Rain, Rain, Go Away

Image of a street in Charlotte this morning. 

In case you can't tell, that is an almost completely submerged car that you are seeing...

I am actually quite thankful for the rain, we have been in a drought for some time, so several days of rain is much needed.

However, this morning, we woke up to having big puddles on our dining room floor where the rain had made its way through the window. It evidently rained so hard last night that it found a way in. So before leaving for work, we were frantically mopping up water and laying fresh towels out in case it rains some more. Now we question whether we need to go ahead and replace our windows (which we don't have time to do right now) or just wait and hope more big storms don't come through.

Then on the way to work this morning, we heard on the traffic report that 2 of the major roads (Monroe and Independence) we use to come into town were closed due to flooding. So we wandered as far as we could through neighborhoods to avoid most of Randolph (which we figured would be pretty bottle necked).

There was one section of neighborhood road closed due to flooding, but we found a way around it. Then we wandered through Grier Heights before coming out at Randolph right where there was a creek. Amazingly the creek was not yet flooded over the road, but it was significantly above its banks and flooding the areas next to it.

If we get any more major rain, I wonder if we will be stuck downtown since all major roads leaving downtown seem to cross creeks.

We received 2 phone calls on the way in, one from one of Daniel's co-workers who had gotten lost trying to find a way through neighborhoods and another from Daniel's dad who said that the news was reporting that we received 10 inches of rain last night!

Our meandering through neighborhoods was a good choice because it only took us 35 minutes to get to work and so far, I am the only person who is here from my department and there didn't seem to be a lot of people at LandDesign when I dropped Daniel off.

Update: It took most of my co-workers who lived in a similar area of town as me close to 2 hours to get to work this morning due to all of the road closures because of flooding.

Week 2 of Class

I am not going to lie, I was really dreading teaching tonight. My last class was so terrible, I had minimal rest over the weekend and then today was insane at my regular job. The whole time I was driving to Rock Hill, I just kept thinking how bad my class was going to be.

Thankfully, it was 100x better than last week. My students interacted with me. They answered my questions and commented. They seemed really interested in what I was teaching. It is amazing what a difference it makes when your class to interacts with you - I didn't feel like I was talking to the walls. I just hope this interest continues.

Flowers

Neither Daniel or I are big gift givers (we don't even buy each other presents for birthdays or Christmas), so it was a real surprise to come home to a bouquet of flowers that Daniel had picked up for me. I think he knows I have had a stressful week.

Death of a logo...

This is me venting:
About a month ago (maybe longer), I pitched 2 logo variations to a client. One incorporated clean, modern looking rings and a modern typeface. The other was a handrawn (sketched) icon with a very organic font. I did a good job at selling them on the rings, but they really liked the more organic font and wanted me to combine the two. My boss, put his foot down and said that to combine them would be to create a platypus - something that exists, but is kinda ugly.

So that brings us to today. I have been working for a couple of weeks now to make the modern rings more organic feeling. I used water colors to create a set of rings that looked more like the ripples of water (the point of what we were trying to convey).

Long story short, here are the comments from the client via a conference call... *Note there are 4 people on their end giving us advice/comments:

"Well, we don't really see the circles as rings of water. We just see circles."

"Actually, the overlap of circles reminds me of Mickey Mouse."

"Can we just go back to the original rings? And then can you add that more organic font with it?"

"Here, I'll show you what I mean. I am sending you an email where I, you know, used the circles from the first clean-looking logo and the font from the first organic-looking logo. Can't you just do it like?"

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Can someone please shoot me now???

Teaching...

It is no fun to lecture a class and feel like they are not interested in what you have to say. I have got to find a way to make the lecture portion of my class more engaging. I know the hands-on portions will be better, but until then, I have a ton of information to convey to my students...

First Day of Teaching Fall 08

It is almost midnight and I am just finally slowing down. Where did the day go? 8:30am - 5:30pm was work. Then home for a quick dinner with Daniel. Then off to York Tech in Rock Hill to teach my 8:00pm Art Fundamentals class. Then back home.

When I came inside, I found Daniel in the process of trying to finish the kerdi in the shower - our goal is to start tiling this weekend. He was having some trouble so from 9:30-11:00pm I helped with the kerdi installation followed by 30 minutes of clean up.

The frustrating thing is that we have at least one more night of installation. Now I have an aching back and I am REALLY tired. I can't begin to express how happy I will be to have the bathroom finally finished. I am trying not to think about how long the whole process has taken.

Class went really well tonight. One thing I realized is that I talk really fast - I ended up letting class out after 45 minutes. I don't think anyone was complaining.

Let's Go Canada!

For all of my Canadian family and friends, and anybody else that wants to see a ridiculously stupid, funny cheer, check out this link.

The Library Truck - feel good kind of story

Most mornings, I spend some time listening to NPR. It is one of the few ways that I hear the news (outside of my internet browsing). I especially enjoy the stories that are about local things that are going on. NPR has generally been a good source of interesting news to me.

The other day when driving to work, they shared a story about a truck that travels to the poor areas of Charlotte. It plays the music of an ice cream truck, but when the children come running, they receive a free book instead of a cold treat.

The books are given to them so that they can grow their personal libraries. These are children that would probably never have the opportunity to have personal books in their home otherwise. I believe the library is the only one in the country to implement such a program. There hopes are that these children will realize that they can get a library card and have unlimited access to free books.

Click here to listen to the entire story.

IT Faculty

Tonight was the kickoff orientation for all of the adjunct faculty at the community college I teach at. Since I began my first round of teaching in the Spring Semester, I missed all of this useful information the first time around.

For the Fall Semester I am only teaching one class. The thing that I find to be comical is this: I am teaching an art class. It is basically a Color Theory and Two-Dimensional Design class combined into one. This is straight up ART. The funny part is that I am technically listed as being a part of the Information Technology Department. What do ART and IT have in common? I am not quite sure.

I was late for the orientation (I had to miss the dinner), so when I got there I sat at a table with other departments. The IT Department table was full of guys - not a single female in the entire department (besides me and I am truly teaching an ART course).

Meteor Shower

Daniel and I attempted to stay up last night and watch the 2008 Perseid Meteor Shower. The peak time was supposed to be between the hours of 2 and 5 a.m. after the moon set, but supposedly you would be able to see some activity after dark.

I say attempted because we did not actually see it. Sometime after 11 a.m. we took our pillows, a blanket and some bug spray into the back yard to lie down under the stars to watch and wait for the show.

We talked for a little bit before falling asleep under the night sky. Sometime after 1 am, we were woken up by two cats making terrible noises and a German Shepherd barking at the cats. Still no signs of meteorites.

By this time we were groggy and it was starting to get cold, so we gave up and went inside to sleep on our comfortable bed.

Observation About Friendship

Last night my best friend from high school called me. Neither of us are big "phone people" and haven't talked on the phone or seen each other in more than six years. Email has been off an on as we have both been generally busy with our own lives.

It amazes me that we can just pick up where we left off. I feel that we are still great friends. In an hour you can only scratch the surface of catching up, but it really doesn't matter. What matters is that we will always be good friends, no matter how much time goes by.

I have college friends who I have experienced the same thing with. Part of me feels like it will be awkward when we finally pick up the phone, but it never is. It is the same with my family - I really only see some of my extended family once a year, but when we get together it is like we were never apart - I am so very thankful for these relationships that are way beyond being surfacy. They are just pure, genuine friendships.

Family Reunion 08

I should be working, but I am feeling highly distracted and unmotivated, so I am writing a quick note instead.

We got back on Monday from a wonderful family reunion - this one was the best one yet. I just wish my brother (Mark) could have been there. Anyways, we had a great time and missed those who could not make it.

We tacked on an extra day and everyone seemed to agree that it made a huge difference. We were all able to relax and enjoy being together as a family.

These family weekends definitely make me regret that I don't live closer to any of my family, but I treasure every minute that I have with all of them.

One of my cousins (Andrew) was in an accident earlier this year and it was emotionally healing for that family to be together and to have the love and support of our extended family. Another one of my cousins (Rachel) was baptized on Sunday, so that was neat to experience as a family.

We had the usual - special time and cards, though I don't think I played a single pinochle game. Mostly I just enjoyed the visiting and the laughs. The funniest being when my 5-year-old cousin (Beverly) dressed Daniel up with her Pretty Pretty Princess jewelry (see pictures).