Dear everyone posting pictures of your animals in holiday-themed animal costumes beneath the Christmas tree saying, "_________ is getting in the Christmas spirit!",

Your animal has no idea that it's Christmas. 

Sincerely,

Jealous No-Pet Owner Yet Still Won't Subject My Future Dog to This Phenomenon

not with haste

your eyes they tie
me down so hard
i'll never learn to put up a guard

so keep my love
my candle bright
learn me hard oh learn me right

this ain't no sham
i am what i am

though i may speak
some tongue of old
or even spit out some holy word

i have no strength
from which to speak
when you sit me down and see i'm weak



we will run and scream
you will dance with me
they'll fulfill our dreams and we'll be free

we will be who we are
and they'll heal our scars
sadness will be far away




so as we walked
through fields of green
was the fairest sun i'd never seen

and i was broke
i was on my knees
you said yes as i said please

this ain't no sham
i am what i am
i leave no time
for a cynic's mind




we will run and scream
you will dance with me
they'll fulfill our dreams and we'll be free

we will be who we are
and they'll heal our scars
sadness will be far away




do not let my fickle flesh go to waste
as it keeps my heart and soul in its place
i will love with urgency but not with haste



#oof #rightinthefeels

holy vocals and procrastination week

i have accomplished the following items this week:

- completing my final assignment for Design Visualization (class #1 complete)
- completing my final essays for my history class (class #2 complete)

still awaiting completion:
- final submission for construction tech (Wednesday 5 PM) (class #3)
- final presentation/model/board for studio (Friday) (class #4)

in addition, i have managed to find time to complete all of the following procrastinatory items:
- creating a LinkedIn profile (which will technically be useful at some point)
- making a list of Chicago architecture firms
- making a list of buildings that i want to see, worldwide (to be gradually revisited)
- cleaning my apartment (which really actually did need to happen)
- eating all the snacks (#teamgoldfish)
- buying alcohol for this weekend
- reading a book for a book club (which is actually about structures/architecture)
- watching 11 episodes of "The Good Wife" in one day (shouts out to Saturdays)
- emailing a christmas list to my parents (complete with a few hours of internet research)
- online shopping/browsing for others' christmas gifts
- creating a thorough weekend itinerary for my upcoming trip to chicago
- reading nearly every buzzfeed article that is remotely relevant to my life
- taking nearly every buzzfeed quiz that is remotely relevant to my life
- youtube binge-ing, which brought me through the following collection of videos:
beyonce via facebook started it all - i can't resist her voice/sexy. then i started wondering if a good cover of it existed, enter Mackenzie Johnson (the most-viewed cover of Jealous):

then i spent about 30 minutes listening to her videos.. only because girl got PIPES and hella videos:
which led me to this gem:

which was impressive and made me very jealous. then i looked up the original of the above song but it sadly reminded me that Eric Hutchinson stopped recording good music a long time ago and that the only way to listen to him is via live album or actually live. RIP non-pop-sounding Eric Hutchinson... also in all of the live videos of him, bro looks COKED OUT. Dude, I'm not sure what you're using, but they make Visine and other things for that. Maybe he's been wearing the same pair of 2-week contacts for like 3 months? Can't say I'm not guilty of that last one.  All this reflection on my old musical tastes got me thinkin about good ol Ben Rector (who still, fortunately, is making good music and is also excellent live). Which brought me over to his youtube channel to make sure he isn't releasing any music any time soon.

Unfortunately, nothing posted BUT it brought me back to one of my favorite covers of all time:

wowza. great song, great cover. now i want to go sing.

(continuing list of procrastination activities)
- writing this blog post...

9/18/14 - part II

Coming up on my first "final critique" tomorrow and I'm REALLY nervous.  I'm pretty sure I can get the work completed, but I'm just not sure what to expect during the actual situation.  I've put in the time and the project looks okay right now (hopefully to change for the better in the next 24 hours) but it's just nerve-wracking to have people critique your work in general.  There is a competitive nature to our program in general, but a lot of the competition is often comparing apples to oranges because our projects are so different and unique.  There's also a pretty constant pressure to stay in the studio and work forever, but I really have to tune out everyone else when I'm there in order to be productive. Thankfully, the stress will be over in about 30 hours. 

9/18/14

After finishing my time with Teach for America in Chicago this past June, I've had some time to process what exactly happened over the past two years.  While I did move on from teaching, it is safe to say that TFA created an awareness in me of just how valuable learning from other people really can be (especially those with backgrounds different from my own).  I have always been interested in how the design of buildings shapes our lives (hence starting architecture school), but it wasn't really until I had experienced a community different than that which I had always known did I really understand how pivotal these perspectives could be.  It took me a long time as a teacher to stop being angry with my students themselves, and start realizing that it is really the brokenness of Chicago that is fueling the anger and frustration of that student who doesn't give a shit about the math homework I just assigned. Maybe an extended way to say it, but we all need a little perspective.