lot has been going as I scurry around trying to play catch up at the last minute. I just can't get ahead of the game. On the glass is half full side, I guess you could say I'm running parallel with the game, or just shortly trailing behind. I bring stuff in, it may be mediocre, but it's there in hopes of turning into something better...but I fear it won't with all my running to just keep up. Well, a lovely 6:30 am meeting with Hank on Sunday morning was just scheduled, maybe there will be some great and amazing breakthroughs there...

Anyway, I wish I could talk about something other than school, but that's all that's going on...it's weird to spend time at my job away from the pressure of everything, and I'm very glad to have the resources there that I do...it's so hard to work especially some place 30-40 minutes away, but I don't want to cut my ties there either...pantone books, HOW magazine and wide format printing! Oh yeah, and amusing coworkers.

Anyway, the pigs go marching on...

I could but I won't

I could probably go to bed early tonight, but I'd feel too guilty. I have the majority of everything prepped for tomorrow's packaging class, with the exception of some ideas for the Alan Jackson project. In case I haven't mentioned it, I drew his name from a hat...I don't know anything about country music beyond the stereotypes, and nothing about Alan Jackson except for that Way Down Yonder on the Chattahoochee song. I just watched the video, yayyy.
Anyway, the projects are piling on, so extra sleep time now could turn to a deadly time mismanagement mistake when I'm working and freaking out with Sylvia's project this weekend. Regardless, I am taking a break tomorrow night and going out for some fresh air. If Sylvia brings an early death upon me, at least I won't have that stuffy old person smell.
So, enough chatting here, I'll go compile some more research and work on getting somewhere with Sylvia's massive of list of things to do...

First Week and already an all-nighter!

I'm so incredibly tired. I've had sore throats, coughing, sneezing and even my ears so swollen I haven't been able to hear...and all during my first week. I'd like to consider myself semi-hardy, but the stress and anxiety of everything just got to me.

So things got off to a chaotic start last week when my alarm clock failed to go of for Sylvia's class, the most notorious class I've heard about...as she claims, she's the only one that's giving me my moneys worth right now. Well, I don't agree about that, but if I was paying for criticism and loads of stress, then she would be giving me a lot of bang for my buck. Anyway, since orientation was in the way of her class, we made it up later in the week, which gave us a shorter time to work on her ginormous assignments for Tuesday. Needless to say, I pulled an all-nighter on Monday, after meeting with other students Thursday and Saturday, visiting two libraries (what are those?) and working on it most my waking hours of the weekend. I was racing at 7 am to finish up, as class was at 8am. And then presentations for 5 and a half hours. I was feeling so sick and miserable, I couldn't even hear out of my left ear! Needless to say, I didn't go to work afterward, and anyway I had to finish my Emotive Type assignment for Wednesday. Oi.

So the work has continued to pile on, but after that hellish first week I feel a little better, all the newness is calming down and sometimes the concepting in the beginning is the hardest - I like to have an established direction. I'm still overwhelmed, and today is the first day I've felt somewhat ok. I even had time to visit with friends in the evening. Wow.

I'm a slow worker and the workload is immense - it's a very hard juggling act for me. Some of the students just breezed through the first week, very happily voicing their success, and I can only wonder how they did it...and feel like I've failed a little. Well, some have said they are experts at time management so I guess that's where the problem lies. But I also feel overwhelmed by just keeping relationships afloat. I think I'm the old married lady there, and no one else has to worry about dealing with another person...I have to consider a spouse's feelings constantly, keep a household functioning, and as much as it annoys me that he can play X-Box endlessly while I work and work, I have to remember that I made this decision. Oh well. But I'm also constantly held accountable for the stupid things I do, all the million of mistakes I make a day, and there are a lot now that my head is spinning. I'm under every one's eye at school, and sometimes I wish my shortfalls could just be put aside when I'm at home. Well, we do the best we can, and I can only hope that I'll learn to handle this better as time goes on...I'm still very happy that I will have someone by my side through all of this, hopefully it will give me some stability.

I'm so tired, last night I was up to almost 5..but I did sleep til 9...working on packaging stuff I should have started earlier, as I drastically miscalculated how long it would take me. Mistakes= learning. Lots of learning going on...

Oinks and Apaches, who knew?

Gallopping into new territory

So it's been two days at Portfolio Center, and I already feel like I've been there for a very very long time (except when I accidentally walk into a class of upperclassmen)...and I haven't even done anything! Information overload, I guess, and my mind has just been wrapped around preparing for that whole time management thing - a challenge for unorganized me. I look back at what I was doing a week ago, and it seems so far away. Those coworkers I spent everyday with are now so removed from me, and a new world of people and mindsets are slowly enveloping me. Spunbond? Print Requests? Stacy-isms? What are those?

The uncertainty of what will happen this quarter gets more nerve racking the more I talk to people...but in return I feel very alive.

Anyway, to give myself a little space from all this newness, I'm working on more renovation on my bathroom. For you who have never seen it, it is very frightening. Two words: bunny tiles. It's the only room we haven't renovated yet, and in fact nothing has been touched. We've never used the shower, except to throw paint rollers in the tub. The crusty bright yellow venetian plaster that greets the pink tiles on the walls has long scared anyone away. So, now it's time for its low budget face lift.

I warned you they were scary...

And yes, I feel guilty, I should be working on my assignments and following that whole time management thing. For Emotive Type: Develop a musician/band, create in-depth bio of band, 100 thumbnail sketches of type-based logos for them, and write a song they would perform - by next Wednesday. And tomorrow is the most feared class from the rumors I've heard, Design Aesthetics with Sylvia. We'll see at 8:00 am tomorrow.

Pig is calling, time for tea...

С Новым Годом!!!

For all you non-Ruskis, or those that don't share accommodations with one, that's Happy New Year (pronounced S Novim Godom). And for those that don't know, New Year is the biggest holiday of the year in Russo-land. I'm not gonna give a history lesson here, but it's basically like Christmas...Ded Moroz (Russified Santa in blue) comes and brings gifts, and there's lots of eating and drinking, toasting and watching singing-dancing shows on TV. Mr. Putin gives a little speech outside of Red Square before the bells dong at midnight, and then more singing-dancing songs! Glory be to Maxim Galkin!

Since our little family includes a Russian, we try to make the most of the holidays going on. So after Christmas at my parent's on the 25th, we come home and decorate our Christmas tree (Yulka) for Novy Gode. We drive all around the metro Atlanta area going to various Farmer's Markets, Russian Grocery Stores, and Buford Highway liquor stores to find all the necessary goods for the big day. Pig preps everything on the 31st and we get ready for our feast at midnight with Mr. Putin and then singing dancing shows till the early hours of the morning. It's the beginning of the holiday season...Old Christmas (Orthodox calendar) is on the 7th, and Old New Year is on the 13th...more toasts, salads, and singing dancing shows yet to come!

Ok, so it hasn't been as wild as it was in Moscow, but we make it a fun cozy event for us. Anyway, thankfully I've had January 1st to recover, and now it's time for orientation at PC tomorrow morning!

December 31: Adding the final decorations to the yulka.

New Year salad "Olivia" and Pig's Russian Cheese-Garlic salad behind...

Smoked Fish and Caviar in Eggs.

Russian delicacy, American nightmare...

Sovietsky Champagne...at least the Soviets got one thing right. Special thanks to the import gods who ship this stuff over!

Mr. Putie admits some people have misbehaved this year....

New Addition to the Nest

So it seems when people my age start feeling the need to breed, the proud parents enjoy shrouding their blogs and myspace pages with snapshots of their new offspring.

Seeing that I will unlikely birth anything soon, I nevertheless don't want to be left out of this fun, and would thus like to post a picture of the newest addition to my family:Nikon D80. She's a sweet one, and I'm very proud of her. Endless kudos to Pig for his great fathering skills and help with bring her into this world. She's beautiful, and when she wears her 18-130 Nikkor lens, she's just adorable!

Hello and Goodbye

Today is my last day as a fully-submerged corporate worker bee. Though it's a little unsettling to leave these grey walls, modest tasks, friendly coworkers, and financial stability, I'm looking very forward to next week. No, I'm not leaving for good, but my 10-6 M-F schedule will be dramatically reduced to something sporadic and minute in comparison. Ah, part-time.

Orientation at Portfolio Center starts 9 am, January 2nd. Tuesday. Only then will I know my schedule, and then maybe have an inkling what I've gotten myself into.

Though the unknown is not comfortable, I feel a certain freedom take over as this week closes. I might be able to have a say in my future, and not merely stick with a job because I lack qualifications for anything else decent or remotely related to my field of art. I will be able to steer my path, and not wait for the door of random opportunity to open before me. I know I have had very good luck with this door before, but the wind could smack it shut any moment.

Also, perhaps I will find a way to let my desire to create become fulfilled. I want to create, but I am not trusted, not qualified, and except in my own free time, encouraged or permitted. In return, I feel my creative tendencies being subdued and dumbed-down and the seeds of something great turning into a product or mediocrity. I will be pushed, criticized, and challenged, but I won't be ignored.

There's a freedom even in knowing that my life has a greater purpose to it. In Oglethorpian terms, each day I will do something for a greater good in the end. No, I'm not saving the children of Africa. There is a reason I will attend 4 1/2 hour classes 5 times a week and stay up endlessly working on projects - and not for money or to please someone else (though there will hopefully be some of this someday). I will please my own self, grow in my own self, and make my life satisfying by hopefully doing something I will be passionate about...And when I can enjoy something and create at the same time, then all the moments of agony before have been worthwhile. I hope. Yes, glorious idealism at its highest, but I didn't have this feeling during my undergrad, and now I feel confident I am embarking on a chaotic journey that will lead to a much brighter destination.

So, my last day as a normal full time worker bee. Next week, student with a part time job. I'm the only one here in the lab today, I think I'll go home now...