Homesick for LA.

I turned on The Hills today while I am doing homework and I suddenly found myself so homesick for that city. Its just been a year and half since I moved away, it feels like yesterday and yet it feels like a lifetime ago I lived there! Sometimes it seems like it was a dream too. But it was the best time of my life! LA was where I grew up and learned who I was and what I can take and how strong I am. I remember that time for all the good things that happened, not the bad (a boy who broke my heart, a job I absolutely hated etc...); all I remember is that one 4th of July we spent at Crystal Cove and all came home burnt to a crisp. Our first Hollywood night and how my middle toe was numb for a month because of the shoes I was wearing, the night we stayed in a hotel after a concert so we wouldn't be late to work the next day, weekends spent screaming and laughing at Disneyland, days spent on the beach, seeing the Hollywood sign from Griffith Observatory, driving to San Diego on a whim for a concert, Ashlee and I driving home together from work on days she was in the city, seeing Wicked with all the girls, going to The Oscars (well watching the stars arrive from far away anyway), Halloween on Santa Monica blvd, walking around the town we lived in every night... Life has been pretty tame since we moved away, living with the parents and being poor while in grad school kinda cramps your style. I know I'll have other times in my life that will be awesome, like getting a job after this degree, whenever I get married and have kids, but I'll always remember my life in LA and I'll always have a soft spot for that city (don't ever dis SoCal around me!).

sorry for the random post, I'm just procrastinating from reading about a history of gardens and villas and I was dreaming of running away from this quarter to California. Happy weekend, hope you are doing something fun! I think I'm going to go to a roller derby competition with the girls tonight! I've never been to one before! So it shall be a new experience!

M.A or M.F.A

So I came to SCAD because the Design for Sustainability program was only a one year master's (M.A). I didn't even know they were waiting to get the two year master's (M.F.A) approved. Then Fall quarter I learned that and I heard that if you ever want to teach ever you HAVE TO HAVE AN M.F.A. And I was like well I don't know what I want to do when I'm done with this degree, maybe I want to teach I should probably do the M.F.A if it's approved! But it wasn't approved all Fall quarter and wasn't last quarter so then I was like nope I don't want to do it even if it is approved before I'm done. I'm so ready to be done with school and just get to working (and lets me honest make some actual money so I can pay down credit cards and not be living off of borrowed money). And then over Spring break lo and behold the M.F.A was approved. When I got the email I had a moment when I though should I do it? I should probably do it. But that moment soon passed. I've talked to people who have gone through grad school and they said in the real world there's not much difference between a M.A and a M.F.A. The only world it would probably matter is at a design school who requires a M.F.A to teach, and I don't think I want to teach, at least not at the collegiate level. But honestly I have no idea what I want to do with this degree. When people ask I just say oh I probably will get into consulting, and I have no idea what that even means, it just shuts people up with the "what do you want to do with your life" question.

I also can't stay in the South for another year, I would die. I'm a West coast and Northwest girl through and through! I still have two quarters here left and I'm going to try and get it approved that my last quarter can be at home in Washington; my final project (which is the only class I'll have during summer) is going to focus on my small town where my parents live so hello it only makes sense that I'm there! So hopefully that will approved in the  next couple of weeks so I can start planning my road trip home with Ashlee and Heather for June and not September! I am so so so so so so ready to be back in the West!!!

Anyway I have no idea what this post was about, just thoughts for the day. Sorry I'm such a bad post-er as of late, I just didn't have time to do anything fun last quarter and this quarter will be the same. Someday I'll be a good blogger, just not now, not until I'm done with this degree. Well anyway, off to read and get ahead for one class that looks like it'll be reading heavy this quarter (which is fine by me after all our crazy projects last quarter, I will gladly read and not do projects!!!).

So happy Monday, happy almost April, happy Spring quarter.

Earth Hour 2011

Tonight at 8:30 is Earth Hour. So turn off all your lights and celebrate our beautiful Earth!!! If we all do it we can change the world.

New bike!

I've never been so excited to get a bike before!!! When I was little I always had a bike, we were a lets go for a bike ride kind of family so I kinda just took it for granted. I mean I did love my purple banana seat one, with streamers on the handle bars. And sure it was fun going to get a new one when I grew out of my old bike. But I was never like jumping for joy over it. But now I'M SO EXCITED!!! I hate having to drive to classes that are across town and our buildings never had good parking so it takes forever and you run the risk of parking tickets. Anyway I was talking to my parents one day about saving money to get a bike here but my dad being the type of dad said that he is going to pay for a bike! He got a bonus for some reason so has a little extra! I'm going tomorrow to Walmart (gross, but they have the best prices and I can't be picky when someone else it paying and I'm poor) to get a bike! hooray!!! I'm gonna get a cruiser because I'm not a serious biker, I don't care about all the bells and whistles, i just need it to get me to class and look cute and have basket to put my bags in (and yes a cute bike is very important). But I feel like a little kid going to get a new bike! I can't wait to ride to the park and around town and whatever else you do on bikes. I'll show you a picture of it when I get it!!!

Oh also this quarter ended today! I. am. ecstatic. Seriously, this quarter was so much work, not hard work or bad work ever, but just a lot. It was never ending and I hardly even had weekends to relax, it was the busiest quarter I've ever had in all my school career. So I am so glad to moving onto a new quarter.

So with that happy Spring break to you! I will soon be lazing on a beach, reading just for fun books and listening to music and sleeping in. amen.

Fruit flush

I decided that starting Wednesday and going until Saturday I am going to go on a fruit flush diet! This quarter has gotten me so stressed and I've been eating like crazy and I've NEVER been a stress eater before, it's the weirdest thing!!! Also with my crazy class schedule I just didn't have as much time as i did last quarter to work out! I can tell I've gained weight, I hate it. All my clothes still fit so I know I haven't gained that much, but I can just tell I'm not in shape anymore and I have been feeling gross. Soooo I was thinking yesterday of what I can start doing besides just working out more (thank goodness for a better schedule next quarter that will allow daily power walks and dads who buy you bikes so you don't have to drive to class) I decided to look into some sort of cleanse diet. I've heard of the master cleanse/lemonade diet and I know that's not for me, i don't do well on liquid diets without any protein, my body needs true food and protein to function. Then I remembered reading about 3 day fruit diets to help kick start getting healthy again so I looked it up and here's what I found!

Day 1 (Pre-flush) 

Every two hours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Drink a 6-ounce protein drink (void of any sweeteners, artificial colors, or other ingredients listed below), followed by 8-12 ounces of water

Dinner: 3-6 cups of raw vegetable salad, with 1 to 2 tablespoons olive or flaxseed oil or 1/2 avocado, plus half a lemon or lime

3-6 ounces lean protein or egg whites

Days 2 and 3

Every two hours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Eat one serving (approximately 100 calories' worth) of fresh fruit and drink 8-12 ounces water

Dinner: 3-6 cups of raw vegetable salad with 1 to 2 tablespoons olive or flaxseed oil or 1/2 avocado, plus half a lemon or lime

1 protein drink

Protein powders should NOT include:

• Casein
• Calcium caseinate
• Sodium caseinate
• Fructose
• Aspartame
• Acesulfame-K
• Acesulfame potassium
• Sucralose
• Sugar
• Sucrose
• Evaporated cane juice
• Artificial flavors and/or colors

This diet is by Jay Robb. I think it sounds healthy and not extreme at all which is unusual for a cleanse type diet! Wednesday morning I'll have to go stock up on all my fruit and veggies! And I have a protein powder that is from brown rice so it's totally vegan and safe for me! so anyway I'll keep you updated on this when I start. I think it'll be a great way to start a new quarter, get all energized and cleansed and ready to get going again!

Three more days.

I have three more days of this quarter left. God help me. I'm not sure if I can make it. I can't wait until Spring Break!!! The 'rents and my Aunt from Boston are coming here and we're going to Hilton Head for a  week! wooooo!!!! Beach and sun and reading fun books and listening to music and doing nothing and SLEEPING! I can't wait to not be tired! I can't remember the last time I wasn't exhausted, probably sometime back in January. This quarter has been hellish to say the least and I can't wait to wave goodbye Tuesday night when we're done presenting our container building design. But I met a new friend this quarter and we had a good time working on another project together all quarter, so it hasn't been all bad I guess; it was just non-stop. Well anyway I'll stop whining and just be glad it's all over on Tuesday!

Hope your weekend has been great so far!

Regional dialect

I've seen a few blogs do this regional dialect thing and being that I am a Northwest, West Coast girl currently living in the South (don't even get me started) I thought it was interesting to do. I'm not gonna video myself saying the words because I can't stand my voice on video so I'll just write out how we (in the Northwest) say them and write the answers to the questions.

Say these words:

Aunt (I say it like my East coast family, "Ont" most west coast peeps say "ant")

Route (root)

Wash (uh wash...how do you say it??)

Oil (oyl), Theater (thee-a-tur)

Iron (eyern)

Salmon (samon, don't pronounce the L people, its a Northwest fish so we know best)

Caramel (car-mul)

Fire (fi-yer)

Water (wah-dter, we're not good at prounouncing our T's on the west coast)

Sure (shurr)

Data (day-dta)

Ruin (rue-in)

Crayon (cran...with a little bit of a y sound in there but not much)

Toilet (toy-let)

New Orleans (new orlens)

Pecan (peh-cahn, haha muffins anyone?)

Both (bohth)

Again (agin)

Probably (exactly how its spelt)

Spitting image (again, exactly how its spelt)

Alabama (is there another way to say Alabama?)

Lawyer (loy-er)

Coupon (q-pon, I hate when people say coo-pon, drives me crazy!)

Mayonnaise (mannaise)

Syrup (surup)

Pajamas (well jammies mostly or pj's, but puh-jamas)

Caught (cot)

Now answer these questions:

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house? tp-ing! what other things do people call it??

What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball? well if I'm thinking of the right bug, those little gray ones that live under rocks in the garden...potato bug

What is the bubbly carbonated drink called? POP!!!!!!!!!!! But my mom says soda like her East coast family so soda comes out sometimes. But it's pop. always pop. 

What do you call gym shoes? tennis shoes, well we say tenna-shoes really...

What do you say to address a group of people? hey guys! (hey you guyyyyyssss)

What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs? daddy long legs

What do you call your grandparents? one grandma is "Nanny" and one was "Grammy" and my great grandma was "grandma". And the grandpa I knew was "papa". But all my friends call them "grandma and grandpa"

What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket? cart

What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining? rain....is there a special name for that??? we have tons of names for rain in Seattle but i don't think we have a name for that, it's just rain. 

What is the thing you change the TV channel with? remote! I can't stand "clicker" gross.