Present Joys

It’s been an exciting, action-packed week, and I haven’t done a very good job of keeping you appraised. So here’s an update: This week, I went to New York City with some classmates and our teacher to attend the One Club’s Young Ones awards ceremony. Three of my friends, Theresa, Graham, and Karl, won a pencil—the other six of us that went along (me, Jen, Tay, Anna, Julia, and Haley), received finalist status for merit. Considering the fact that most of us didn’t actually win, it was tremendously generous of CCAD to take us on the trip! Our senior ad teacher, Matthew Mohr, served as chaperone and cicerone.

We left monday morning. Due to some minor delays, we didn’t actually make it on the road until around 11:30am. Even so, the nine-hour car ride was lovely. Shortly after departing, we had an existential crisis after realizing that now, since were were finished with school, we should probably call Mr. Mohr something more casual. We all agreed referring to him as “Matthew” would be too weird, so we devised the clever nickname “Mamo”, which was used heavily all week. We finally made it into the city just before 9pm—just in time to make our dinner reservation. We checked into our hotel, the Chelsea Savoy, and then went straight to dinner at Freemans, a charming little place recommended by Mamo. The restaurant was full of exotic mounted game heads and stuffed birds in plexiglass cases. I ate a vegetarian pot pie, which was delicious and worth the lots of money I paid for it. It is New York City, after all.

We walked around SoHo for a bit before taking the subway back to the Flatiron district, where we ended up at a bar called Maysville. Even though they were already closing up (it was a monday night, after all), they let us stay for a while and have a drink. I had a very nice Sazerac.

At this point, it was already after midnight, and a bunch of people left to go sleep. I continued on with Theresa, Karl, Graham, Anna, and Mamo; we trooped a few doors down to the Flatiron Room, where Mamo and Graham bought expensive glasses of Scotch. After a bit of time there, we headed out to find a place somebody had just told us about, called Milk & Honey. We barely found it—the entrance was completely unmarked and set off from the street by a heavy black curtain—but once we went inside it was like we’d found a spectacular secret oasis. Things were quiet and peaceful and truly otherworldly; we were seated in a cozy private booth and instructed to give the waitress “an idea” of what we wanted so the bartender could make something special for each of us. I got the mythical Campari and egg white drink I’d been really wanting all day, and it was spectacular. The lady who waited on us was very nice, and she gave us olives and almonds on the house—as well as a round of Campari Mai Tais while we were finishing up. Everything was perfect.

The car trip took all of our daylight hours, but we made up for it with a full night of exploring and culinary experiences and pleasant conversation. Exactly the sort of thing you should do as soon as you get to New York City! I didn’t get to bed until 3am, and it was lovely.

To be continued! More 9 YOUNG ONES adventures in my next post…

Well, here we are: my last week of college. Monday, all I had was motion graphics, as usual. Our teacher used my narwhal logo as a demonstration of puppet warp. Barely anyone showed up, but that was okay, because the people who did were lots of fun. We had critiques in jewelry all week. On tuesday, the crit focused solely on intermediate-level students, so it was very uninteresting—and it lasted the entire period. Thankfully, I had a lot of extra free time to spend on jewelry; the ad faculty were dealing with thesis stuff on tuesday afternoon and had instructed me not to come to class. I used all my free time to finish the jewelry stuff I also picked up stuff from Jason, who I told I’d help out with pillows.

I worked really late in the jewelry lab, taking a bit of time off to visit the Grass Skirt before rushing off to Circle Hall to take my final exam for History of 2-d Design. Since I am a graduating senior, I was taking the test a week earlier than everyone else, in an empty classroom. I got done very quickly. And that was the end of that!

I worked at home wednesday morning, only getting to campus around 3pm, in time for motion graphics. We did a comically simple in-class project, then a bunch of us headed over to the Grass Skirt with my teacher, where we had a fantastic time and generally caused a ruckus. After that, I parked my car in the alley next to Crane and unloaded all my thesis stuff. I spent about three hours setting up my exhibition and hanging out with my everybody else who was setting up on the third floor of Crane. It was a total blast—I just wish we’d planned ahead and had a pyjama party.

And then it was thursday! Oh my, what a big day. I had another jewelry crit. As usual, it took up the full three-hour class period. After jewelry, I drove off-campus for a top-secret job interview at noon, but came straight back in time for one more bit of thesis work with Mr. Mohr. I had lunch at home, but came back to campus for a bit more thesis setup. Theresa, Karl, and I had a drink at Wolf’s Ridge and raced back to school for the Senior Thesis exhibition, which lasted from 7–9pm. I stood around and talked to a bunch of people and had a lovely time sharing my work and taking email signups!. With the completion of the thesis show, this project has crossed a major milestone, but is by no means finished. Stay tuned for more updates on that.

And then it was friday! I had a string of job meetings in the morning, but was back on campus by 1pm. I had to make a few extra take-away things for thesis, so I did all that, then I headed back to Crane for the second day of the thesis exhibition. Thursday night was bustling and lively, but friday afternoon was mostly dead. There were a few interesting guests, but mostly I just hung out with all my classmates for a few hours. And we took some absolutely perfect group photos! After the thesis show officially ended at 7pm, we cleaned everything up and a bunch of us met to celebrate at Plank’s Bier Garten. We had drinks and pizza and scintillating conversation., and it was just right. I made it home just before midnight and fell asleep instantly.

So there it is—the end of my time at CCAD. Quite honestly, I was expecting more turmoil and frustration during this last week. It was smooth and pleasant. Next week, I’ll travel to New York City with my senior ad teacher and a handful of friends. Next saturday, I graduate. Then it’ll really all be over—then the sadness will really set in. For now, I’m content to rest in the afterglow of a fantastic final week.

After the senior thesis show finished up yesterday—after we’d torn everything down and put everything back—a bunch of us headed to Plank’s Bier Garten in German Village to celebrate. The feeling of relief and exhaustion and elation and camaraderie was inexpressible. It was a good thing.

Day 108: fri, 2 may 2014. And now we’re finished.