Mai and Mai Tai

Yesterday was a really busy day. I worked through lunch on a design charette (design brainstorming) with a group on how to develop the NE corner of Mesa-Phoenix Gateway airport. There's going to be a huge resort/conference center moving into the massive property to the NE of the airport, which it made sense to tie into with our schemes. So that was kind of fun. The rest of the afternoon was not so much fun as we discovered some problems with our building and what we needed to do to fully understand and remedy them. Not fun discussions, but interesting ones to sit in on. The after-work beer on the patio was definitely deserved. 

After, we decided to pick up a friend of ours, Mai, and go out for some drinks. Mai's been one of our good friends for awhile, a Japanese industrial designer. She really loves Phoenix, so its a real shame that the economy is so bad. She's flying back to Japan next week. Anyway, we took her Trader Vic's which was oddly hopping for after 9pm on a summer thursday night, including a live band which thankfully went away after about half an hour.Good time for drink and food specials too. I grabbed a Mai Tai (my favorite drink) and Saori and Mai grabbed some other tropical libations, and we munched on beef cho-chos and panko shrimp. It was nice.

I had one beer when I came home, and one mai tai several hours later, so tell me why I still felt hung over when I woke up. Sand and grit behind my eyeballs, stomach is tight, water, toast, aspirin, back to bed for a few more hours. 

Just in time for the World Cup.

Graduation Convocation

Today I had to get up even earlier and bike down to Gammage to get ready for Convocation. They had us arrive at 8, but didn't lead us out until 9, so we mingled in the cramped backstage area. This involves the entire college of design, including everyone from Interiors, to Planning, to Landscape, Design Studies, building administration et al, so it was pretty packed. Saori and her mom spent an hour and a half putting her special kimono on, one that traditionally she is supposed to wear only twice in her life- graduation from college, and then for the photos afterwards. Looked great, but very warm.

Convocation went smoothly, they announced me as "Alex Perkins" when I handed them the card with "Alexander Perkins," but they completely butchered Saori's name, mis-reading it as "Sandy" ah well. We got our degree holders and walked across the stage. Pretty quick ceremony. Finished in less than an hour and a half.

After the ceremony, Sally, Jonathan, and the family took us to Oreganos where we had an early lunch feast. Afterwards, my grandmothers and I lounged by the pool at the hotel, reading, talking, and enjoying the cool water. I was stung by a wasp, which was a little painful. I was concerned I might be allergic to wasp stings since I'd never been stung before, but the swelling and redness disappeared within an hour. Around 5 o'clock, grandma Case made a comment about cocktail hour, so I decided to take them to Four Peaks brewery, where we enjoyed a pitcher of beer. They were excited to have the "complete college experience."

Anyway, photos: click on the Webshots link to see the full sized photos.



Graduation 2007

Pobrecito

Saturday morning, I watched some of the thesis presentations given by the masters students, which was cool because we'd gotten to know many of them on the Buenos Aires trip. Saturday afternoon, I got a text inviting me to Four Peaks Brewery because Claudio and Sergio were planning on going. So Saori and Sal and I head over and we meet a bunch of masters students and we drink for a bit. Adam, Chris, and Jake also come but ran into a problem because Adam lost his wallet and his passport is currently in the system to have pages added. Anyway, after Four Peaks, we went to Trax near my apartment and drank a little more. More friends joined us and finally Saori and I left a little after midnight.

That night I slept very poorly since it was so hot in the room. My roommate and I are competing with the elements to see how long we can hold out without turning on the A/C. When I woke up drenched in sweat in the morning, I realized that the room wasn't that hot, but I was. I had a low grade fever, swollen tonsils, and ached all over. Must have had something in the works that the alcohol lowered my defenses enough for it to take over. Aspirin helps some. Sunday I spent the day at home, mostly watching dvds in bed. Saori has been taking care of me, picking up food and checking up on me. Today I'm working at home on our final presentation for sketching tonight. If I still feel this bad tomorrow, I'll make an appointment to go see a doctor.

In other news, I got a haircut. It turned out a lot shorter than I was expecting.