Secret Santa: Revealed!

making an animated gif









For my Secret Santa, Camille recieved me and I got a fantstic package that I opened on Chrsitmas. I have been getting lots of mugs recently, which is totally awesome because mugs are fantastic and I have been drinking tea WAY more often. Speaking of tea, this Vanilla Rooibos will be perfect to relax with. There were some delicious little cookies, and a soft scarf, and of course the package was not complete without a mix CD (that I am currently listening to.)


I had an awesome Christmas (and great post-Chrsitmas shopping downtown) and am so glad to be able to spend so much time with my friends from Seattle.

Hope everyone else had an awesome Chrsitmas/ Holiday season, and now the New Year is just around the corner!

ps. Everyone thanks for the suggestions on my list of twenty things. I'll be finalizing that soon!

Christmas Eve's Eve


Ah, it's so nice to be home for the holidays.

I was able to surprise my sister by coming home earlier that expected (... 4 days actually), which also allowed me to see more of my friends from Seattle. In the past few days I've been busy visiting with everybody; baking cookies and singing with Honora, and going to a fondue party amongst other Holiday parties in which I can visit with people I haven't seen in over 4 months. Oh, and GOING TO STARBUCKS. Like, every day.

But, at the same time it is almost a bit weird being back home, seeing my family, driving around, and not needing my RPI ID card to get food. I was talking to one of my close friends from RPI and she was telling me how lonely she felt not being able to see us! (see below) It's easy to miss us.

this is typical, but I'm behind the camera, as always.

Merry Christmas, from us.

Other awesome Christmas related things:
- Getting involved with the blogger family secret Santa, and getting something from Camille but I haven't opened it yet...
-Amy, who in addition to being an awesome blogger friend is my cousin, sent me a package that I also have yet to open...
- My family is having a Holiday Open house tonight that I should probably be helping prepare for... but I'm a lazy college student
- SO MANY SWEETS.

Something unrelated to Christmas:
Similar to Shelby, I have been trying to get together a list of 20 things to do before I turn 20, because, well, that's in 10 months. Any suggestions? Right now my list is very vague. A few of the more refined things are:
- Take a road trip
- See a musical on Broadway
- Grow a mustache (if possible)
- Learn to play guitar
- Get a tattoo
- Start a lookbook.nu account

Well, I'll finalize this list by the first of January. For now though, have a wonderful holiday season and if you have snow, play in it for me!

With the sound of sleigh bells entering my head...



(couldn't find the source for this picture, but I like it lots)

December first. A day that marks the beginning of the end. Twenty four days  until Christmas. Less than that until I go home. And even less than that until finals begin, and then consequentially end.

I want to smell that fresh pine scent of the Christmas tree.

I want to sit by the side of a fireplace, listening to Christmas music and drinking some sort of Holiday-themed coffee beverage. (We all know I'm talking about peppermint mocha.)

I would like to sit around and look into Architecture internships for the summer.

I want to go Downtown Seattle and look at all of the decorations and go shopping.

I would like to drive around with my two best friends (from home, that is) and look at Christmas lights.

To sum it up, I'm ready to go home. Having spent Thanksgiving away from my family I feel disconnected  (although I had an awesomely fun time at a friends place, and got amazing deals at outlets on Black Friday) and can't wait to be home again!

I'll be back soon with a less depressing post.

-ings

Eating: Ritz crackers with dark chocolate peanut butter.

Listening: to Regina Spektor (Samson)

Wishing: That I was back home in Seattle.

Thinking: About everything. My friends and family back home. Christmas shopping (and more importantly planning) that needs to happen. About schoolwork (always). Christmas Blogger Swap. About the fact that I always spend more time doing things that I'm already doing fine at, while not acknowledging those things that I do poorly. About the how thirsty I am from all this peanut butter...

Wanting: A pumpkin spice, or gingerbread latte from Starbucks. A peppermint mocha would suffice. And a pair of navy blue chinos.

Missing: Free time. Doing crafty things (that AREN'T assigned to me). Singing with Honora. Even my little sister.

We're freakin' adorable. And awkward. Prefect. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Preoccupying: Myself with BTA (Building and Thinking of Architecture) homework so that I can do my Calculus tomorrow morning.

Dreaming: About the future, near and far, and what it has in store not only for me, but everybody that I know. (This sounds morbid and like I know something terrifying, but it's mainly things like my swim meet on the first weekend of December, Christmas break, etc.)

Hoping: That Taylor will get back to me soon so that I can buy tickets to go down to NYC during my Thanksgiving Break (since I can't go home).

Seriously Amy, you outdid yourself. It was too adorable to open. Literally, I waited a week before I could open it.

Needing: To write thank you cards for people that sent me stuff for my birthday. (Amy, that package was unbelievable and I thank you and that mug has been used several times already.) To pass all my classes this first semester (calculus is a joke, and my grade reflects how much I'm learning from it... NOTHING.) To fill up my water bottle because I'm even more thirsty since I just ate some dried mango's.

Bidding: You all farewell! Time to be productive and I shall blog again soon.

A List.


» Today was the first snowfall. We were all quite unprepared for it. This includes the school walkways that are slippery when wet, my friend who slipped and fell because of her footwear, and my lack of heavy-weatherproof shoes worried me as well. So I looked into snow boots and being the dapper fellow that I am, this pair satisfies my needs. Although it says it is a "hiking" boot it should do fine to get me around campus dry and not slipping/falling because of lack of traction. Plus, they look fantastic, no?
Timberland 'Newmarket Nordic' Hiker Boot
I also enjoy this pair (probably more so) but they seem like they'd be significantly less functional in the snow.
Timberland 'Heritage Dardin' Hiking Boot

» This the the only architecture related thing I have to say on this post: there is a blog set up for our specific section. If you care you can look at our work up until now here. (Except for the fact that I'm missing the second half of the assignment on there. But I'm the first post ever so... take a look.)

» I can't wait for Taylor to come up from NYU to visit me! We are going to have massive fun.

» I opened the Urban Outfitters package... I couldn't stand it anymore. In order to preserve some of the birthday magic I had a friend open it for me, and chose one thing for me to have. I did this two days in a row, so now there is only one thing left in there... but I'm okay with this. So far I got new boots and the olive cords  I wanted! (Thanks parents!)

» I had to do the previous actions. I've been sick the past week and I feel terrible and needed to go to the store to get dayquill/nyquill which is overly expensive. I just want to feel slightly better for the swim meet this weekend.

» Vampire Weekend radio on Pandora is amazing. And it occasionally plays  Louis Armstrong which is completely acceptable.

» Birthday Countdown from 10/28/11: 3 days.

Sometimes I Ramble:

Let me begin with a slight rant so that I can get my architectural angst out now.

Architecture. Midterms.

The amount of people that pulled all-nighters was ridiculous. The amount of work that was assigned was overwhelming. The tension between people, and towards the work, was as thick as fog. I don't like the model I made. Sure it looked cool but it wasn't right. I know it wasn't right. I wasn't happy with it. I was frustrated with it. Mid-term critiques went surprisingly well though. My professor brought in two of his architectural colleagues who were just as surprisingly easy to present to. They seemed to really like the idea that has been driving my process thus far, and (after the initial dissatisfaction with my model that I wasn't happy with) all they did was bounced new ideas off of each other; so constructive criticism. I then over the next few days made more new models to try and satisfy the needs of the project as well as myself. I'm now on my sixth 18 by 18 by 4 inch model. I would show you my frustration but instead I'll show you the parts of the project that I did correctly, and that turned out well.

This is a model I made in a program called Rhino. I then made these structures out of task board (aka IMPOSSIBLE) I did a ton of other stuff too, but when I complete it, it will go up on the blog that my professor made for our section.
There are also a significant amount of people who I'm already tired of having in the same studio space as me. Lazy people who don't care? They should leave. People who lie all the time? Stop talking to me. People who are fake? Immature? Grow up. People who play their bad music too loudly? Please, for everybody's sake put in a pair of headphones. Is this too much to ask?

Okay, I'm done now. Onto better things! Halloween is coming really, really soon. This also means that my birthday is coming soon! The days continue to fly by. There is a possibility that I will have more than one costume for that weekend; Eeyore & the Mad Hatter. We'll see.

Tomorrow I leave for Rhode Island (which I've never been to) for my first college swim meet. Exciting and scary. But I get to miss my biology class which is dislike strongly. But I'm also sick so I don't know how well I'll do. I'll keep you posted.

Besides focusing on purely architectural studies in college, after talking to my academic advisor we discussed some exciting potentials for my future here at RPI which are...
- Getting a music minor. Because I love music, and I've taken music theory & history courses that fascinate me. It also correlates with stylistic tendencies within eras of art and architecture.
- Getting a master in acoustics. Which is actually possible if I work everything out while I'm here. It might mean I stay a summer later on to do research, or extra classes, but it will be worth it.
Graduating with a Minor in Music, Bachelors of Architecture, and Master in Acoustics would put me at a good place going into the profession of architecture. Which I want. And then I would get paid to do what i love the end.

Want the boots. And the navy pants. Might as well go for the socks too. I just love UO.

I also received a package today from Urban Outfitters. My parents said that it's my Birthday present. This also excites me. But I have a dilemma; should I wait until it is actually my Birthday to open it, or open it when I feel like it (aka, early, because I want to potentially wear it's contents). Internal struggle guys.

As you can see I've got a few conflicting emotions going on, and I'm tired and starting to ramble because it just turned midnight and I can sleep in tomorrow but that doesn't mean I should stay up for no reason on the Internet and blog like I'm doing right now do you see what I mean about the rambling? (exhale)

How is the rest of the world doing?

I'm Alive & Blogging




Hello inter web and Happy October. I'm back for a brief amount of time. What you see above is what I spent this weekend doing. All of it has a very specific purpose and meaning behind it, but if I were to explain it to you I would be writing at least one very long paragraph. I'm starting to document ALL my work (literally, everything, there is so much) so I have it for portfolio stuff and I can show everyone what I've been up to... since this IS all I seem to be doing.

Yeah, so, college. I don't think I'm getting the "typical" college experience by choosing this as my major, but in ways I don't mind. There are archies (that's what we call architecture majors) that find time to do "normal" college student stuff, but it reflects in their work. The friends that I've made are serious about this stuff, but we have a lot of fun with it. And although we rarely have time to go and do something, we will make a good time out of anything. Like that one time we walked down into Troy (the city where RPI is directly located) and went to the farmers market....

I took the picture, which Is why I wasn't in it. But I love jumping pictures.


I've been enjoying my time here. My group of friends (see above, and there are more too) have made the transition smooth. Yes, I miss home and my sister and my best friends from Seattle, but I try and focus on the good times I have ahead of me here.

Some things that would make my college experience MORE awesome:
- Earl Grey/Black Tea and awesome mugs to put it in.
- Recommendations for TV shows/movies I can listen to and not really watch (I need something to do when I'm working in studio, but that I don't have to give my full attention to.)
- A new pair of boots. I love me some boots. Preferably waterproof.
- A planner. I need to get myself one of those. Thank god I have friends to freak out and remind me of deadlines.
- Any sort of reminder of things outside of Troy. Like, anything. I feel isolated at times.
- GOING TO NYC. I need to do that... SOON.
- Being able to watch Glee on Tuesday when it airs! Grrrr Wednesday classes....

That's it for now, as I need to go to bed since I have to get up for a morning swim practice quite early.
Next post to come will involve a wish list, since my birthday is coming soon! (Also, my mom asked me to make one, and I figure I might as well blog it since it gives the links and everything.)
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