christmas 08: the epic voyage

Saturday, December 20th

I was woken up at 9:30am, or thereabout, to get the house ready for our almost week-long visit to Washington. Nothing was wrong at that point; all four of us are busy stuffying last minute items into our suitcases, checking things off the list on the refrigerator as we get them done, and making sure that we still get out of the house by 12pm, since our flight is in St. Louis and in the later afternoon. We left the house by noon with no problem, getting two minutes away before having to turn around and collect a birthday present for Grandma, then we were off again, but not before dropping by McDonald's first for brunch.

We arrived in St. Louis without a hassle and get through check-in with minimal issues. It's just Mom, Dad and I then; we dropped Chris off upon arriving at Lambert, as he had a flight that was an hour earlier than ours, to Denver. We were bound for Minneapolis. When we got to the gate and settled down, we were all wholly unaware of the massive storm making its way through Washington and the Pacific Northwestern states. Our plane is due to leave around 4; 4 comes and goes, and they said the plane was delayed until 5. 5 comes by; it changes to 6. Eventually, we found out the plane was cancelled - leaving us without a chance to fly out until tomorrow.

With mom at the phone and me at the computer trying to book a flight out of St. Louis to Seattle, the problem child of the whole ordeal, we ended up staying in Lambert for a good hour before momentarily giving up to get dinner, a hotel, and try again. Another half hour at the hotel and we deicded to call tech support for the NWA website -- I wasn't able to rebook my flight like the website said I could. Turns out, we should have done that earlier; we found out in no more than five minutes that we had another flight in the morning, flying us to Las Vegas and then to Seattle by Alaska Airlines. It's for 7 in the morning, but we don't mind - so long as we get through this time.

Sunday, December 21st

7am, we take off the next day; the flight is completely fine and on schedule to Las Vegas. We had an hour or so layover, so took our time ambling through Las Vegas's McCarran airport. Our flight was to Seattle was supposed to leave at 12; when it struck noon, we noticed that the time had changed to 1:30. 1:30 progressed on - and eventually, that flight was cancelled as well. Our choices were growing slimmer at this point, since Seattle's weather didn't leave many options. Again, we began braving the swamped phone lines while I checked out Alaska's website - but I couldn't access the reservations to rebook because the tech support I talked to the night before didn't give me a confirmation code. A good time passed as we sat in the airport, me on the computer, Mom on the phone, Dad in the monsterous help desk line. Figuring that NWA.com might have something I can work with, I checked it out again. To my surprise, I discovered that NWA had booked us a flight from Minneapolis to Los Angeles and LA to Seattle -- I figured that they thought we were stranded in Minneapolis. I guess I should give them kudos for reassigning us, though a phonecall or the like would have been nice to let us know of this change.

By the time I told Mom about this, we're all beginning to feel a little worn thin from the rebooking and cancelations. The good news was that LA was only four hours away - so, we decided to make the best of things and grab some In-n-Out to take down the strip of Las Vegas before driving to LA. An hour-long traffic jam on the interstate prolongued our arrival to LA, making it midnight - 2am our time - when we finally got there. Figuring that since our flight in the morning was fairly early and we didn't want to risk LA traffic, we set out to get a hotel close to the airport; the first two we visited were booked full for the kind of room we wanted. The third was fine... save that when we pulled in, four cop cars were arresting someone with a bag over his head. Great, right?

We were exhausted, and rightfully so, so we hit the hay pretty earlier, ready to get up the next day for our 1pm flight.

Monday, December 22nd

The first thing we saw when we got inside checkin was a man standing near the front; after an awkward question, he informed us that our flight had been canceled... Back to square one, now. Meanwhile, Chris has gotten through, as has his girlfriend - by some miracle. The planes have stacked up at this point, and regardless of the fact that SeaTac airport is completely clear, there are too many plantes to fly in at once; we got the short end of the stick.

Disheartened and travel-battered, we started finding alternatives again. I had no luck with the website this time around - Mom was put on hold eventually, but for a great time. Dad had gotten into the line here, over a 2 hour wait. The chances were looking slim now; a train could get us to Sacramento, but from Sacramento to Seattle, it was booked full. Buses claimed they could get us through, but Portland, Orgeon was completely shut down and required chains for tires, so that was unlikely. Aside from spending a ridiculous amount for a rental one-way to Seattle, the rental companies wouldn't allow chains so that wouldn't work either. The planes wouldn't get us to Seattle until 6pm Christmas day- and even then, it wasn't for sure that we'd actually get through.

Our resilience failed. With no where to go but home, we booked a flight back to St. Louis, forgetting that those who weren't able to make it to Seattle in the first place were staying home for Christmas. At least, we told ourselves, we had some time in LA - a mini vacation, if you will. So we rented a car and drove about, visiting the lights in Pasedena and seeing all the old places Mom and Dad grew up around, stopping at an old, familiar restuarant for dinner: Fu-Shings. (Delicious!) It'd been a long day, so we got a hotel and tuckered in for the night. Tomorrow, we'd be heading home.

Tuesday, December 23rd

Our flight, in early afternoon, gave us enough time to drive down and pick up empanadas at Tito's Market, a mexican place Mom loved (and still loves, granted). It was worth the drive, but not the messed up flight plans. The flight to St. Louis was no problem - but somewhere between, we remembered the folks who weren't in Seattle and made a phone call. In the least, we had somewhere to go and someone to be with on Christmas. Once we got to St. Louis, we got a hotel and slept, taking off early the next day to make it to Kansas and family, at last. We arrived there the next day, midday and spent until the day after Christmas with them. Christmas had been saved - just not had in the way we expected.

The most we could be grateful for were the relatives who couldn't make it. Without them, we'd have spent Christmas all by ourselves... and that's no fun.

end of quarter no. 1

Well, this is it. In a week exactly, I will have completed my first quarter of college. What do I have to say about this? What is there to say?

Expectations have been met and underestimated. College really is a whole other experience, and yet, at the same time, it's not that much different from high school. There are cliques even two weeks into school; some people still aren't taking life seriously, even with a $40,000 per year price tag; it's an art form to find a good balance between a social life, good grades, and adequate sleep. I guess that's where I'm lucky. I don't have nearly as many friends as I'd like, but each new quarter offers new classes, and in a class of a couple thousand kids, there's opportunities to meet new people all the time. I'll have the chance when I decide to come out of my social shell. Classes weren't hard, as long as you allocate time properly, which isn't hard to do considering all the extra time we have. Sleep? I haven't pulled an all nighter yet and I'm doing fine with my sleep cycle. My only regret is my lack of social confidence.

My confidence in my abilities, though, has increased - a pleasant surprise. At an art school, you think it would be a requisite to do good art in general, but not everyone can draw well or design intriguing projects. In both Drawing I and 2-D Design, I found myself surprised at the number of people who were, simply put, awful artists - but then, I may not succeed in areas where they will. In short, I have confidence in the areas in which I am strong. It'd make more sense if I had more confidence in the areas I'm not strong, but I'm not going to do that for a living. Having a strength allows me to experiment with my weaknesses while still exceeding, doesn't it?

Overall, SCAD's been great to me this first quarter. There are plenty of things to do when not goofing off or attending classes (or doing work for them). The only thing I can complain about is the housing arrangements - namely, the people who live next to me and with me. Both of my roommates have odd sleeping habits; one stays up until 4a and often later and the other comes home at equally odd hours. I've had to take to ear plugs to get my sleep some times, but it's still aggravating. The people next to us like to play their music loudly, as well, which is a problem, because there's nothing more annoying that hearing only the bass line of music at unreasonable levels.

Aside from that, though, and the lack of quality food at Cafe SCAD, I have no reason to complain. SCAD was the perfect choice for me. It forces me to be independent because I'm so far away from what I knew and loved back in Illinois, but I'm here for a short enough time that I don't feel that isolated.

Anyway, in a week I'll be heading back home for a (about) two month break. On January 5th, I'm heading back down to Savannah to start new classes. Now that I've had a taste of college and of SCAD, I think I'll make an effort to do more things...

all hallow's eve and all hallow's day

Halloween! My favorite holiday. Who wouldn't like an excuse to dress up in creepy, kooky, strange and almost endearingly bizarre costumes that would normally get stares? I for one wouldn't. Even so, Halloween in Savannah was vastly different from the Halloweens of before.

I think this is the first time I haven't gone trick or treating since I started trick or treating. Even so, it wasn't a bad Halloween at all, even with the lack of candy I shouldn't have anyway. Granted, I had planned on going trick or treating in the first place, but things got a little busy. Friday was also the day to sign up for classes for next quarter (which I accomplished with a little bit of a trouble); the people I were going treating with had sign up times of 7:30, so we planned on going right after they signed up. So you know, I spent Halloween with Jasmine (my roommate), two of her friends, Joe and Will (costumes, respectively, were two Japanese rock stars, a fairy, the Spirit - a comic book hero- and Elmo). I was done getting ready by a quarter to 8, but after everyone came over (including three people I didn't know who just invited themselves along), it was closer to 9- and then we decided to run around to another room, then finally left.

Thinking that the stores in the mall would pass out candy, we went to the mall. Unfortunately, that closed at 9:30, and it was 10 when we got there. Barnes and Noble was open for some reason, and there was a kid's corner, so Will decided to go inside and make an appearance. (That, by itself, was worth a trip to the mall.) After that, all six of us (with Will riding in the trunk, since the car could only hold 5 people - but don't worry, he was comfortable) went to IHOP for a 10:30 meal with a creepy waitress who wouldn't stop staring at Will. Once we had our fill of pretty good non-SCAD cafe food, we went to Wal-mart... of course. Subsequently, Elmo got a lot of attention (he really was a celebrity all over the place), and we ended up talking a bit to a 6 and 11 year old.

Post Wal-mart, we came back to the dorms and watched the Batman Movie (with Adam West), and went to bed, exhausted, around 3a.

Next day (or rather, later), tea time! One of my friends, a sophomore (who I may be a roommate with next year), really enjoys tea and told me of this tea room in Savannah, so Will, Joe, I, Meghan (my friend), Jen (her roommate), and one of Jen's friends went for "full afternoon tea". Unlimited tea of any kind on the list, quiche, finger sandwiches, sorbet, and little cakes were on the menu. I'm not much of a tea person, actually, but it was a wonderful experience, and the French Vanilla tea, with a lot of creme and sugar (it's very bitter without) was really good. I also tried Vanilla Jasmine, Pomegranate, and... another tea which I can't remember the name of at the moment. The bad part? $30 per person, tip and tax included... which I guess isn't too bad for food, drink and 2 hours worth of entertainment. I certainly wouldn't mind doing it again - but maybe it's something I should reserve for more special occasions... or once every half year.

After tea, we ran to CVS and Fed-Ex/Kinko's, then headed over to Boundary Village (dorms) to watch "Keeping Mum", a very good British movie, and "The Producers", which was hysterical.

And... I just got back. For two days, a lot of fun stuff happened -- so there you go!

Halloween can still be fun without having to go trick or treating... but I'd still like to go, regardless.

...and here we go again!

So it's been a while, hasn't it? What's happened in the world of Katie recently? Quite a bit, I suppose.

Last Friday (October 24th), was SCAD's Masquerade Ball. The costume I wore was made from scratch (or at least parts of it were). I got the material for the straight jacket two weeks before the Ball, and I was working up until that Friday to finish it in time. Aside from the many pokes I got from the needles, as I had to hand stitch the whole thing, and the slightly steep price (to the tune of about $60), I think it turned out pretty good. I ended up getting the rest of my costume and makeup at Wal-Mart. Not exactly the most flattering get-up, but it turned out pretty nice. I'll have pictures up when I get better ones (the current ones are all blurry).

The Ball itself was pretty cool. I, however, am not much of a dancer, and that's the whole point of going to a Ball... so it kind of defeated the purpose, aside from hanging around for two hours looking at the collection of costumes there were. Getting there was a lot more interesting, however. The whole day was raining, and unfortunately, as it got later, it started down pouring. By the time we were ready to go, it was like typhoon weather... but we decided to go anyway! So, long story short, we ended up dressing up in our (us being Will, Joe and I) shower curtains; Joe had my umbrella. Will was the best though; he went as Elmo (using a toddler's costume, at that), and to keep himself dry he put bags on his feet and over his head. It was greatly amusing... After we hung around for a while, we came back to the dorms.

What did we do when we got back? Laundry, of course!

With bad timing on the planning part (their's, not mine), there was a mask-making workshop the very next Saturday. Will and I went to it, and it was pretty fun, though we only made masks, not decorate them too. (Apparently, come next quarter, there'll be another workshop that includes both parts. I'll probably go to that as well.)

This week has been pretty much all homework, which I didn't do much of during the weekend. Today, of course, is Halloween! I might be going Trick or Treating and to a party later. At 4:30, I'll be registering for my classes for next quarter, and Saturday, I'm going for afternoon tea at a tea room here, which should be fun.

Anyway, I should be going. That's all for now! Expect new pictures soon!

end of week 5

Week five done and gone already? It's gone slow but fast at the same time. About now, kids are/were panicking about midterms and the tests that apparently go along with them. (I just happened to get the good end of the stick; no midterm projects or tests for me!) October is in full swing, Halloween is leering around the corner, and I'm working on my costume.

So what's been going on lately? A lot, and then not a whole lot at the same time, I guess. We just finished with line drawings in Drawing 1; we're moving onto value now, which the class can collective say is a hell of a lot more fun than just drawing the shapes without shading. (Me? I couldn't care less about what we do, because it's drawing and that's all there is to it.) In 2-D design, I don't know what to call what we're doing, but we're being productive - although still working in just black and white. Survey of Western Art is... itself: boring yet intriguing all the while.

As far as "non-school" stuff goes, not much there either. I have yet to attend a meeting of Queers and Allies (Joe is really bugging me to come), but provided I can borrow some guy clothes, I might be going to the Gender Bender Ball (with a theme of "Moulin Rouge"... hm) that's hosted by Q & A. Next Friday is the Masquerade ball which I am thoroughly excited for, but I won't be going in a mask (at least, at the moment). This summer, I think what I might do is (aside from working some and all the normal stuff) make a really elaborate dress. I've never really had that much time to make costumes for Halloween, because I think up things late and I'm a procrastinator. BUT, if I start this summer and keep at it, I could make something really special and really good.

...Or, that's just me dreaming unrealistically.

My current costume (a straight-jacketed Harleen Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn, from the Batman series), on the other hand, is coming along well enough. Another trip to the pathetic, dinky Goodwill in town is in store so I can get some white pants... or a trip to Target/Savannah Mall tomorrow. I'd also like a comfortable chair; Joe and Will come over a lot for movies, since they don't have a TV, and all the things I have to sit on are my bed, the floor pillow, and my always-uncomfortable stool. A comfy chair would be a lot nicer, don't you think?

Anyway, I've gotta jet; people to see, things to do... same old, same old I suppose, so ta for now.

gym and rightful lack thereof

Why SCAD will never need to require P.E. for those that live on the 3rd and 4th floor, don't take the buses, and have classes that require heavy supplies:

3rd floor to bottom: 6 flights of 8 stairs each = 48 stairs

1 block and a half of walking distance from end of stairwell to buses (minimum of a mile-long bike ride, one-way if the bus isn't taken)

Depending on the class, upon arrival either minor walking or up a few more flights of stairs

Return journey: take all of the above x2 (repeat as needed)

Include meal time travels: if going to Cafe SCAD, take 3rd to bottom stair amount and add 3 more flights of 8 (24 stairs) doing down

(That makes a trip to Cafe SCAD worth 18 flights of 8 stairs each, which is 144 stairs... surprisingly excruciating.)

Add in carrying a book bag to classes, or an art supply box (~ 5 lbs.) and a portfolio (~ 15-20lbs)


So, added all together, in a week, I will bike 4 miles and take 2400 steps just to get to class and food combined. Occasionally throw in that 20lbs portfolio, and a few more flights of stairs (note that the extra flights come with the portfolio classes). These are only the required amounts I need to go through to make sure I get to class without taking the buses.

Moral of the story: I'm going to hate stairs for the rest of my life.

everyday life - end of week two

Week two at Savannah; has two weeks really passed already? It's remarkable - and makes me a bit uneasy. So, what can I say about these two weeks? They've been both incredible and unremarkable.

Between having only a handful of homework assignments over the weekend, going to the mall and attending the Gamers' Guild meeting on Friday night, this weekend has been pretty hectic. Friday was the Major's Fair (where I found out if I wanted to pursue a minor in Historic Preservation, Interior Design would complement my degree as a major), after which Joe and Will (two guys from two doors down) went to CVS, Kroger and a few of the halls to get stamps in our "Passports". (The passports are just that for our First Year Experience class, where we need to visit different halls and social/major/etc. events for stamps.) Saturday, we went to both Savannah and Olgethorpe malls and did laundry. Today was homework... and still is homework.

I think it goes without saying that I'm homesick without the sick part; I really miss Illinois... but not so much Illinois as I miss the people who live there. I feel a little disconnected from my friends, but I have the opportunity to contact them. I miss my parents as well, but I try not to think of them, because I know if I do too much, it won't be pretty.

Other than that, life at SCAD is, well, life. I could use a few more friends, but I've got a few contacts that I could ring up and ask over - when I have the time, and the nerve to do so. I spend most of my time with Will and Joe; they're really cool guys, and hilarious. I'm sure, if anything, they'll be my "best" friends for quite a while, hopefully more.

Food kind of sucks here at Cafe SCAD. The meat is fake, the bread is dry, the selection is questionable. (In retrospect, we did have some good food tonight: country fried steak and real potatoes.) It's edible, though, and better than Glenwood's food with the fact that there's considerable variety.



I'm really glad I decided to get a planner. I'd never remember anything.