of yesterday

My new mortar & pestle, a sweet find at the Asian Market:

Perusing the Asian Market for dinner ingredients:

Coming home and making dinner (again!):

Eating dinner (red miso soup + veggie stir fry):


Friends and a movie (The Big Lebowski) at C. Lee’s:

Finally, karaoke and drinks with my sister:



The end!

surprise!




AFTER WRITING THE LAST POST, I looked to my left to see my most beautiful best friend lingering toward me in the library! She came from Grand Forks to visit for a day or two and COMPLETELY BRIGHTENED MY DAY! A total surprise! I feel so refreshed!

Naturally, we got coffee and spoke of wonderful things. Since graduating this past winter she’s been my motivation (now that she’s not under any stress to complete of that so-called “homework” business that we college folk are shackled to). I would write about Holly every day if I could if it weren’t slightly obsessive and/or creepy!
Also, I must mention my App of the Day! It’s AutoStitch, a camera app that allows you to merge photos into beautiful, nearly seamless panoramas. I’m a huge fan. Here’s an example of an AutoStitch panorama of my room (not the best, as C informed me, then casually suggested I take one of his iPhone photography classes):

Pretty cool, right? Life feels exciting right now.
Back to work…
xx
j

I’ve been MIA because 1) I worked every stinking day, all weekend B) This is going to be a ca-rrrrrrazy week at school and I already want to crawl into a hole rather than surrender myself to the homework police that are out to get me.
I worked this morning with a new client, a 17-year old, who had the day off from school. We went to a bridal store to look at prom dresses — something I haven’t done in years and years! It brought back a rush of high school days…
I really need to push myself hard this week and press on! Everything’s going to work out.

Prepping dinner on what little counter space I have in my teenie tiny kitchen!

Yogurt cilantro sauce

I MADE DINNER TONIGHT.

As in: I made a plan, a list, went to the grocery store, bought everything on the list, came home, prepared the items I bought, cooked, and ATE IT. It felt amazing! Lentil and walnut burgers and spinach salad. It was just what I needed!
Then I cleaned the apartment, which also felt amazing. I haven’t had any time to do either of these things and it was SO soothing. I mean, I was actually looking forward to cleaning my bathroom. Really. That’s how often I’m not home!
I’ve been photographing here and there with my phone. Here are a few from the last day or so:
My car…the last one standing in the school parking lot

Night in the design department…quiet and eerie

Cutout letters nearly ready to be assembled to my sign!

Right now I’m DIVING into several new projects, including a few packaging systems (my favorite!!). I’m so eager to get rolling on things that sometimes I forget I have to sleep at some point…such as now…

hip with it

I actually got to SLEEP IN this morning…it was naughty and I shouldn’t have, but I did. I woke up at 9:30 and took a hot shower while pondering what I’m going to work on first when I arrive at school. My work needs to be as close to show-ready as possible for a review with my professor tomorrow.

Well, I’m still sitting in my bathrobe (yes, the one my mom gave me for my 16th birthday), eating breakfast in bed and doing my Internets stuff. There’s a nice spray of sun coming through the window and people are rolling through the street on their way to class.

Oh, and I’m listening to Justin Bieber. No judges.
Quite the morning, we’ll see how long it takes to get my buns out of bed again…

//////
Also, I bought more Apps for my iPhone last night. Hipstamatic (used to take the two photographs in this post) lomolomo, and several others! I’m having too much fun with this!

carrying on

So, it’s not the end.

I’ve decided to stick around school for yet another semester and work toward my BFA degree. It was a really hard decision that all came down to several things:

01. I don’t feel ready yet (will I ever feel ready?) to jump into that real thing called the “real world.” I’m always looking for more experience and I think another semester will do me good. I will feel regretful if I don’t at least try.

II. I missed the graduation application deadline. By a month. Whoops. And I took it as a sign that I’m supposed to stick around.

More school can never hurt and I know I can have a successful semester. It’s at my fingertips, and I’m working this semester to make everything align for the future — scholarships, ideas, confidence. I even have a summer internship at my fingertips…something I thought I wouldn’t be able to say this early in the year!

It’s going to be hard. I don’t want to be here right now, especially after I’ve tasted other places. But I know I’ll get back there as soon as I’m done, sooner or later, I’ll return to where I’ve been…and it will be worth the wait! Good things come to those who wait.

I recall a quote by John Burroughs that I know I’ve posted before, and will repost. It reminds me that there is happiness and opportunities everywhere, if you only find the optimism within your surroundings:

“The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are. Do not despise your own place and hour. Every place is under the stars, every place is the center of the world.”

Last night I took these screen grabs from a map of the route from Minnesota to California. Where I want to be right now is 1785 miles away, and I’m going to find it again someday!

Now I’m gathering up patience to sit still and, with hope, succeed. That’s something to feel really good about.

My old compadre Kelli stayed last night with me, completing the weekend trifecta of sleepovers! She was passing through town from G-Forks for a conference, and we had a nice (brief) time catching up. Kelli has been my friend since 7th grade, and we’ve had some great times. Together we’ve done plenty of boyfriend coaching (which, in hindsight we’ve realized how silly our high school relationships were). We’ve snuck out together for all the right reasons, and taken blames together for our mistakes. We huffed and puffed and wheezed together after running our races in track and sat benches together in softball and volleyball. We’ve cling wrapped cars and baked cakes and done dances together. We got our licenses together, and drove around the streets of Minot together with loud, vulgar music playing. There is not a stretch of Broadway we’ve not cruised ten times or a moment in her Chevy Celebrity (or my Olds Eighty-Eight) that we didn’t feel young and wild. Kelli has been around a long time!

Now it’s back to schoolwork FOR REAL. This is a big week with my favorite, deadlines. I’ve alleviated the pain of being in studio today by gifting myself a box of Valentine truffles and eating them recklessly…

Happy Monday — and of course, Happy Heart Day.