This is for yesterday, when I was at my mother's with a lack of internet access:
When I return to Austin tomorrow it will be a breath of fresh air; the next time I see my mother it will be too soon! I chose this song for today because not only is it awesome, but for the fact that it relates to the current predicament that I can't wake up properly when I'm not in a proper bed. Yesterday I slept horribly! I spent the night on the living room floor (of my mother's apartment for clarification) on sheets that although proper for the current weather outside hinder my attempts at lying comfortably on floor. Nonetheless, I still had some pretty interesting dreams, one about being reassured one hundred from my boss for the week (whether that is 100 dollars or 100 hours I didn't get) along with another dream concerning roaches in my house that weren't roaches but turned into beetles.
This reminds of the movie I saw a few weeks ago, Inception. Before I go any further I do recommend that everyone go see it, but I will warn that it does make you think. Actually, if you don't feel like thinking, you shouldn't be reading this blog :p . Anyway, it deals with dreams and so forth but one interesting aspect of the movie is that of the architect. Without trying to give too much away, this person serves to create the world in which a person's dream occurs. However (quite fittingly), the dream is the one that populates the dream and fills it with his desires. I found this eerily mirroring true like architect-client relationships, especially when if you do things to throw the world out of balance or not complicated enough, the dreamer's subconscious will attack you!
Speaking of architects, today while lunching (yes it was lunch time therefore the word is appropriate) at my favorite Chinese restaurant back in SA I learned that the owner was actually an architect in China before he came here and started his business. I learned about what they want, the process of creating a building and pretty much everything else he could throw us in the 15 minute span he spent teaching us (me, specifically) as we gulped down our egg drop soup and hurried through the last bits on our plates. It was amazing to think of the power that the architect holds in China - they actually supersede the engineer in Asia and it is one of the top professions to be a part of, paraphrasing the owner:
'Top three jobs in Asia: one, doctor; two, lawyer: three, architect
Overall it had me very impressed and gave me reason to rethink my plans. Should I still go to school in England? A part of me is thinking yes, and then move towards doing work in China. Even so, I need to focus on today and making sure I get through this year, this semester, this WEEK before I try and think about future plans. There are always variables that could change the life I end up leading so if they come my way I will flow around them just as always.
This is your wake-up call. Pick up the phone.
It doesn't help to start off the day finding out that in the past month you have gained 10 lbs. Short of being frank, this absolutely blows hardcore to the tenth degree; not simply because of the weight gained but the distance it puts between myself and my goal. Anyway -
I have been absent from my architectonic lifestyle for approximately 3 weeks while I worked as a counselor for a program called the Summer Institute for the Gifted. I can say I personally got some things out of it while at the same time helping mold minds that will change the world in the future. I know for a fact they will hold weight and have impact when one of the 11 year-old there was selling cakes in a business of his own. Moving on, I had fun, a bit of love (yes, these things happen at camps), some reprimanding (never come back late from night swimming in the hills), and overall I think I'll do it again. I can tell you for a fact though that the time I think about having children it will be too soon. It's odd b/c on one end I felt so old in respect to their age, as if the past 7 years has just zipped by. But I know in my mind that it was never that fast and even now I live day-by-day and hour by hour the clock ticks at a normal pace: I don't think I'm dying any time soon (God willing) @.@.
Either way, it's time to return to the way I was before, but in that same token, move to make changes in what I do. Something nice I picked up from working with these kids is consistently working to max on 6 hours of sleep. If I hadn't mentioned before, the way sleep works is that it is in 1-1/2 hour cycles, so I settled on this amount as it would translate well to the work I'll be doing during the school year. Anyway, my bedtime (currently) is 6 am and I can get myself awake a 7am (out of bed at 7:30 at the latest) and be fully functional the entire day. Who knew? For someone who was constantly suffering from insomnia as a fresh-faced you this will help me out very much in future endeavors.
Another change is that of cultural expression. It seems that the longer I've been in college, the more and more I've lost touch with the Hispanic part of my culture. This seems a bit ironic as in all of my projects I stress the importance of expressing one's culture through the creative process, and overall the realization has been a bit shocking. In this light, I have decided to dwell a bit on my past (something I don't usually do) along with practicing my Spanish and watching some telenovelas. May sound a bid ludicrous, but I heard of a Romanian tennis player learning Spanish from watching them and on top of that it is in large part a way to be reminded of what it means to be me.
Sport is also going to be a larger aspect of my life - pretty much the entire idea of health in both what I eat and what I do. Currently as I write this I'm thinking about what I want to do right now for exercise, though I cringe at the thought of the pain the first workout after a long hiatus from major activity. That and I mean major activity. The goal is to push myself to being a two athletic training body, one being my architect and the other is my sportist (made-up word but whatever). This includes not only hardcore training techniques, but on top of that a very stringent diet in that I won't eat anything processed and I'm officially donning the moniker of flexitarian.
Things I am keeping: my love of music, my love of Japanese culture (reviving my manga reading), my practicing of Italian, my penchant for trying new drinks (especially now that I'm 21), and the goal of going to graduate school in England.
I'm still very young so I feel I have tons and tons of life to lead. I have to say that right now this time is for me. It is a very selfish thing to say, but as they say, architects are ego driven, and according to some I'm not. Guess I have to prove them wrong? Whatever happens I'm still smiling, and I'll still be the giggler.
Today is also the day I plan on starting a bit of portfolio organization, though I'm at my mothers so if that actually happens it will be a miracle
