Funks and PIE.

I hate those days when you wake up in a funk. When you just kind of lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, and think, "Wow, today is going to be terrible." I tried to combat it this morning by wearing my red boots and birthday flannel (it's extra soft, so that was a bonus), but I couldn't shake it off in time for studio.

And boy, was studio a huge kick in the face. My teacher's method of education is "dump tons of information and tasks on everyone so they're overwhelmed, and then leave so we can't answer questions." We're designing a school for autism in Clifton Forge (a hypothetical project), and today was day 1 of design. We've been doing research and other boring stuff since August, so we were all really excited to start thinking architecturally. We picked our sites and were all rearing to go, and then my teachers unleashed a rain cloud of reality: we've gotta design these things up to code.

It makes sense, in the real world everything is up to code. But it was mildly terrifying to hear my teachers just keep listing things we needed to think about: building height, fire safety, means of egress, fire windows, ADA requirements for kitchens and bathrooms, zoning, setbacks, flood planes, minimum net square footage, DOA (department of education) requirements, the list goes on. My classmates in other studios are designing auditoriums and pavilions, all nice and simple. We're designing a school. 

Without going on too much of a tangent, I'll just say I was overwhelmed by the amount of work thrown at me. But throughout the day I was able to tackle a lot of it, and have some nice design ideas I'm going to work with. One of these days I'll write about the project for you. 

Flash and I chatted a bit over Skype during studio, and I told him how pooey the day had been. So, he made plans to take me and Luca to the park after I got out of class. It was a beautiful fall afternoon, brisk and colorful and it smelled like Halloween. We took a walk around the park, him with his camera and me with my second birthday present from him.

He found out from a friend about the Sketchbook Project, an art showcase type thingie where people buy a sketchbook, fill it/modify it/make art with it however they like (within a size limit), and mail it away to be in a travelling exhibition in March. He knew that I like to make sketchbooks and draw a lot (being an architect and all), so he got me one.

I drew a bit at the park, to break it in. I'm really excited about it actually, and I'm already making plans to take the book apart and add more pages. He was very proud of himself for finding out about this, and I can't blame him. This is a really neat project and I'm really excited that I get to be part of it.

Muum and Todd-Face bought me a sugar pumpkin when they visited me in September, and tonight I decided to make a pie. Well, two- I had more than enough filling. I'd never made a pumpkin pie before, let alone a pie from a pumpkin (as opposed to a can). And it really isn't all that hard either. I would show you guys the finished result, but they're still baking.

It's just like when Muum would fix butternut squash for dinner. Except I'm not protesting vehemently about eating it. Getting older does things to you, I suppose.



Speaking of getting older, I went to Kroger and found some NEAT hard cider from Virginia Apples. It looked cool and I wanted to buy it, but apparently 3 hours from being 21 is still not good enough to buy alcohol. No hard feelings Kroger, but I wanted that cider. Guess I'll wait til tomorrow.

Also, I realized that my photographing skills/backdrops/camera are all not that great. My adventurous waterproof point and shoot is GREAT for adventuring and swimming and doing things, but not so much for taking nice photos of studio projects or blog worthy images.