Old news already

I worked all weekend, yet again. I'm now going into the 4th week of the term; it's been 3 1/2 weeks since I had a single day "off". It's funny, I keep thinking that my ability to complete work on time/early by scheduling and working ahead in previous terms will help me to keep up this term. But I keep being wrong. The game has changed and I need to shift my tactics.

Bad things: Working solely in CAD is a whole other ballgame. I feel like I'm on a treadmill that I can't get off of. It makes me sad that I am missing time with my kids and Stephen (and sister and nieces too.) Seriously sad. I keep reminding myself of two things: I will graduate in a year and this is showing them how important education is to me.

Good things: I can definitely say that by the end of this term I'm going to be a whole lot more proficient in AutoCAD and SketchUp. I'm also going to need some serious massage therapy for my neck and shoulders.

This week, I am excited about Shadow Mentor Day coming up on Friday. I get to go to a local firm and shadow the principal landscape architect at the firm and pick his brain about the profession, what I can/should do to make myself a competitive candidate for employment, his firm's work, opportunities in Eugene, etc. I'm hoping it will be a most excellent opportunity to start wiggling my way into the local LA network of professionals. So look forward to more happy, happy and less cranky, tired, overworked and overwrought LA student complaints. In the meantime, I'll be working on portfolio pages so there will likely be some posts with drawings/images from the last year or two showing up.

Other than Shadow Mentor Day, I have very little upbeat awesomeness to share today -- perhaps tomorrow I'll feel more optimistic after getting more than the 3 hours I got this morning.

In the meantime, here's a pretty watercolor rendering of a cool playground from a year ago: