Ketchup

Already done with another term of school. And now I only have one left before earning my valuable piece of paper and venturing out into the real world. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Ima tell you 'bout the breeze that was Finals Week, Winter '07.

But first, leading up to finals: I don't believe I've made one mention of the giant group project I've had to work on for Environmental Graphic Design. This class (certainly not to be confused with Green Design) covers the graphic design found in spacial settings, and one of our projects for the term was to make a sort of museum exhibit to be produced in full scale, but no larger than 7' tall x 5' wide x 2' deep, and its subject could be anything design-related. So my group and I came up with "Creative Blocks" as a topic, and worked happily on it all term, then finished construction on the Saturday & Sunday before its Monday Due Date on finals week. Then Sunday night I finished up the other project for that class (it was a "Dale" class, you know how he gets... homework up the yazoo), and Paul printed it for me Monday morning to be ready for the afternoon final.

Oh, and here's a picture of our finished project! It's currently on display on the second floor of the school, in the alcove across from room 263.

My next final was Tuesday night, and all I needed for that class was two copies of my mini-book. So Monday night , Paul and I fell asleep promptly upon our home arrival (after our final we had gone out for a couple drinks with Ryan, so we got home at about 9, I think). Then we woke up at about 3 or 4 in the morning, and worked until completion on our mini books. Paul's, by the way, looks really cool. His whole identity is D&D-themed, as explained in his most recent blog posting. Anyway, that was the day I went to Lazerquick and ended up pissed at the world before 10 am. Luckily I was able to cool off shortly after ranting, and the rest of the day went fine, including the presenting of my mini book, which was very casual. My next final wasn't until Thursday morning.

In the meantime, however, I needed to evacuate my apartment. This is the term that my lease was up, so it was finally time to take all my stuff away from the strangers living with it. So I spent Wednesday on packing my belongings into boxes. I was missing a few plates, nearly all my cups, a few pots and pans, my knife block, and probably some other things I can easily replace and I don't care much about. But, I was also missing several pieces of art I did that I can never replace! For this, I am very upset. The two pieces I am most concerned about were the two I received numerous compliments for. I don't consider myself an artist, and these certainly weren't masterpieces. But I am damned sentimental, especially when it comes to something that I made and am rather fond of. I know it's my fault for leaving my stuff there for so long with people I don't know/trust, but still. It just really sucks.

Anyway, Wednesday night was spent staring at the internet, then at about midnight I opened up my homework files only to decide that there were no more changes I needed to make before printing out my final project. So I went to bed rather late (after returning from KINKO'S), and the next morning all we had to do was hand in our final zines before we were sent on our way. I did some more packing at my apartment, Paul's and Ryan's cars were loaded up, and we made our trip up to Centralia for my stuff to be stored at Paul's parents' house. Then we were back in Portland, Ryan went home, Paul and I loaded up his car again, and we were on our way to C-town once again (but not before me forgetting my phone in the apartment after I had already turned in my key... That was pretty crappy).

And so came Friday, a big day for a few of my friends. Paul and I went to the Portfolio Show, gathering the business cards of everyone we came across. The Graphic Design show was extremely small compared to other terms. And they all had good books (some better than others, of course, but no one had the usual last-minute, terribly-crappy-projects book). Ryan's was fantastic, of course. Then we went to the ceremony to watch Ryan walk. Afterwards, we swung by Angie's after-party, then settled down at Ryan's party at The Kennedy School. It was a relaxed night, not meant for heavy drinking, Paul and I decided. That would come Saturday night.

And it was so. Saturday brought David's predictable end-of-term party, which Paul and I attended after catching a flick in Beaverton. We watched Zodiac, which was largely just a disappointment. Jake Gyllenhaal never fails to dazzle the eyes, though... Man what a cutie! The party was without music, which meant no dancing for me (which is a first!). Still, I think everyone had fun. I did, anyway, and I know Paul did, and so did Ryan. And that's good enough for me. The cops did show up at one point, however... They did the last time we were there, too. But last time, whoever answered the door was smart enough to not let them in. This time it was a smart-mouthed moron who's largely lacking in humility. So, in the cops came, collecting everybody's ID's, then leaving again, giving a citation only to the big-mouth. They didn't ask us to break it up, they didn't tell the under-aged ones to go home, they basically just gave us a warning to screen who we let into the party, and be careful of the morons like the one they cited.

So all-in-all, an eventful week. Now I'm hoping for an extremely un-eventful week, as it is my only bit of vacation before returning to my final three months of school. I'm hoping it won't be as hellish as I'm expecting it to be...