Thursday, August 4, 2016

Saturday Night

This picture is from a tree in our yard that is at least 200' tall, the morning after last weeks snow storm. Our house is 100 years old and the property is filled with these ENORMOUS old growth trees that are really beautiful. When you look up at our roofline and see the house surrounded, literally, by these gorgeous fir trees, you can honestly feel like you are in the northern woods, in some charming cabin. Sometimes I have to pinch myself.

It's just after 7pm...I am home alone, on the couch watching reruns of Friends! Woohoo! I'm loving it. K is at a bachelor party, complete with 3 strippers (I'm not supposed to know that part--the code of secrecy that surrounds all bachelor parties). Auggie is passed out in his crate, all doped on Benedryl because he has over the course of the last week become allergic to his food. He's been relentlessly pawing at his face and pretty crabby too. And I have made myself a dinner of a sleeve of cookies and an orange. Nice, huh? I am having my own bachelorette evening of sorts and I'm glad too as it is way too cold to go out.

I spent the morning visiting a friend from my days at design school who recently had a baby. It was great to see both of them. This friend of mine is pretty amazing, singer in a successful band, fabulously creative, unbelieveably smart. She and I were always near the top of our class although we were never competitive with each other because our styles are pretty different. But seeing her reminded me of striving for excellence. Being around her always pushed me a little further. She cut no corners--ever and always reached for the highest rung. She was inspiring to me and I miss those days at school eventhough it was only 2 years ago that we were there (2nd career for me, for new readers).

I have another degree from a highly regarded liberal arts university in New York City but I can say, the amount of work and the intensity of the work we did in the Literature program does not hold a candle to what we were put through in design school. My two degrees simply do not compare. Design school was SOOOO much more labor intensive and grueling. We worked around the clock every damn day. I didn't (couldn't really) socialize or have a life through the whole program. No one really did. We worked like maniacs. You would have thought it was med school. I actually really miss it. I think it is the only time in my adult life that I have been completely immersed and passionate about what I was doing. I wouldn't let anything interfere with my performance and I didn't know I could be so dedicated to something like that. And it was the first time that I felt competitive with other people. I have always pushed myself in school but didn't care what others were doing. This was new for me, that feeling of wanting to do better than the people around me. I learned a lot about myself. Anyway, when I win the lottery, I plan to go back to school permanently get a degree in Art History, Fine Art and Architecture and take it from there.

Ok, I'm done blabbering away. I'm off to dig into some girly magazines and possibly paint my toes.