Memorial Weekend and Stitches Out

This past weekend was Memorial Day Weekend in America. It’s the unofficial start of summer and to those near the cost its a big deal. Everyone leaves home and goes to the shore and all the shore stores that close during the summer open and start their season. 

My family spent the weekend at our beach house on Long Beach Island. The house had  gotten a bit of damage from Supper Storm/ Hurricane Sandy. Thankfully only the real damage was to the basement so by now it is mostly fixed.

So we were at the beach. All the stores had a goal to be open by Memorial Day and thankfully that even meant our favorite places like the pizza parlor called Slice of Heaven. It was a bit cool so there weren’t as many people as usual yet my mom still managed to get sun burnt.

We spent Saturday to Monday all together at the beach. My dad’s parents, Mama Lou and Papa Tom, came down with my Aunt Kim on Sunday and we got to enjoy a dinner made by my brother and his girlfriend.

It was a nice relaxing weekend.

This week also kicked off my mom’s month off of work. Her office isn’t going to survive without her, but she really deserves it. The only thing is that she always has to be doing something...and that includes you too.

Most of my week was still spent inside but I did start knitting again.

I also had another doctors appointment. This time my mom came with me, first time she has through this whole process. Of course Mom has known my doctor since they were pre-teens (their dads work together.)

This week was 2 weeks after the surgery so the stitches were coming out. I really didn’t want to watch so I held my mom’s hand and looked away as they came out. It felt like needles were piercing me and really didn’t feel nice. Of course what are the adults doing? Just talking. Talking, talking talking away as I squirm. He finishes, starts cleaning up, moves away then turns and says, “You okay?” Yeah, fine...

I blame Mom, she started it.

Whatever, I also go some x-rays to make sure it was all going right. All good. And Mom did get to see and and felt better that she did ‘cause now she knows it is really going okay.

So yeah, another week gone and hopefully only 4 more weeks before the next one.

Going Out on Recovery

By now it has been about a week and a half since my surgery. Healing is going fine. I’ve got off the heavy pain killers after 5 days, and now I’m only taking about 1 Advil a day.

I’ve also been told to start putting weight on my heal. It was hard at first to even straighten the leg since I’ve had the knee bent constantly. It’s slow going, but going.

Anyway, this past week moved. Kicked off with my parents 24th wedding anniversary. Even with Mom working and Dad on a run to drop off a car they were able to go out for dinner.

Honestly, most of the week was spent watching Criminal Minds or West Wing.

But I did go out. Wednesday was actually very busy for me. It started with going out to breakfast with my high school friends. We got to meet up and get run downs on how term went and summer outlines before I had to go to the doctors again.

Check-up was fine. Everything is looking right and I get stitches out next week.

Then we got back home to find Michael and Katie already there, they said they wouldn’t be there till 7 and it was only 4. So we decided to feed the dogs early an meet Mom for dinner at Outback. We then went to the new IMAX theater and saw Star Treck Into Darkness. Awesome movie, great music.

In the end though it was still a lot. I had to climb a stair case, do a lot of walking, so by the time we got back at 10:30 I was so tired and swollen that I collapsed on the couch, got my bag of ice, and feel to sleep very fast.

So, yeah, the week is now over and Mom will be off for a month and hopefully won’t drive us all, and herself, crazy.

Until next week.

Recovery Week 1

So the operation went well, to all those who care.

We had to be there at 5:45 so we stayed at a hotel in the area. I got prepped and the actual operation started on time at 7. I was put asleep and remember getting the drug with the doctor over me....then nothing.

If you’ve never gone through an operation then you should know there are 2 parts of recovery. Stage 1 is where you’re lying down and just starting to wake up. Stage 2 is when you’re normally in a chair and sitting up.

For me it wasn’t as straight forward.

The anesthesia got me a bit sick. Boats make me throw up, and waking up felt like I was waking on a boat in the middle of a storm. 

I was given some apple juice, that didn’t sit with me long. After a while, with me only getting worse, they gave me a different drug and moved me into a privet area where I was put on monitors and oxygen.

Finally around 1 pm I was well enough to go home. I got back into normal cloths, given ice packs, crutches, and helped into the car.

Since then I have been on the couch trying to ignore the throbbing when the medicine wheres off. Not that it’s that bad, I’ld rate it at like a 3-4.

Tomorrow I go back and get the bandages changed, I’m told it will hurt a bit. Great.

But yeah, I’m alive, fine, and mobile - in a way.

What This Summer is All About

A week in review: Doctors appointments, dentist, shopping, think about what I want in my room, help Katie find curtains, go to wawa, see Great Gatsby (awesome from the point of view of someone who never read it) then Mother’s Day.

So for all those in America this past weekend was Mother’s Day. To celebrate we went out to the boardwalk and went mini golfing then out to dinner at a local dinner. Of course I was having a very off day with golf and ended up loosing - everyone was getting 2s and 3s and I was getting 3s and 4s...

Really we were trying to get as much active stuff done as possible before the 14th.

Why?

Because I get surgery on that day.

This is the reason why I didn’t apply to internships this summer. This surgery is something that my family has been talking about since I was little. I was born with bunions - a foot problem that normally effects older women because they ware the wrong types of shoes. Lucky me I’m part of the 3% born with it.

But the constant talk about it wasn’t the thing that made me decide to do this. 

My feet give me pain, not chronic, put enough to keep me constantly reminded that they are different. I can’t run for more that 5 minutes without being unable to really stand, I have problems with ladders, and sometimes I just get pain after sitting all day. Really it isn’t any fun.

So the 14th, tomorrow, I get the surgery for my right foot done then hopefully in 6 weeks I’ll be well enough to get the left foot done too. However, the doctor says that since they have to break 2 bones it will really be all about playing it by ear. We really worked to get them in so soon since the goal is to have both feet out of bandages by the time I have to go back to school in August.

My dad is taking me and we’re actually leaving tonight since I have to be there at 5:45 am. It’s only suppose to be an hour and I’m hoping to be knocked out for the whole thing. I’m really nervous and am scared about the type of pain you’re in right after...make that really, really nervous. But I’ll have my dad and my teddy waiting and I’m staying at home for the first few weeks. I’m going to do this. It’s worth more than my fears.

So wish me luck. I’ll keep you posted.

End of Year 2

Yes, I’ve been horrible with keeping this up. I know, updates would only take an hour of my time. I get it, there is no real excuse in some ways. 

Just get over it already.

So yeah, a LOT has happened since my last update. So much that I won’t even talk about some things. Instead we’re going to focus on one major important thing. Finals.

Yeah, I already had my finals. The last day was April 29th so the week before hand was when most things were actually do. I think I said this before. Art colleges don’t have test finals, unless it is one of the few liberal classes offered. Instead we get projects that are worth 35-55% of our grade. In one of my classes it was worth more-or-less the whole grade.

So yes, the final week I killed myself in a way. Jill for concept had us finishing up the network re-designs that we have been working on basically all term. (Really annoying) Then on top of it the actual final was to do one big final presentation of the re-design... with everything having been revised for a final grade. (I extra killed myself by pushing out a third concept for the final to try getting extra credit).

Style frame for concept 3.

Dorian, Design. Oh gosh. 

Basically we were working on 2 projects over the term, one on our icon (I had a nut and bolt) and one on kinetic typography. So all the weekly assignments we had we had to put together in a layout, print it out, then bind the book (Graphic Design has a machine to do it fast). Thankfully I had all my pictures, but it still took time.

Joe and Animation. Sadly, Joe is not coming back next year as he said he wants to spend more time on his own projects...boo. His final project was one where the whole class would work together to create an apple app for the ABCs. Each person picked a letter from a hat and we had to come up with a sentence for it, then animate it using 3D (Cinema 4D) and 2D (After Effects) techniques. I got T, and Joe had said that he didn’t want the app to be all happy and child-like. So mine is “Tt is for tiger, who thought you were lunch.” In the animation the tiger sees you, positions himself, and eats you (the viewer) in one bit. It’s really cool in my opinion.

The original style frame mad by hand out
of construction paper.

Of course it took about 3 weeks to get right. I had to make everything in 3D space, the animate them to look like an actual tiger - not very easy. Thankfully I had chosen to do an art style to make it appear to be constructed out of paper, so my tiger could be as geometric as I wanted.

Arts in Concept was a straight forward final - give a presentation on how something we did in class relates to the “outside world.” I did how Freud’s Id, Ego, and Super-ego were translated to be Kurt, Spock, and Bones from Star Trek Original Series. My teacher never thought she would talk about Star Trek in her class but found it very interesting. I had also created versions of what I would think my Id, Ego, and Super-ego look like.

Final we had Artists Books. The final was a partner project, open ended. Whet we decided to do was make silhouette pictures from “around the world” and get a light in the spine of the book that you could turn on to create a back light. The book would also be printed on vellum so the light would be diffused. 

Honestly, it was annoying. First was had to find the right size parts for it (thanks Sarasota Electrical) then learn how to set it up, get the pictures (Disney EPCOT World Showcase) vectors them, put them in a layout, format it right, print it, cut it, fold it, add the lights, and bind it all together. The most frazzling part was the printing. We wanted it on vellum, but our school couldn’t print it. 

The final 'picture' in the book.

So I sent it off to Blue Line (a printing store in town) and they said they could do it. Of course I then get an email saying they can’t...2 days before it’s due. I rush down, talk to the guy, rush back, and try to fix the layout so he can print it. Thankfully it worked. Turned out he couldn’t print the accordion book in one go (225 inches) so we had to break it into 4 pieces. 

In the end it was a hit with not only that class and teacher, but also with Dorian and the rest of my Design class. I had been showing him all of my books as I make him and he loved this one.

Top view of the finished book.

So there you have it. A week of no sleep, stress, and summer good-byes. After all this was said and done I had packing to to and the end of year video to edit. I plan on making one every year. And regardless of the stress, I did enjoy the year but for now I happy to spend 3 months at home with my family.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PijiWWmu9o