30-something going on 13

I hate to say this, but I think I kinda like Avril Lavigne, after seeing her remix of "Girlfriend" with Lil Mama. It's the super-girly answer to the old Run DMC/Aerosmith video. Avril's much more fun now that she's shed her teenage angst and embraced her poppy-glam (and sexy!) side.

Hmm, should I quit Toy Design before I fully convert into a tween?

I just browsed my Facebook wall, and the topics include: ice cream, puppies, bulldogs, rainbow poop, paper craft, and Super Mario. Next week, my class bff turns 23, and I told her we'd be reverse number ages! Woot!

In the meantime, I have to quickly figure out who I'm taking to see Spice Girls on Feb. 6 or sell the tickets. I might just take my class bff, but that means we'd both have to skip class to go. Of course it is my computer graphics class, and I already know how to do all that anyway.

I've also realized that despite being the eldest in class, I am probably a "bad influence" on my classmates, meaning:

• I slept between 2-6 hours a night from last monday-thursday, as opposed to 0-2 hours a night, like my classmates


• I am fairly militant about eating 3 meals a day, as opposed to my classmates, who forget to eat breakfast and lunch. Sometimes I get pissy when my classmates dilly-dally and then I just storm off by myself to get food. Then they get all pouty that I ate without them. (Oh wait, this is how I was at my old job.) But lately I've also been in charge of ordering delivery food, for 5-7 classmates at a time.


• My party/dance playlists that I play to keep my energy up --apparently have a lot of curse words, which I didn't realize, until we played our iPods on speakers in class, and surprised my classmates. But they liked it, cuz it's really cheeky cursing, as in the uncensored "London Bridge" and Fatboy Slim's "F***ing in Heaven".


• I plant ideas like going to pick up some wine or beer to bring to class, when we're up late in class doing work, to counter our stress level. And then some of my classmates forget they have Asian flush until it's a little too late. Luckily they have me to finish off their glasses--er, plastic cups for them.


• I went out dancing last weekend (during crazy Winterim) and invited my classmates by text, who all ignored me cuz they thought it sounded like a joke. I subsequently got the worst hangover of my life the next day, complete with a splitting morning headache that I couldn't sleep through... and vomiting. I hadn't done that in years, and I don't really ever want to do it again. Oh yes, I am a college student.
  
  I was all shaky from recovering on Sunday, that I couldn't draw steadily, so I called in sick for Monday class. I ended up drawing all day at home anyway, to catch up. I also didn't want to go to school when it was like ZERO degrees outside. But I would like to point out that ALL of FIT got MLK off except the Toy Design program! WTF!!


• I take the time to blog, Facebook, websurf (for inspiration!) and email/IM my friends from time to time.

I think my classmates are puzzled at how calm I am about the ridiculous workload we have to keep up with. I am naturally not a stressful person anyway, but it probably helps that I already had a career for awhile that I could go back to, and that I am paying for my own education with my own savings, AND I know the workload the department is placing on us is just unreasonable.

Yesterday, we were supposed to have our ten "idea books" completed by 2:30pm. (Idea books include 4-6 pages of idea sketches--on jumbo 14" x17" paper, a graphically designed title page, a mood board, a competitive product comparison board, and any color studies. Then we were to hand-mount them paper and bind them into books by hand.)

My classmates were freaking out. The Dean/teacher kept insisting that was when everything had to be finished, but I knew it was humanly impossible! So what is the point of stressing, except to just keep working as hard and fast as you can? On Friday, I told the Dean's assistant that even if we had all our work ready to print and bind by the next day, there were only Two photo printers to use, so how were we all supposed to even finish printing our work? He said we'd just have to be wise about alternating computer time.

So basically I've realized that they are all in denial about what is reasonable for completing work, and I don't really take any of the deadlines seriously. So I just work as hard as I can and maintain some level of rest so i don't burn out.

Of course, on Friday night, I only slept for 20 minutes. And then I stayed up all night drawing and laying out title pages. I showed up to class, and all the printers were being used. So I tried to sit and design my mood boards on my laptop as I waited, but I finally got so exhausted, I had to put my head down and nap on my desk. Another classmate brought a blanket (because half of them basically live in that classroom now) to put on me. (Earlier, I brought them extra clean towels and a sleeping bag to get through the week.)

I was impressed, though, that the Dean was there all day (she was also sick and this was SATURDAY), and taking the time to help two of the students bind and mount their books. These two students have interviews on Monday already, so it was especially important for them to finish on time. Also the Dean recruited two of our alumni to come in and help some of the less-computer savvy students complete their title page layouts mood boards, and whatnot.

So last night I got a huge night's rest to recover, and today I am going to finally finish the damned idea books... well at least making all the pages I hope? The Dean said she'd come into class today too (Sunday!), to help out if needed. And tomorrow morning I hope I'll finally bind them, which also takes time. I think the mounting/binding part is the worst. I hate glue and cutting things straight!! That'll be especially challenging when I'm tired. Also, btw, our second semester starts tomorrow. That's right, we have absolutely no break between Winterim and 2nd semester!!!

This whole internship interview process is such a mystery. She doesn't tell you who you're interviewing with until the night before! And during week of Feb 18, we have to be on campus all day all week, with our cell phones, dressed to impress, in case an interview comes up. Like we're on call. You'd think we'd be saving lives, but no, we're waiting to chat with people about toys. They also want to know if you have a car, incase the internship is in a town without good transportation options. I told them my car is in Texas, but that I could take a road trip again maybe? I hope they don't place me in Texas just because my car is there.

On the upside, we start a class w/ one of the cute alumni guys on Tuesdays. And Toy Fair is around the corner! Yay!