Thursday, November 21, 2013

"Every cloud has a silver lining"

I've been feeling so unenergized today. First, it's raining. I bothered to move my lazy butt off just to go to a lecture class, which is essentially a sleepy one too. A medium cup of hot vanilla latte didn't help. I dozed off at some points in class. Then I took a shuttle to South Campus for another class. Yes, I've been taking public transportations and occasionally carpooling with friends and my roommate since my car is being repaired right now.

However, that's not the point. I see the silver lining of not having a car. I took public transportations and I've been enjoying it ever since I sent my car to the body shop. It's true that the wait was a pain, but I felt I blended more with the city vibe by taking bus rides. I blended more with the people, with the community, something I've never felt before ever since I started to drive in LA.

That's because I stayed in my comfort zone: the inside of my car. I isolated myself from Pasadena. I drowned myself in loud music on the radio without having to interact with the people. Probably the reason why I felt so attached with the city I previously lived in, Cupertino, is because I took bus rides everywhere, I interacted with people on the bus. I just felt like I was truly a part of the city.

Anyway, back to Pasadena. For several times, I bumped into nice ladies on the bus and they didn't bother to share a little of their stories to me on the bus. One lady I bumped on the bus shared about her Korean daughter and showed me a picture of her. She said I reminded her of her daughter. The other lady noticed that I carried foamcore and guessed that I went to Art Center. Apparently her daughter graduated from there and now she works as an illustrator in Disney's Studio. Whenever I told my friends that I've been taking buses since my car is being repaired, they are a bit shocked. However, I managed to assure them that bus rides are not that bad. It's true you have to switch buses and you have to spend $1.50 for each ride. Parts of it might be because I got used to taking buses in Cupertino, that I didn't bother to take buses again in Pasadena if my car is absent. Now that my car is absent, I find that it's a good chance. Bus rides, for me, feel like a little adventure on its own after a series of stressful classes at school.

Aside from taking bus rides, I also take school shuttles, which essentially transfers me from campus 1 to campus 2. Today, the bus driver plays a radio that plays Christmas music. Those series of Christmas carols brought me back to 2 years ago, when I had a chance to truly celebrate Christmas. I went to Orlando with Aymee, Elda, and Ardy, then I took off by plane to New York to celebrate Christmas with my cousin, and also to have a little New York tour with my parents. Everything was so magical back in Christmas Break 2011. I essentially got a little bit of everything.

However, everything feels so uncertain. My parents have planned to visit me this Christmas, but at the same time, I wanted to visit Elda to Michigan. With the New York trip for this upcoming winter being cancelled, I decided to visit Elda to Michigan and to reunite with Aymee there. But the length of my stay there is still uncertain too. I basically have a month of break, which I decided not to spend by going back to Indonesia (because I wanted to feel the Christmas vibe here). Aymee will be staying in Michigan for 4 days only before she and her sister left off to celebrate Christmas with their uncle and aunt, and now that I'm still not sure if my parents will still be coming or not. My roommate might have plans on her own, and my other friends are heading back home or spending their Christmas with relatives.

Speaking of relatives, you might ask: why couldn't I just go to New York to relive Christmas celebration 2 years ago with my cousin? Well, to sum it up, my cousin went back to Indonesia for good just this month.

I really do hope my parents would be coming over to US for the rest of my break. I hope they will be certain about it. I'd be super bummed if I had to spend the rest of my very long break by myself, strolling around in the glamorous LA. Even more, Christmas is my most favorite holiday. It'd be superb to celebrate it with your loved ones.

Now that it's raining. I don't feel like going to Archetype class right now. It's been a fun class but I just don't grasp it. It's also good to learn something that Johannes Gutenberg introduced back in the day and how graphic design worked before digital emerged. However, I don't feel like it's going to be beneficial for me in the future and it's just so time consuming. It's not like I'm going to purchase the big-ass printing press machine for myself and live my life as a designer creating my work from that machine. I seriously could spend 6 hours of this pointless class working on other projects, or in today's case, staying at home sipping a cup of hot tea. Seriously, I just want to get this archetype shit overwith. I seriously don't give a fuck about typesetting, which essentially the only part that makes me despise this class so bad because it takes fucking forever. If you're not doing it right, the professor will keep on scolding you till you get it right. Maybe it's a good thing, but I feel like it's super time consuming. I can seriously do something else than spending my butt on one printing press just doing typesetting for hours. I might be the only one in the class who feels this way. My other classmates seem to enjoy this class so much since it's their last class of the week, while I still have a class a day after it...and guess what, it's Packaging class, aka the hardest class I've had this whole semester. Packaging projects take countless efforts and sleepless nights to really get the best, legit portfolio piece, and I feel like it's worth way more than archetype class.

Well, I chose to enroll in this class. I've no way to complain about it. Just get that shit done and I'll be fine.

All in all, as the saying goes, I believe there's always a silver lining in every cloud. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of the day, and for those who live in California, enjoy the rain today and the beginning of winter!! :)

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