Goals

This summer my main goal was to move to Loma Linda and spend time with Kari. Given the expense of this goal and the fact that 8:00AM to 5:00PM, Monday through Friday, Kari would be occupied, I set about goal number two: getting work. So far, I have been very successful in regards to the first and less so in regards to the second. There are a number of stories here but rather than focus on the negative, I am choosing to focus on the other goals I have set for myself as well as new goals I might set.

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So, just to recap, the breakdown of my summer goals looked something like this:

1. Live in Loma Linda to be with Kari (done)
2. Get a job (not-done)

But because of my failure on account of goal two (Parental Disclaimer: I am still looking for temporary work), I came up with a second list:

1. Live in Loma Linda to be with Kari
2. Get a job
3. In the event that society deems you worthless (failure of goal 2), still have something to walk away with at the end of summer

What I did not significantly account for was that such rejection by society meant a lot of free time, which means a lot of free thinking, which means that goal number three quickly got out of hand with sub-categories, addendums and even amendments. Perhaps I got a little ambitious with the life goals but there were so many things I wanted to try, perfect, learn, or read that it was easy to get carried away.

For instance, one of my goals was to eat well. Under this goal I had to balance the sub-goals of responsibility, frugality, and satisfaction. I also added In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan to my reading goals and contemplated how I might pursue these eating goals in Ithaca.

Later, I had to amend this goal to eat well with an exception for my try-new-things goal, which I pursued at Chick fil-A on Tuesday.

Today I had to amend this goal again. This time it was an exclusion for free food. On Tuesday I found out that it is customer appreciation week at Chick fil-A and today, between 4:00pm and 7:00pm they were giving out free chicken nuggets.

After all, I don't have a job.

As Summer Goes

I feel compelled to offer an explanation for my recent negligence. After all, it has been two whole months since my last post. Even during the craziness of last semester I managed a post a week. What then can account for such infertility? What might illuminate the source of such fruitless ness? What...

am I doing explaining myself? This is my blog! Get off my back! This is my blog you, you fiend, you fictional, completely imaginary audience of mine!

No I am not yelling at you reader, I am venting at my Reader. If you cannot tell the difference, one is capitalized. The two are completely different, like art and Art, architecture and Architecture, apple and Apple. So no I am not venting at you, the actual person reading this but rather the idea of an Audience who, for some reason or another, I feel compelled to justify myself to.

And yes, I am so insecure as to fear the judgment of a nonentity.

GTBKI: Spring Part II

Dear Architecture,

Why must you demand so much of me?


I am willing to set aside other interests (reading, running, etc) for the time but is it necessary that I sacrifice habits such as sleeping?


Or eating?


Still, you are lucky.


I can't stay mad at you!

Love Always,
J

Things You Missed Last Week

This is the view from the Men's room in Rand Hall. The structural steel for the new architecture building arrived two weeks ago and every day a new truss is set in place using one of the biggest cranes I have ever seen. The first morning they started putting the steel in we were taking a structures exam and we came back to studio to see this. Adam said it was ironic that in the time it took him to fail a structures exam they had built a building.


Each section of the Truss weighs in excess of 200,000 lbs and to put them in place they need one giant crane, one guy with a rope, another guy to straddle the neighboring truss and pull it into place, and finally one guy to stand and point.


Last Friday also happened to be Slope Day. We couldn't partake in the tradition with our plots (presentation posters) due the next day but we had to walk through on our way to lunch. Nine out of ten students we passed were already trashed (it was only 1pm).

GTBKI: Spring

Dear Ithaca,

Although we have had our difficulties in the past, I would like to thank you for coming through on your promise to once again have bearable weather.

I have been anticipating this day for a while now and finally, last Monday (the day you decided to let it snow) I saw the light at the end of this cold and desolate tunnel called winter. Friday and Saturday were forecasted to have lows in the mid 60's and highs in 80's - I went home an unpacked my shorts and rainbows right away.
Yesterday, after a particularly grueling studio session, a few of us headed over to the Barn for dollar beers, bocce ball, and a two-dollar wrist band for unlimited pizza. We sat outside in the gardens behind the A.D.White house, light filtering in through blossoming trees, and I couldn't be more grateful to you.

Today I left my apartment early, to get into studio of course (the real reason being that I was out of milk and nothing can get me out of my apartment faster than the realization that there would be no breakfast if I stayed). I had on sandals and shorts at 8:30 in the morning... and it felt heavenly. Not only that, Cornell was still asleep from that party you hosted last night. Yes it was awfully crazy and I wish we taped it. Cornell totally danced his face off before passing out. I wish you would not have refilled his cup so many times but, nevertheless, I am thankful for the quiet morning and warm touch of spring on my sandaled feet.


So thank you Ithaca, for the peace of this morning and promise of another summer.

It Is Free Latte Day!

This day has been a long time in the making, nine coffees to be exact, nine coffees from the same place.

Then there is the waiting. After I max out on stamps, stickers, hole punches or whatever the coffee card requires, I like to sit on it for a bit. I stop frequenting that particular coffee establishment and wait for the right time to cash in. You see, after buying nine, sometimes ten, regular coffees the entire world of espresso opens up. A free coffee, doesn't just mean a small, drip coffee. A free coffee means any size, type, flavor of coffee you could dream of. A free coffee, also means, a good day.

So you can see why I wait to cash these babies in and today was one of those days.

There was not anything wrong with my morning that made me need a free latte. It was just the moment I walked out my front door I decided. Today was a free latte day.

So instead of walking across the street to the bus stop, I turned right and headed down the hill. The whole time my wallet was burning in my back pocket. At the bottom of the hill, was Collegetown bagels and FREE, large vanilla latte.

At the counter I always act surprised. "Oh wow, I think today is my free coffee day."

The thing is, I think I am fairly transparent. The cashier is always genuinely happy for me and I think it is because they can sense my excitement.

Kari Visits Ithaca (Part Deux)

Finally, a story to tell. It has everything you could ever want in a story. A beginning, a middle, an end... a princess... a knight!

Of course, it is missing a major conflict and resolution so ok, ALMOST everything you would want in a story.

~

The story begins on Saturday morning. I borrowed a car from my friend Steve and drove to the airport to pick up Kari. I arrived just in time to walk through the automatic doors and look across the terminal (it is a very small airport) to see her walking past security. It took her a few seconds to spot me but after that, it was magical. Music was playing, bells were tolling, confetti was flying, fireworks were exploding... it was magical alright.

Kari had taken a red eye flight out of LA and, after a layover in Jersey, finally made it to Ithaca, New York.

Our first priority was food. We went to the Ithaca Farmer's market but what seemed like warm weather to me, was actually quite cold and we moved on to Ithaca Bakery. Astonished to find a meager breakfast menu there we moved on to Friendly's (friendly Denny's) and had an incredible breakfast of pancakes, french toast, and a pot of coffee.

Later that evening, after a lazy afternoon catching up on sleep and TV shows (Get some Glee!) we headed to Moosewood Restaurant to meet some of my friends for dinner. It was great to introduce her to everyone and, after we finally were seated, we had an awesome time with everyone.

Sunday, after she had sufficient time to recuperate from her journey, I took Kari to Cornell for a tour of my studio and daily rituals. The weather had turned gray for the weekend (It is Always Sunny in Philadelphia... It is Never Sunny in Ithaca).
After trooping around campus we picked up some movies in Collegetown and went to lunch at the Collegetown Bagels, downtown. This is me and though my face is expressionless, that bagel, is awesome.
After lunch we walked over to Ithaca Coffee Company to get some work done. It was nice to integrate Kari into an activity I do fairly often: going to coffee shops and architecting.

We were fairly successful and to congratulate ourselves for such discipline we decided to go back to my apartment and watch an afternoon movie. Kari was cold and I don't remember how she manager to get wrapped into such a ball but she makes the most adorable bean bag I have ever seen.
That night we went to Sushi O Sake Japanese food for dinner. What we had intended as a light meal ended up a little extravagant.

After dinner we went to Madeline's for dessert. Kari had a swirl cake that was delectable and I had a raspberry creme brulle that was divine. Overall it was a good night for our palettes.
Monday morning came only too quickly. A mere 48 hours after she arrived in Ithaca I was taking her back to airport. We sat at the airport cafe drinking flavored cappuccinos, the kind that a machine makes by mixing a mystery powder and hot water, and tried restricting our conversation to happy thoughts, the kind that make you fly in Neverland.

It was a fantastic weekend, a sweet treat in our overly busy lives.

Cell Phone Journaling

Most days I am struggling to find the narrative in my life. It is no surprise that when I manage a blog post, it is independent snapshots that hardly fit into one continuous story. Still, here are some pictures off of my cell phone camera. It is a discontinuous, but wonderful way to look at the past few weeks.

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This is a picture of the Lackawanna County Commissioners office that I snapped on the bus ride from NYC after Spring Break. Lackawanna County, is itself unremarkable. I only took this picture because I wanted to document the fact that I was making a pilgrimage to SCRANTON PENNSYLVANIA! One of the department stores had a Dunder Mifflin sign in the window and that just made me happy.

~

The weekend after Spring Break was Easter Weekend. A few of us decided to find a sunrise service and the only one was in a town about 10 miles outside of Ithaca. Four of us showed up at 6:30 for a service that consisted of a middle school boy leading worship, a youth pastor who forgot his sermon notes, and a congregation of about fifteen people. After the 20 minute service we went inside for breakfast where we were quickly introduced to everyone who was ever connected to Cornell - "This is Brian, he worked on Cornell's air conditioning twenty years ago." I have not felt so welcomed at a church in my entire life. We sat at a table with the pastor and had a great time rejoicing in the occasion.

A couple of hours later I attended another service downtown and afterward we headed to my friend Trevor's lake house where I snapped this pic. It is actually his boss's house and Trevor lives in the guest quarters but still, his boss lives in India and we had full run of the property. So after a morning of celebrating the traditional way, we celebrated Christ's resurrection down at the lake shore with cold beer and red meat.

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Last week the graduate students were offered a tour of the construction site in our backyard (Milstein Hall - the new architecture building). We got to wear those awesome red hard hats and look at concrete with our dean and structures professor. It was actually pretty cool to see the structural elements that we have been learning about this semester and to have our professor there to make those connections made it especially worthwhile.

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These past three weeks have been one big project after the next. When it came time to write my 20 page history paper I decided I needed a change of scenery and headed up to Mann Library in the agriculture quad. In a last ditch effort to do anything but my paper I found this stool under my desk and decided to take a picture. "Please do not discriminate against midget colleagues."

Sunshine

I apologize in advance for this blog post. For the first time this year it is above seventy degrees and sunny outside. My body is so excited my brain wants to be everywhere, doing everything at once. Of course this only means that I am giving half of these tasks a quarter of the required time with only an eighth of my concentration... So it goes.

Ithaca is Fences:
You may have heard about the recent string of suicides at Cornell and one of the preventative measures Cornell has taken, discovered by the students upon their return to campus, was to install temporary 10ft chain link fences on all of the bridges around campus.

100%:
On a lighter note, I just found out I aced my structures midterm and since no one at Cornell knows about my blog, I feel free to share it here.

East Coast Prep:
Cornellians cling to the Ivy League because it puts them in league with kids from Harvard (like Greece, the EU, and Germany). However, with the recent resurgence of the sun there is definitely something Ivy League about Cornell: the prep. A third of the guys on campus are rocking the long-sleeve button down, shorts, and boat-shoes combo. I am poking fun but at the same time, sort of tempted :)

Ducky:
I went on a run yesterday for the first time this year. I went down the hill from my house to downtown Ithaca and followed a stream that leads from the Cascadilla gorge (between my house and Cornell) to Cayuga lake. As I was running I noticed a single duck paddling downstream with the current. He was hardly using energy and looked at me with curiosity as he sped by on the smooth but quick channel.

Eat Dessert First:
Yesterday was equally beautiful outside and as studio was wrapping up a few of us were deciding on what to do to take advantage of the weather. The answer was obvious: Ice Cream. We headed into Ithaca to Purity Ice Cream and it was AWESOME. When we finished our treats we decided to go over to Five Guys (East Coast In-N-Out) for dinner. We sat outside and were truly in awe of life. The best part of the whole experience is that as we were leaving we saw a dad with his two sons that we had just seen at Purity. We realized we were emulating the ideal diet of a 9yr old boy.

Day of the Dragon

Graduate students:

Start of the parade:

Parade through campus:
The Dragon:
Dragon attacking the Arts Quad: