On Sunday, I ran in the Nike+ Human Race 10K (6.5 miles) – I had been training for this as a training run for the Disney Half Marathon which is coming up soon! Since there wasn’t an organized race in DC for some reason, I was able to run and then using my Nike+, upload the info to the site.

The 6.5 mile loop I ran was from my house at 6th and East Capitol, down East Capitol Street, around the capitol on the Independence avenue site, down the mall, around the Washington Monument, past the WWII Memorial, then crossed in front of the reflecting pool to run up the right side, to the Memorial, UP the stairs Rocky-Style (a mistake), back up the reflecting pool, crossed back to be on the left side of the Monument, back up the mall, around the pool in front of the Capitol, then back up East Capitol Street to almost Lincoln Park, and then home.

The run was great, and I did a pretty good time, and had NO blisters or other foot pain. I got a bit tired about 5 miles in because of the sprint up the stairs at the Lincoln – something I don’t need to do again.

Even though tired, I was rested in time to make it to Orientation by noon.

I’m ready. Finally!

Exhibit 2012 – is the project that was due prior to school starting, and the first time a new batch of students is greeted with an exhibit in the Corcoran. The instructions for the project were included in our orientation packet and while in Florida I started planning the statement and execution. I liked that we had to restrict our piece to 5×7 – that really makes you edit. The piece needed to be a statement about where we were in our artistic growth and schooling. (in my words) I’ll post a photo of my submission soon. Mine really addresses many things that brought me to this big change decision. Fear, Future, and Love. And that I – after over 20 years – FINALLY know what I want to be doing and what fire I have discovered in me. My Agency life flame is nearly extinguished.

This brings me to this coming weekend. Orientation. Three days of meeting new classmates, getting settled, and even a LOCKER! I suppose we can decorate these. In High School I got in trouble for a photo I had posted in my locker of a naked woman with a fire hose around her or something. Kinda funny looking back on it now. I loved my locker in high school it was on a corner of two hallways and was the place we all hung out. I doubt I’ll be hanging at my locker before class at the downtown Corcoran campus. Guess the dreams of forgetting my locker combination will return.

The first day of orientation starts at noon on Sunday and we’ll be shown around the city and play games. Keeping in mind that I have a 10K to run in the morning, i’m probably not going to be the most energetic person there. The day ends with us being shown how to get to the Georgetown Campus (uh…thanks, i’ll skip the bus and drive…) and then a movie under the stars. I’m curious of the movie, but will probably skip it.

Monday is another day of fun and games and being shown around the city ending (i suppose) at the Art Supply store. This is only a half day, and i’m not 100% sure I’ll participate. But the thought of free giveaways IS enticing.

Tuesday – September 2 – is the real orientation day where we get our email access, talk to our advisors, hang out, get the locker, ID (even though I already have mine from the Spring 2008 semester – but I would like a new photo) This is the nitty gritty day – almost like the first day at a new job – which this kind-of is for me.

And, like all new jobs, I have a strange mixture of nerves and excitement boiling in me.

Monday – Drawing 1 Level 2.This is the class that caused the change of my entire schedule. Because there are so many photography students, they needed to make room in the Level 1 class that I was originally scheduled. I’m a little freaked that i’ve become an ‘intermediate’ level student. YIKES!!!

Tuesday – Visual Concepts. Critical methods and and idea development in two- and three-dimensional design. Should be a fun class and working with line, shape, form. Fun stuff.

Wednesday – originally my day off, now Communication Design. Yep, this is the class where i will be doing what i used to pay people to do. Full circle.

Thursday – Resources. This class should be very cool. It’s like ‘shop’ class from high school. Working with wood, metal, and plastics. Bird house here i come.

Friday – Art History. Another one i am very excited about. And, i think i already have the text book. (yeah, geeky)

I keep toying with taking another class since i didn’t have to take Writing. But John continues to talk me out of it. We’ll see what I decide at orientation.

This past Sunday a few of the new students that have been communicating on Facebook met and walked around Capitol Hill. It was good to meet everyone, and know that there will be some familiar faces in the first days.

Today, i will be getting the rest of my art supplies at Fragers on the hill.

Home was like we left it, and it took until Friday to get unpacked and settled back in. I think I spent the whole day trying to get our Internet working again. As easy as Apple products are, one small bit of funkiness can have you on the phone with tech support for hours. 

Over the weekend, we continued to get acclimated to DC, luckily the weather was fantastic and we felt pretty lucky that the normal DC summer humidity wasn’t waiting for us.

Yesterday I ordered my ‘new student’ kit from Plaza (art supply store). I’ll either be all set for drawing class or have the ability to build a house from the ground-up. It’s a very long list of supplies that would take several days to wrangle, so I’m glad that Plaza put together a kit. And, it was only about $350 (with tax) and I will end up with many duplicate tools and supplies because of what I needed (and didn’t need, but still purchased) for my drawing class in the spring semester. There’s still a bunch of supplies that are needed but the art store doesn’t carry. So, a trip to the hardware store will be necessary before i get back. 

I think that with the exception of Art History, there will be no other textbooks. Strange. 

I was reviewing my schedule online yesterday and noticed that some things had changed. Actually, every single class had changed. I got a little worried. I thought I had the perfect schedule, Monday and Tuesday one class each day, no class on Wednesday, and then one class each day Thursday and Friday. 

I noticed that they moved my drawing class from Level 1 to level 2 and it changed days, which like working any schedule changed all the other days. Argh. I called the registrar to ask what happened, and was told that because there are so many photography students they needed to make room in the Drawing classes. Guess that makes sense. She said I could look on CorcBoard (great name for the intranet) and see if I wanted to change anything and could review it with my advisor. I thought that would be a good idea until five minutes later when trying to figure out my schedule was akin to solving rubiks cube. 

I settled on moving my Friday afternoon class to a Friday morning class. I suppose one class a day is better than having one day that is 10 hours long and a day off.

Now my schedule looks like this:

• Monday AM – Drawing Level 2
• Tuesday PM – Visual Communications
• Wednesday AM – Communication Design
• Thursday PM – Resources
• Friday AM – Art History

Linda – recently left her job to follow her dream. She and I met in a Photography class, and she is an amazing portrait photographer.

David – (and hopefully Jacque, his wife) Dave and Jacque will be sharing the challenges of welcoming their first baby. Oh, and they sold their house and are moving into a new one!

Matt – I met Matt through John and his writer’s group. Matt is a great writer (and will probably use proper grammar on this site) and has recently moved to London with his wife Kate where he works from his ‘flat’ and continues to work on getting his novel published.

Thanks everyone! Looking forward to hearing from you.

Alligator Alley is boring. i’ve never seen an alligator. I suppose if you really really wanted to drive fast, you can – but would have to zig zag around the people doing the speed limit (70) hauling their boats to go fishing in the swamp. (gross) The road is insanely straight. I even locked my elbows and drove for a few seconds with my eyes closed – just to see if i could do it. But, we are driving our Volvo wagon and not even pretending to be in a sports car so the road is really just a long path to shopping not the autobahn.

The other barrier to this road and driving really really really fast is that about halfway across the state you will run into the most intense thunderstorm you could possibly encounter. You have to reduce your speed to a crawl just to see a foot in front of your car. It’s not very fun, but it DOES rinse all the massive bugs off the windshield and grill of the car. (some of which are seriously prehistoric in size.) It really should be Dragonfly Alley.

And the other thing that you don’t realize as you drive across this road is that it never fails that you will see some jackass that just read the Wired magazine that thinks he can go 200 mph in his car, in the storm, and not go out of control. We see one of these each trip also.

About an hour and a half later we are on Lincoln Road mall, and then about 20 minutes from that we are at Amy’s. 

Hanging out with Amy and Michael has been a highlight of the summer. I asked Amy to participate in this blog, but she has already started her blog “Down and Out in Broward County” detailing her adjustment from Ohio to Ft. Lauderdale. It’s a must read.

so, after about 8 weeks it’s time to go home and face the reality that is a new school year for both John and myself. One a teacher the other a student. Weird.

It’s been great being down here, eating at our favorite restaurants, sitting on the beach reading books (and in my case, a Kindle.) We had the joy of waiting in line for a new iphone, this time for over 8 hours. Last summer we only waited two hours. John got a lot of writing done on his new novel. I ran a lot getting ready for that half marathon. I was told I was 49 and obese by my Wii Fit (which I will resent for many many years.)

I’m excited to be going home. I miss my car – something I NEVER thought I would say. 

Upon our return our wonderful tenants Karen and Jordan will also be leaving for new lives in Seattle. Jordan going to Law school and Karen being a superstar nurse. I’ll be spending a few weeks sprucing up the apartment for the new tenants, fixing some damage done when our refrigerator broke and sent water down the wall into their bedroom. I hope the ice maker on the NEW refrigerator gets fixed at some point – it broke two weeks after we purchased it!

We get home next week, after a night spent in Orlando, and just in time to watch the opening ceremonies. 

Looking forward to seeing all my friends that I have missed this summer. 

Looking forward to starting school.

We’ve always been told that ‘change is good’ – but who defines what good is?

A new job, family, school, place to live – all big changes. My big change began in December of 2006 when I finally burned out of the internet agency world. Crashed and burned. Lawyers were involved.

I was done. Fried. I didn’t have the passion for my work or the work of my clients. And when your job is helping humanitarian and relief organizations raise money and communicate online, this is a pretty bad thing to have happen. I was working at an agency that I thought had every problem a small ‘growing’ agency had. Too much work, not enough staff. I was checking mail at midnight. Checking mail at 5am. Work still didn’t get done.

At this point, right before Christmas, John and I decided that I could easily do freelance for organizations that I cared about and maybe go back to school. 

Why go back to school at 40? Pottery. It’s a big passion of mine that I really didn’t have time for anymore and I wanted to change that. A year or so ago my pottery ‘wife’ (inside joke) Christine and I were talking about a 5-year plan to have Pottery be the driving force in my life. I wanted to be doing something that was artistic and had pottery involved. I had talked about going back and finishing school at the Corcoran College of Art + Design. That was step one. The biggest step I think.

The Big Change.

I enrolled in a couple classes at CCA+D to work on my portfolio. I knew I wouldn’t get in on just my pottery alone. At CCA+D you have to have work that represents multiple disciplines. YIKES. Clay was all I really knew. I needed to learn how to draw – a skill I thought you had to be ‘born’ with. I was terrified about my Intro to Drawing class with Joey Manlapaz. I was excited about my Intro to Digital Photography class with Alex Jamison. I did well in both classes and in one of many meetings with my admissions counsellor, he informed me that I had enough pieces to get into the program with a full portfolio. So I applied. And was acccepted. I will also be getting my Masters in Art Education so that I can teach. (that would be step 5 of the 5 year plan)

Classes start in the beginning of September. New student orientation is at the end of August. I believe I will be the oldest student. I’ve met many of my fellow classmates on Facebook. Some are a little older, so I feel good about that.

Most of all I embrace this change.

**Note to everyone: If you are reading this and you have a big life change and would like to have a place to share your stories, please let me know…**