Bathroom Birthday

Yesterday's studio went really well. Saori and I came in early, and worked until class time. When my instructor came around for desk crits, he was very impressed with the quantity of work that I had done in two days. I had a computer model in Rhino, a physical model at 1/4" scale, photographs of the physical model in sunlight, and I was in the process of importing the model into Revit for the solar orientation and rendering capabilities. Many students only had sketches, or computer models, and few had an actual foamcore model. To be honest, I have a significant leg up on a lot of students, especially the 3+ students, who are coming into the program and for whom this is the first truly architectural vs spatial or conceptual project. It also helps that I knew a few nifty programs, and techniques for working quickly with foamcore. Tip #1: (quickly learned) Use a sharp knife. #2: Sewing pins are fantastic for sticking foamcore together. Elmers takes a long time to dry on foam, and pins have the added advantage of being removable later for dissassembling and re-assembling the model.

Our studio was cut short by an all-school meeting which was 90 minutes of "welcome back to school" speeches, introductions, and reminders.Could have taken a pass on that one, although it was interesting to see the breakdown of all the students by year and program.

The welcome meeting segued into the friday happy hour on the patio where snacks, sodas, and $1 beers were sold. Saori, Dew, and I ducked out to hit the store East East on Olive, which is one of the few places to get Japanese groceries in St.Louis. They were shopping for Dew's roommate, Alex, birthday party, and I got included too.

The party at Dew's was a lot of fun. Dew's apartment is very close to campus, up on the top level of a series of apartments. About a hundred years old, and sized for a family, it is full of twisting corridors, and linked rooms. About 20 people ended up coming to the party, mostly grad students in architecture, although there were some social work grad students as well. Dew and Saori made a Japanese curry stew for the group, and everyone went out to the outdoor patio to chat and drink and play guitar. 

You would think that by the age of 26 I would have learned a few things about myself, and specifically, my tolerance for alcohol. But I got swept up in the party and ended up having a few too many, and I've been paying for it dearly today.  I've been ill all day long, unable to take or return calls to loved ones, and also generally missing the most spectacularly beautiful day we've seen in St.Louis. Although it will warm up again later this week, summer has turned the corner. Today and yesterday was sunny, beautiful, and with a nice crisp coolness to the air. We've opened the apartment windows up and it smells wonderful. I do really regret missing today, not just because it is my birthday, but also the loss of spending time with Saori exploring St.Louis on what would have been a perfect day. (although she's been wonderful, tending to me.)