Distractions

This month's lesson is about distraction.

Which is probably the worst timed lesson I've ever had, because this is my last semester in college and there are things to do. All of the things to do. All of them. And I have until the fourth day in May to do them.
But I tell you what's odd. For the past three years I've been so focused, so channeled onto goals and working and the future that distraction has been a very small concern in the past, and I'm not exactly sure how to deal with this.
But also never before have I been newly 21 with way too many friends inviting me to way to many great parties and game nights and gallery openings and 'hey let's go grab a drink and brainstorm' date nights.

Hey, that counts as practicing networking skills, right?

On the positive side, I am carpe-ing all the diem Columbia seems to offer. On the negative side, I maybe didn't finish that diagram of the anterior torso exactly on time. Another semi-plus side, though, is that I never turn in late work. I'm just cashing in my 'bad student' chips while I'm still a student.

love, rudi

Goals: Accomplished!

Before pulling together my new years resolutions, I thought it would be wise to go over those goals that I set for myself at the beginning of this semester. Remember that post?

1. Keep up the good work!
    I think I've done a great job preventing myself from burning out, and I came out of this semester with several portfolio-worthy pieces! Not to mention I conquered three of my biggest fears- learning Photoshop, drawing, and attempting to paint. Not too shabby at all!

2. More pictures!
   This goal may never truly be accomplished- you can never take too many pictures- but I do think that I could still do a better job. I have been really good about carrying my camera around everywhere I go, so that's a solid start. I give myself a B for this one.

3. Watch less TV.
   Okay. This one was going to be the hardest from the beginning. In fact, I'm watching an episode of Portlandia as I type this. I'm still addicted to TV (starting Dr. Who didn't help), but the reason I wanted to cool it on the Netflix in the first place was to make sure I got out of my room and got a good start on goal 4, and since goal 4 was accomplished despite my TV watching, the addict inside me is wondering if I could just keep my vice.

4. Find my people.
    Totally accomplished this one! I've really connected to people that I wanted to be closer to, and I've taken some big efforts to get to know my acquaintances better. I've even got a weekly girls night tradition started up!

5. Lose the cynicism.
    It's amazing what a change of perspective and a few new people can do for you. My headspace has been so much more positive since the beginning of the semester, and it happened at just the right time. Who wants to graduate and start life with a bunch of gunky, negative thoughts in their head?

I'll be back soon with some updated goals! Do any of you have suggestions or resolutions of your own? Please leave me a comment about them!

love, rudi

Happy Winter Solstice!

My family has been in a year-long journey of finding a new house and hopping around the Durham, NC area, so in the meantime most of our stuff has been hidden away in storage. Christmastime, then, (or 'Kissmas' as Sadie calls it) hasn't been full of the usual traditions and vintage decorations, but I'm loving the makeshift celebrations we've been exploring to compensate.

Today, for instance, we decorated our first real tree! Having a real tree, and not our usual re-usable one, has always been a dream of mine. We decided to celebrate the winter solstice like Little Bear does and decorated our tree outside with edible snacks for birds and squirrels. My fingers are a little red from getting poked by pinecones, but I'd say it's definitely been worth it! Hopefully soon I'll have photos of our woodland neighbors enjoying their Christmas dinners. :)

Enjoy your traditions this year, and maybe try adding a new one to your list! 

love, rudi

Officially Post-Grad

My Christmas break started out just right with Truchi's graduation! I've gotta say I'm over the moon proud of this guy.

These are just a few of my favorite pictures from Saturday. Isn't his grandpa so cute and smiley?

The best part of his graduation might be the reminder that my own is coming up quickly, and after that he and I will finally be together, signing a lease somewhere, picking out what type of juice to buy at the grocery, and buying a couch.

I'm seriously excited about having my own couch.

love, rudi

Exploring the North Village Arts District

It's been a busy weekend so far, ya'll! My friends Kelly and Allia asked me to help out at their fashion show on Friday night. They design crazy clothes for The House of Vansickle, and the show was a part of Columbia's Artrageous Friday. I'm in the 'burlesque cowgirl' outfit.

Then today I helped out my friend Michelle (in the hat below) make masks for a Where the Wild Things Are themed mini-fest at the Orr Street artist studios downtown. I can't believe it's taken me three years before getting involved with this part of the community!

This is a peacock mask that I helped work on for a long time. It turned out so well!

Lesson learned? In the future I want to realize where I live and where it keeps it's treasures.

love, rudi

Presents!

On this impossible hard day, in this impossibly hard week, I was thrilled to see a little sticker-covered box in the mail. Does it get any better than this? Note the Ultra Pepper Spray System that sounds alarms, flashes light, sprays, and makes you an ice cream cone after you get attacked.

Just kidding about that ice cream. 

I love my family.  

love, rudi

On Open Source and Being Territorial

This post might be a tad esoteric, so my apologies if my design jargon gets in the way. I'm going to try my best to make sure I can be translated, though, because this story and the content is important to me.

I have this new habit where instead of listening to music I watch TED talks while I work. This is something I highly recommend, by the way. My work becomes more inspired and braver when I listen to other people tell stories. It makes me braver to tell my own. 

Anyway, I've been exploring the idea of open source a lot lately- it seems that a lot of people are, not just me. Basically the idea of open source is the opposite of everything about companies today- it's all about sharing ideas and technology and instructions- basically anything considered a trade secret- for free online. It's all about "don't reinvent the wheel" and the goal is to give opportunity and inspiration to others, and provide them with basic tools and knowledge to make new things. It's better to share ideas and intellectual property for everyone's benefit rather than hiding your know how and selling them for personal profit.

I love the idea of sharing basic knowledge, like how to make a simple micro chip for example, so some young kid in Germany can invent something useful and new without needing to get an engineering degree first. I think open source is the way of the future, and can change the world.

But I found myself confronted with a problem. Recently in a design class I got really up in arms because I thought another designer's work was a liiitttttlllleee to similar to my concept. I was upset, I was territorial, but then I had to ask myself- "So, do I believe in open source or not?" It's one thing to love a theory, another to be directly affected by it. 

But the answer turned out to be yes. Because the other design used concepts I did, but turned out way better. And my own design evolved so much because I wanted so badly to be original. It took about 8 hours more of working in the studio, but it paid off.

I've realized it takes a lot of bravery to share your work. You have to be confident enough to be proud of it and hold it up to critique. Then you have to be confident enough to know that your good work wasn't a fluke, and that you can 'give it away' to the internet or the world and know that more you will make more good work in the future. 

So that was a lot. Here are some pictures of my design evolution to make your eyes feel better. 

They are magazine spreads, and I'm only showing you five designs out of twenty.

Okay. Deep breath.

Here I go.

About to share everything on the internet, where it could get lost and be stolen.

And that's okay.

This is the final design. It was my very, very last attempt and hands down my favorite!

The second page to the spread.

love, rudi

Zumba!

Hey everybody! 

So I have some catching up to do. I'll start with my Sunday afternoons first! Last week my gorgeous friend Annie (that's her in the neon cargos) started teaching a Zumba class on campus. I was terrified to try- exercise has never, ever been something I'm comfortable with and to do it in a room full of other people was sort of the scariest thing I could imagine- especially being around people I knew and would see every day! 

But now Annie gets to throw out a great big "I TOLD YOU SO!", because I love Zumba and I'm so, so glad I bucked up the courage to go that first time. I've always loved dancing (you remember my Dirty Disco posts?) and it's so wonderful to be able to just go dancing every Sunday and know my body's getting the benefits! And all of a sudden, I feel good and healthy and pretty and, dare I say it, on my way to being fit.

This is huge, guys. It's like I just tried coffee for the first time. Quite the game changer. 

And even though I (and everyone else?) felt like this:

We looked like this:

If any of you are interested, you should come! It's totally competition free- you're way too busy dancing like a fool to notice what anyone else is doing- trust me, I wouldn't go if I was uncomfortable. And it's nothing but fun! We meet Sundays at 2:00 in the second floor dance studio in Senior Hall- bring three bucks, some water, and a smile!

love, rudi

Today we went to Durham's Flea Market  to see what all the hype was about. I keep talking about food, but buying handmade mozzarella cheese and locally raised sausage really makes me smile. I might have found a mini-passion here. Plus check out the gorgeous colors on these veggies. North Carolina plants seem to really love flashing their peacock feathers.

We also had a great lunch at Toast, an Italian Sandwich shop downtown. It was so wonderful- I love how creative Durham-ers are with their food! I'm so in love with this place.

love, rudi

Dur-Ham!

Mom, Sadie, and I have been spending our first few days in Durham exploring and getting used to this amazing new town. I love it here! There are so many great restaurants that focus on being healthy and use local food. At the grocery we get our milk, eggs, and bread from local farms and bakeries, and there's a festival we're trying to get tickets to entirely based around locally grown cuisine. This might be pretty normal for bigger cities, so I may sound silly to some of you, but after growing up in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere for the past ten years it's such a luxury to be able to have choices like this.

This whole town is full of gorgeous little shops and wonderful restaurants, adorable people who always seem to have something interesting to say- I'm not exaggerating, this town might be my soulmate.

 My mom with some Carolina Crunch- homemade ice cream from the 

same local cows we get our milk from! There was a clown making balloon animals for all the kids there, too. We all really got a kick out of that.

The best meal I've had in a long, long time at Parker and Otis. I don't even like tomato soup, but I scooped up all of Sadie's leftovers.

 This is our new backyard, and you can see one of our new cats in the distance there. I made waffles this morning and Sadie decided to eat hers outside.

I'll show you all our new house when we get another sunny day. I truly love rainy weather, but it's not the best for photos sometimes.

love, rudi

Past Tense: Future Perfect

When graduation times come around, I worry that I come off as a grump. I don't get very sentimental, and I can't remember the last time I cried at a goodbye. Even my own high school graduation was without a single tear, and my lack of nostalgia was apparent.

So, this year, when several pals of mine were prepping up for graduation, I unsatisfied everyone by refusing to be upset. It's not that I won't miss them or that I'm ignoring the awesome fact that they're about to embark on a huge milestone in their lives, it's that I'm way to happy about the excitement of their future to do anything but push them out the door! I spent the last 3 years of high school counting the days until I could move on to something bigger and more exciting- I never, ever believed people when they said high school would be the happiest years of my life. I find holding on to the past to be so stifling- focusing on the future is so much more energizing and exciting than trying to hold on to the past and to live in memories.

My first week home for summer vacation has been spent packing up my childhood home and digging through memories. We move to North Carolina today, and once again I feel harsh when I honestly say that I have absolutely no sad or negative feelings about this move- I'm not going to miss this town or this house at all. I have no problem with never eating at favorite restaurants again, driving down familiar roads, attending annual festivals. I love my house, and it'll be a bummer not to have the comfortable little nooks and my favorite parts of the house anymore. I'll have to find some new favorite parts.

Packing this week I've had to downsize a lot, which means my 3rd grade journals and pre-school drawings were tossed in the recycling bins. I had to decide what childhood mementos I was going to keep and which ones were destined for Goodwill- and being a Toy Story loves it was sometimes a hard decision to condemn my old toys to certain death. But now that we're loading the cars up, cleaned out and with our pasts in giant contractor bags on the curb, I really feel free. I feel light enough to run much further than I could otherwise.

Wish us luck!!

love, rudi