MOTHER'S DAY

        I always have mixed feelings about mother’s day. I love the initial thought of celebrating mothers, and showing how much they mean to you. But, after I think about it a little bit longer I start to think that Mother’s day shouldn’t be restricted to one day. Why should it when they devote themselves to us and care for us every single day? Shouldn’t we, then, celebrate them and appreciate them every single day in return? I’m not saying there should be a cake and gifts every day, but doing little things for your mom throughout the week is something I think should be done. Cleaning up the house a bit, making sure to ask how her day was when she gets home, offering to help with dinner, sending letters or cards randomly. Little things like that that show her she’s special every day. Because in reality, she is. And she deserves to know it.

         Our mother’s day was pretty tame. Usually I try to plan something and spoil her, but due to finals being the week before, and the long distance boyfriend coming in town the day before, I was swamped. Not to mention, the day was overtaken by my brother who, due to a full time job and the possibility of working late on his birthday which was Monday after mother’s day, asserted that we should celebrate on mother’s day. Like a combined celebration, ya know? So unfortunately I did not get to spoil my mother like I wanted. But I plan to in the near future. Because she’s the best mother I know. 

FINAL REVIEW

For design majors, a final review is the exciting and scary moment you get to present your project to a board of professional workers and professors, who critique and (if you're lucky) compliment your work. The weeks leading up to this moment are horrendous. Especially the week right before. To give an example of what life looks like, it can be characterized by 3 hours of sleep a night - usually between the hours of 5am and 8am, a hidden bedroom floor due to the culmination of project scraps, clothes, random objects you simply have no time to deal with, scattered tissues - with the lingering question of if it's allergies that appear conveniently in that week or relapsing mono. My "dirty" clothes hamper somehow filled with clean clothes, meaning the dirty clothes have no where to go except on the closet floor. Showers are scarce, while yoga pants frequent. Sweatshirts are also frequented despite the Texas heat to make up for the fact that your body is no longer able to retain or produce heat. Calls home are put on hold, unless to vent and cry or have your mother attempt to make sure you don't sleep through class. Your fresh veggies and fruits wilt and go limp as they're ignored. Overall, its a bad, bad week. But if you have a good review, it's worth it.

Tuesday night we had to be done with everything by 6pm to pin up. This time the requirements consisted of a final model, 2 perspective drawings (with watercolor or pastel), 2 section drawings (cuts through the building to show elevation changes, etc. - one at 1/4" scale and one at 1/8th"), 1 plan (aerial view), an axonometric diagram (Im not going to try to explain), site photos, a diagrammatical map of the site, and all process work which includes a bunch of little models. By making us pin up at 6pm, it requires that we get some sleep the night before review, which I assure you everyone needed. Thinking back on all the work we put into it, final review currently seems inconsequential. But anyways, my review went well. They seemed to like my project, which was a relief. However, I wish I would have gotten more criticism. It felt as if they almost didn't care as much. One guy asked if I was an interior design major - which I am, and I told him so - and then stated that it was funny because my project was actually very architectural. Which confused me. How then, did he know I was interior design? The world will never know. But once he found that out he went on about how I should always use the word 'room', because architects don't, but interior designers shouldn't be afraid to. I wasn't sure what he was getting at - maybe the fact that I never said the word 'room' when I was presenting? But we had designed outdoor spaces, which I don't consider rooms. Somehow the review ended with the two reviewers to tell me to be like a cat. Your guess is as good as mine on that one. It was all a bit strange, and I'm still not entirely sure how to feel about it.

I do, however, know how to feel about being done with it all. Ecstatic. Relieved. Stress-free. Well-rested (finally!).