School Started

Bleh... Yeah grad school!!... but this has been such a crazy bad luck week that I am very worn out. So warn out I don't want to even write about it. At least I'm in love and it's my boy's birthday and we are going to go to Oregano's tomorrow!!

(Oh and I have a beautiful messy view at my desk in Studio!)

So many little things

That make this adventure just perfect.

I love the distance Phoenix is from California that we are getting plenty of visitors.

I love palm trees now! Our little house has palm trees, I have always said that I hated palm trees and specifically told the realtor we wanted a house with trees but not with palm trees. Well we ended up with a house with palm trees in the front, back and on the side. And the three neighbors backing up to our house have palm trees towering out of there yards to. They always pissed me off because they are non-native to North America, and they don't provide the most amazing of shade. But you know what? They remind me of home, they remind of the eras of California and they represent warmth, relaxation and happy times. I love the way they make their own unique sound when the wind blows through them. And the other night I just realized that the palm trees that we have (that are really wide and nice) are perfect for non-shedding trees for the happy pool owner.

I love the fact that our backyard has no telephone poles. We're really lucky. It's such a little thing but it's nice, we have a beautiful sky to look up to.

I love the distance we are from the train just far enough away that when it bellows it makes you smile.

I love the distance we are from the jets taking off and landing. It's the perfect distance that only sometimes you can hear them faintly. It reminds of jets cruising overhead far away at my grandparents cabin.

I love the distance we are from a health food store, 24-hour Walgreens, 24-hour grocery store, Target, and the rest of Tempe.

I love the size of our house, just the right size, sometimes we could use something bigger, but most of the time it feels perfect.

I love the funky style of our house, at first I was embarrassed to have a flat roof mock south western, but now I'm so proud of embracing what my house, let's hear it 1968!

I LOVE our floor plan.

I LOVE our low windows.

I LOVE our pool, it's at an odd angle and it's not standard for a little tract home (no kidney bean here!) but it's big and nice and fits into our backyard perfectly.

I love our pool slide, new tricks are discovered everytime we show it to someone new.

I love our funky quarter basketball court. Sure it takes up the rest of our yard, but it's great for parties, and I have the fantasy of one day using it for the foundation of a pool cabana.

I love the used patio furniture we found on craigslist for 130 bucks. (even though I need to fix the cushions and the legs)

I love the distance we are from school. Just the right amount to be a perfect little bike ride, a quick car ride, but far enough away to be able to feel like I'm truly away from school.

I love our little adventure.

Watching Helvetica

Helvetica the documentary.

So nice to slip back into design and pay attention to every single detail around you until you are blue in the face.

The thoughts that have entered my mind so far. They talk about how all companies in the sixties transitioned to Helvetica from a huge mish mash of other things, and things just became simple, but dictorial? And erasure of all past mass confusion of beauty of all people of life and their ideas, to a white washed thing? There are positives and negatives. On the one hand the world has become to complex and complicated and you need simplification to continue to function. It's time for us to chose the best option from all the options and drop the rest and move forward. On the other hand variety is one of the keys to life. Eating the right things, the best things from all cultures is important to your diet. But variety in your diet is also so important. I think you get my drift.

And the other comment that they made that everything that comes after is secondary. That is possible, you can't get much simpler than the most simple, so the only place you can go from there is more complex, and of course only for the better because the most simple has already been created which you can always fall back. I like where where we are right now as humanity which sometimes so and sometime not is: cautiously growing complex.

The window is open and it is nice

I was going to say something about Goleta and I can't remember what it was. I don't know whether it was how beautiful outside it is right now, how badly I want to move back, or how I can get many of my friends that live elsewhere to relocate back here.

One thing I can say though is that we are locked in some bad habits, well good or bad depending on how you look at them. The desire to catch up with everyone we've been missing, and the desire so strong that we break the bank in the process. I mean that's fine, in some ways, but in other ways not. I think there is definitely a large number of dreams and realities at this point that are not on the same page.

I always wish I had talked about my day. Here it goes: simpler day, cajun with clare, getting ready to leave, and then doing a sister tour and seeing Christina at Mesa Cafe and seeing Stephanie at Chuck's. This was probably the last time we will see Stephanie working at Chuck's and that is sad. As if I didn't have enough dreams in my head, I hope that someday I can be well enough off to be a regular at Chucks.

Yesterday Dutch Gardens for the first time. Another first on a visit to the beautiful south coast. I can't remember the beer we had, but it was really good and made by monks.

The day before, Edomasa & Harry's for Dessert. During the day a nice chill session at the beach and then a mini-rafting adventure.

The day before, a beautiful bike ride in Goleta, Ming (with three Mai Tais, of which I was the only girl to complete) and Breaktime. Oh and beautiful walking home through the Goleta air.

The day before dinner with fam at Hollister Brewing Company and later in the evening Mercury Lounge. And also work in the morning with Donna because...

The day before I drove to LA with to go work with Donna and see houses that I had helped draw. It was really cool seeing all these houses that I had stared at in 2D for so long come to life, and one of them was fully completed and in use with a family living happily away. Very cool. Also I saw something that I had suggested come to life, a window between two interior spaces placed in a specific place in a hosue. It's technically my first design contribution and design contribution come to life (besides this other thing that I don't know how much actually came to be) but anyways it was very very cool. I believed they were calling in the beer window? or the more beer window? Or the beer and popcorn window? Anyways, rad.

 

Day before took care of some business, went to Goleta Beach and then went to Paul & Deanna's.

Day before successful rafting!!!! And going away party for Dan. And I think I've caught up to my last journal post.

 

Oh did I mention that once again when we return home tomorrow we are going to have non-stop visitors again?

Beautiful Beautiful Weekend

This was an incredibly beautiful weekend, that actually started well before the weekend, and was just so beautiful that it includes some work in there as well!

First after spending another entertaining night at my aunt & uncle's I went to the house my boss is house sitting in the Hollywood hills to work with her in person, the house was so cozy and rather large at the same time. It had separate offices and gym on the side overlooking the pool, and one of those offices I spent the afternoon and into the evening working as the beautiful southern california air drifted in (and yes even LA air is beautiful when you're a little worn out from a 115). Then at around midnight, I went down to meet my friend to spend the night with her before she got married.

The next morning all the preparation for the wedding went smoothly and I was done with photos and everything by two and went back and worked well into the evening. Then the drive up to the goodland, and further preparation for the Scavenger Hunt coming up. All in a good days work!

Next day, more rush on work, the game, and preparation for my friend's reception. The reception was beautiful it, it was on the lawn of her church, it was so nice that if she had to rent it, it would have been a lot of money. The reception was so her complete with a ton of smashing pumpkins. Afterwards - Los Arroyos, more working on the game, Breaktime, IN-n-OUT.

Next morning, up at the crack of dawn (8 am of course) more work on the game, straight up last minute crunch, just like school. But I finished in style and was the first person at La Patera.

Ok must go enjoy more now, post later.

Oh look, I am going to finish my post and it is later, and you bet I enjoyed Goleta!

People started to roll in, and became exciting, so many people, by the time we were ready to play there were over 30, how exciting is that! Passed out the rules and they were off!

Ben and I went to our first somewhat secret location of Blenders and enjoyed them greatly along with visitations from groups. It was discovered that Phil was using a fish eye throughout the entire game (so brave) and the pictures were turning out awesome.

When the games concluded the first, second and third were so close! First came in at 201, second at 193, and third at 191. How's that for a well put together game! And the first place team only lost by one photo, that the other team completely discovered by accident. John & Becky brought their projector and we were able to have an instant slide show at Rusty's pizza!

Then we had a Frankenstein of an evening seeing once again as many people as possible.

Sunday = First successful float day, even besides the elements!!
One of the rafts popped
I got stung by a bee
We were stranded on the beach for awhile

But oaring, floating, being tied together, drinking, and chilling were carried out with success.

And of course Dan's going away party and the bestowal of the original piece of Dan's velvet painting collection was presented to us for safekeeping until a later date in time.

Now that's a weekend.

Oh what a Beautiful Night

I was on my way home from Aprils and my first time making Gazpacho. After getting off the phone song number 9 came on. Our song. And there was lightening in the sky and the wind was blowing and I realized life is great, the imperfections of life are what makes it so great, and I am so happy.

Friends!

We are lucky to know so many people. Sometimes I feel like we know too many people, just in the sense that there are not enough hours, dollars, or calories to keep up with spending time with everyone we know.

Even here in Phoenix, between family, friends, classmates who have now become friends, and visiting friends we never have a dull moment. When we do it's infrequent enough we would like to think of it for what it really is, which is a break.

Anyways, how did this happen? I don't know but I am very thankful.

Going to a baseball game tomorrow, half the fun is the mischief we have planned around it.

Insomnia. But mild.

At my cousins. Well actually my aunt & uncle's but they went to sleep five hours ago and I'm sitting in my cousin(s) room sooooo. where am I really?

One of them is playing call of duty and it's so (sorry!) but I see foundations and not foundations (in the nerdy sense) and architecture in general, but it's just a game. But the question is, do these foundations and different architectural styles affect them in different ways while playing the game? Bullet penetration? Can I even begin to compose this question without seeming like a total nerd.

I have reaily long nails right now.

But the statement of the night. And the next undefined period is: Lock it up. Lock it up.

Oh look an entry

Being a purist makes you irrelevant, but everyone wants to be a purist, so I guess that makes you cool. And I guess cool people are definitely irrelevant to reality.

I had something gab on here the other day, and sure enough, tadah! Out of sight out of mind.

This whole thought that apparently every time we remember something we rewrite whether we like it or not making it almost impossible to have perfect accuracy of memories. It really makes you kind of creeped out, which leads you to the next question, if were designed to slightly alter our memories over time were they ever intended to be preserved as we do now?

For the sake of joy I'll recap this last weekend.
Friday - First time playing Mad Gab at the Stuart house. Not too bad of a game, probably one of the few games out there that you actually improve at as your intoxication level rises.

Saturday BroBQalicious. It really was nice. I was able to just put on the sunscreen appreciate the CL for what it is and love the sand. Not paranoid at all, just enjoying all things. Of course extended into the night because Chunk turned 21 and we met his sister and his Mom at the Palms at Midnight.
That's it. the last of my friends are now 21. There is no one else that is holding us back, it's crazy.
And of course yesterday we celebrated downtown and I went to Wahoo's fish tacos for the first time. Which apparently is a chain and was actually pretty decent and a good deal. Making me hungry.
Good thing we are going to Pepe's! (Another first, crazy I know)
in the words of Ben, "This is the worst thing to ever happen"

Why is your window open?

Why is your window open? Why is the weather incredibly perfect outside? Why was it cool when I went out to the car last night to get something? Why is this state so amazing? I mean I've been keeping my pride strong all this time, but I forgot how amazing it is. Or maybe I have new eyes and see an even MORE BEAUTIFUL PLACE, than I ever have before.

Review is done yeah...

And yet I don't feel satisfied why is that? Well I know it is partially because my presentation wasn't as strong as I wanted it to be. I mean I presented my core argument in the storyboard order I had imagined it. But it was really choked I thought in my opinion like a robot doing translation on the fly, I used the word "we" which is technically correct since my professor did assist me with the project, but I didn't want to, I was aware during the presentation that I didn't want to and it still popped out again minutes later. And last but definitely not least, I missed the majority of the finer details of my building. Why did all this happen?

I've been pondering, and first I've realized that this is great, school is where you are suppose to mess up in the first place and then you can learn and try again, it's not like the world where I missed out on some cool opportunity. Other conclusions: Who said presenting while in Zombie status is easy? (Though I have prided myself on it in the past) Who says presenting when you've barely swam through the impossible barage is easy? (Though I'm also proud of what I have pulled off in the past on the fly) But it's like a game of poker sometime staying in for the river works and sometimes it doesn't. Maybe.

But I did have an important realization just a little bit ago. The SPACE of my presentation was awkward. I mean sure there were the nice boards and the big model and the little model, and my roof exhibition of trusses and my bricks. But I did not fit into the context very well. This stems from the other important realization that even though everything I'm physically presenting presents the whole story, it is still being shoved in your face all at once (like architecture unfortunately must a lot of time) but anyways, unlike a slideshow which is progressive, I'm stuck there ON THE FLY figuring out what I should be pointing at when, stealing precious seconds of seamless transition. Which brings me back to the other point. When you have to turn your backside to the audience so you don't knock your model off the pedestal you really are destroying your moment. Maybe my idea of arch presentation is to contrived, but until I am fully in my element as an architect, rehearsal is necessary.

Oh my hometown

The more people I find on facebook the higher the confirmed percentage of people I find who no longer live in my hometown. It's so sad. How many people would live there if they could with a reasonable income? I don't consider myself to count because I'm in grad school right now. The goal is to eventually get back there and have our kids consider it their hometown as well. We got some time.

Today. I should talk about my day. Went to school, didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked last night, (these two things are par for the course). Came out of my classroom to fifteen fire trucks, apparently there had been an explosion. Sweet! Lots of rain. Also very nice. Went to the gym finally. Ryan's gone (other Ryan) no more excuses to not go to the gym. Besides we have goals and deadlines.

Tomorrow getting myself in over my head by committing to lighting calculations with Adam. Exciting actually. Good thing the deadline is infinite, by typical deadline standards that is.

Another beautiful day and peaceful evening

I actually didn't start out my day that peaceful, but that's my fault because I was too busy having a good time last night at Outback Steakhouse and watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall again and of course drinking red wine.

But the night is beautiful the crickets are outside making noise at the most perfect level and it is slowly sprinkling and stopping, then sprinkling and stopping some more. Sometimes you can't even tell it's raining, sometimes the only way you can tell is when it hits our old school metal awning in the back. The temperature is just right so that you can have the windows open to listen to all the sounds and just the slightest coolness comes drifting in. A very beautiful way to enjoy the desert. And of course to top it all off there is music drifting out of a bedroom down the hall. And right now it's just right and matches the mood of this beautiful evening.

I had a very long skype video conference call with Jesse. It was rad. Thank God for the Internet. We caught up on all kinds of stuff and walked around our houses and showed them to each other! I mean how cool is that? How crazy is it that Jesse's been in Japan for so long? I miss him but I'm so stoked he's living the dream. And let me tell you, it makes visiting Japan just that much more enjoyable.

Today

Today has been the greatest day ever. I'm sitting in the bedroom across from my bedroom listening to the sound of crickets... but not live. :)

What else has happened... my first day of school (I missed one class!)

I rode the new Phoenix light rail for the first time. (home from school!)

Peeps showed up to make beautiful music

Hockey game

Obamanation!

I suppose I should be more poetic, but hey it's been a happy day.