I am trying to keep up with this as best I can but you will all have to bear with me during classes.

I tried going over to the Cal academy of sciences today to do some sketching and research but by the time I got there (1 hour after opening, it didn't seem too late at the time) they were already at capacity and no longer selling day tickets of memberships! I am going to try again tomorrow morning..

Today i have to head into studio once again to finish up a section cut of the Centre Pompidou that is due Tuesday. My goal is to have it finished by 6pm tonight. After that i have to head to Folsom street to get some pictures of a building we are supposed to sketch by tuesday. It has been raining daily for the past week so I am just going to have to take pictures and sketch from those. No way am I standing on the street in a downpour trying to sketch! (that would surly add up to a horrible "are you on drugs?" looking sketch)

Last night (valentines day) was actually a great night :) I hate valentines day, i think it is a corporate created holiday to support nothing but monthly sales quotas. (but I won't get too much into that). I stayed at studio until about 9:45 and then heading over to meet Dan and work. He got out about 10:45pm and we decided to take a walk to find a pizza place we had heard a lot about. As a side note, pizza in San Francisco is a touchy subject with dan and I, since we have been here, almost 8 months now, we have yet to find a good pizza place! Everything out here has really fancy pizza. don't get me wrong, it is fairly good, but it isn't pizza. So we got to the place and each got 2 slices of pizza. It was sooooo good! I got a slice of standard cheese and a pesto veggi. Both were good but the cheese one. Dan loved his garlic clam. The right amount of sauce to cheese to crust ratio :) We walked back through little italy and stopped for desert at this little authentic italian bakery. We both got a cannoli and it was amazing! I have a feeling we will be back there again! It ended up being a completely Dan & Katie night. It was just refreshing to be able to have so much fun and be so relaxed and stress free (even for only an hour) with all of the ridiculously priced roses, balloons, and flowers surrounding us.

:) I hope everyone had a great "holiday" and was equally as happy no matter what you did

I'm off to studio, again!

Missing it

Just a few edible items I've been missing lately:

Strawberry ice cream with sprinkled from captain sundaes
A teddy bear with skim milk from biggbys
Whoopie pies
Chocolate covered gummy bears from the peanut store
Vanilla sugar from the seasoned home
Fruit custard salad
Lobster rolls and blueberry beer
Tomatoe and grilled cheese soup from 8th street grill
Pizza and calamari from portos
Dandillion greens
Tea from the tea gerschwender in Chicago


Random....

I ordered dress #2 today :) now to figure out which one to go with.

I'm back!

We are back in san Fran and quickly getting pushed into the swing of things again. I have to go do a bunch of sketches this morning before meeting with a partner for a project, the architecture open house, and then class from 6:30-9:30.

Holland was great, but very busy. Lots of running around trying to get everything done in the small amount of time. We were able to visit my grandparents a lot which was so nice. We also managed to finalize our cake flavors, food choices (mostly, we still have to figure out appetizers) and I got a make up trial which went really well. Friday night we met up with a bunch of friends for dinner and drinks. It was so great to see everyone again (I still can't believe it has been almost a year since I have seen most of them!).

This week should be another busy one! I am working on a project for my 2d design class and the building I am using is the California academy of science by Renzo Piano in Golden Gate Park. It is a great building and hopefully I will be able to get inside soon. My other big project for studio is a partner project and we are doing the Centre Georges Pompidou again by Renzo Piano. It is another interesting building that pushes the envelope. Take a look at them if you get a chance!

I hope everyone has a great week!

I should not be on here right now. But, I have to post the comment Daniel just made.

"Blogs are the cliff notes to life".

So true!! I was mentioning that I don't have any time to pay attention to anything going on in the outside world and how there were just so many creative/ unique/ quirky items out there. I couldn't comprehend how people find some of these things (though I'm glad they do). They literally do sum up the luxuries of life :)

Update:
My grandma was able to have the surgery :) It sounds like she has come out fighting and doesn't plan to stop. She was able to open her eye today, fed herself, and even called my mom at work when she stepped into the office for a few hours! This is such great news especially since it has only been a day since the stroke. (it gives me that "you go girl!" feeling haha)

Grandpa was moved into his temporary "home away from home" in the Hospice care center. He apparently made it very clear to the nurses and doctors there that they shouldn't get used to his face because he is getting better and heading home. Goodness he makes me chuckle. I hope he can come back and stay at home again very soon.


Daniel and I are heading out next week Thursday for Holland. It definitely could not have come at a better time.

Want to see what my typical week looks like?

M: Sketching workshop 6:30-9:30pm
T/TH: Studio 12-6pm
F: 2D media & design process 10-1pm
F: Architectural History 1 1:30-4:30pm

Studio requires 33 hours of work per week, outside of class. (45 hours a week total per week if you include in class studio time)
2D media & design process requires 10 hours of work per week outside of class. (13 hours total per week if you include class time)
Architectural history 1 requires 10 hours of work per week outside of class. (13 hours total per week if you include class time)

GRAND TOTAL: 72 hours per week (minimum) required for classes. If we get really creative; that means 10 hour days, 7 days a week. Yep. Good thing once I graduate my pay scale jumps to 6 digits :)


Hopefully everyone can understand why I haven't answered many calls this week or have returned a call at very odd hours of the day. I can be found in the studio, the library, or off in some random corner of the city sketching my butt off.

I love you all & hope your weeks are going well. Please keep my family in your prayers & thank you for all of the prayers already sent. They have obviously been received.

Well this week has been pretty crappy so far. I started classes. I have only had one so far but it looks like I can say goodbye to any form of social life for the next 3 months. We have 13 hours of in class studio time each week and they require 33 hours of outside of studio time per week. That brings the total to 46 hours per week of studio time for one class. I still have two more... I am excited, it just seems a bit daunting. I'm guessing everything else going on right now doesn't help that feeling either.

Please keep my grandpa and grandma VanLente in your prayers. They could really use all of them right now. I don't want to go too in depth but a quick recap is; My grandpa has leukemia. He is in remission but it has brought about other bad effects. He fell the other day and it was initially ruled that he was ok, scrapped up pretty badly, but ok. Come to find out now, he cracked quite a few of his ribs and is currently in (or was in. I'm still not positive on all of the details) heart failure. During the time my grandpa was in the hospital my grandma fell. She broke her hip and was scheduled for surgery. She is in congestive heart failure and was on blood thinners. They took her off of them in order for her to be able to go into surgery. This caused a clot to emerge and travel to her brain, causing her to have a stoke. From the updates she is pretty aware of everything going on but they don't know the full effect of the damage it caused. It has created a catch 22 of sorts... It has been a gut wrenching time this past week.

My concentration is off. I can only hope next week Thursday can get here quick so I can be at home with everyone.

I love you grandpa & grandma.

Back to school, back to school...

It is my first day of grad school! I have signed up for 3 classes for a total of 9 credit hours( full time grad status). Today I have my first studio period from 12-6:20pm. It sounds like it will cover most things I have already learned but I'm sure I will benefit from the added practice and proffesor help. I have the same class Thursday and the two classes on Friday. The first is from 9-11:20am and the second is from 1-4pm. It feels so odd to be back in classes. I packed my bag this morning with all of my drafting supplies, many of which I haven't used since freshman year of undergrad!

My week should be busy, I hope all of yours is as well :)

I've gone private :)

I have been debating whether to go private with my blog for a while now. I have finally decided to do it. 

Today D and I are off to the farmers market to get veggies for chicken noodle soup. We have been making soups a fair amount now and I am still amazed at how far they go for how little you can spend. This past week we made a butternut squash and apple soup and we have had it for dinner (and most lunches) for 3.5 days! (and no, I didn't get sick of it). 

After that we are going to take the light rail over to the mission area to explore a bit. We haven't been over there yet but have been discovering some neat places that are located there and we want to check them out.

After that D and I both have to do work for school. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend!