Day 37: Student for a Day

Day 37: Student for a Day

So I slept an hour last night and got up at 6:30 this morning. I can guarantee I won’t make that mistake again tonight; I am already crashing big time and I’ve taken NyQuil to make sure I don’t wake up for eight hours. If that doesn’t work then I am going to be in a lot of trouble tomorrow. It would probably involve a lot of car crying.

This morning I made it to campus relatively easily and managed to find visitor parking pretty near the building I needed to get to (even though I ended up having to ask two people separately where the hell Carroll Hall was; where’s a map when you need it?). The class was actually a lot of fun and really interesting, even though we really only scratched the surface of all that Flash can do. We all have to start somewhere, it’s true. And I’m happy to have gotten a start.

When we broke for lunch, I sort of snuck away from the group and took off on my own on campus so I could have some time to look around, grab a copy of the campus paper (which is well-designed and has tons of student-written news in it; nice job, Tar Heel), and ogle the vote-for-me-for-student-body-president signs that litter the multiple quads. They were all hand-painted. I’m guessing that’s some sort of rule or tradition, but I found it quite endearing and funny (especially a couple by one candidate).

Being back on a college campus is weird, I have to say. Everyone’s so damn young and cute, with their skinny jeans and their boots and their bookbags and their whole lives ahead of them. They disgust me. Okay, not really. They’re adorable and they will be flooding the job market soon with their awesome skillz and willingness to work for peanuts, which is very frightening for the rest of us who are trying to stay on the already treacherously zipping treadmill.

Tomorrow we get to use everything we learned today to build a project. It should be a good time.

If I can get some rest, that is.

[Project 365]

Day 36: Home Sweet Room

Day 36: Home Sweet Room

I’m in Durham, N.C., at a Comfort Inn near I-40, decompressing before a weekend blitz of multimedia training at UNC — Chapel Hill. I’m pretty excited about it; whatever I learn I’ll be expected to bring back and spread among the designers at the newspaper. So I’m hoping it’ll be chock full of good stuff.

I am so so so glad I went ahead and got that shot yesterday. I’ve felt more or less like a champ all day. I’ve been in a good mood and my snot’s been manageable and, most importantly of all, my head did not explode and rain down infection inside the cabin when the plane’s pressure changed. Now that’s worth celebrating with a $7 bottle of Cava (Rondel Piura Raza) that I will not be asking the company to comp, thankyouverymuch!

Man, I love hotels. Love, love. I always feel a little like I’m living someone else’s life when I stay in a hotel. Someone else’s temporary life, temporarily. It’s weird. I love hotel beds and hotel pillows and hotel air conditioners and hotel television and hotel shampoo bottles and hotel water pressure and stiff hotel towels and tiny hotel ice buckets and uncomfortable hotel wingback chairs and continental breakfasts and key cards.

Tomorrow I have to get up early and be at campus at 9 a.m., which is something I didn’t even do when I was IN college. I can’t wait to get acquainted with UNC’s parking situation. Here’s hoping I don’t get cut like you do in Murfreesboro when trying to get a space.

[Project 365]