Another semester under my belt!

As of 7:30 this evening, my semester officially came to an end. Looks like it was another relatively good one grade-wise, though I won't know for sure until grades are posted next week. I hate that they make you wait so long to find out! Talk about nerve-wracking!

I was going to post this morning, after an extended cram session that involved a shit-ton of work, reading, and stressing out and not so much sleep, showers, or nutritious food. Alas, as I sat down to write it all out, my body decided to scream a hearty "fuck you!" at me, and I crashed. Hard.

See, I was working on this project for my Visual Communications (or VisCom as it is more commonly known by those of us who just can't bear to expend the energy for eight whole syllables on a class name), and it hadn't been going very well. It was a 4-paneled advertising kiosk for a travel agency, with graphics on all eight surfaces. For the last couple weeks I struggled with design and construction problems, mostly born of motivation issues stemming from a raging case of Decemberitis and exacerbated by an otherwise hectic schedule. Then two days ago I discovered that my flash drive was missing. It must have fallen off somewhere, and though I spent the entire evening retracing my steps, I turned up nothing.

So yesterday morning I found myself no closer to being done with the thing than I was two weeks ago, and so I took a deep breath, thanked God that I'd had the wherewithal to back up all my files on disc last week (how's that for irony?), and got to work. The timeline went something like this:

6:30 - I drag myself out of bed for my second final of the semester, my Color Theory critique, which goes from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m.

Between 10 a.m. and noon, I run around gathering supplies I was going to need for the project. Then I run a few necessary errands, and by noon I'm on my way back to campus.

Noonish - 1:00 p.m. Fart around, check email, talk to some people, extract the files and organize my thoughts. Freak out a little but remind myself that I've got all the rest of the day to finish this thing.

1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. one panel has the graphics and text finished and laid out, three of the four inside panels are printed.

3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. I take a break to run a few more errands, come home to walk the dog, make a phone call, and stop and get some dinner.

5:30 p.m. I realize I've got exactly 24 hours and 10 minutes to get this thing finished.

4:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Graphics for second panel (a photoshop collage extravaganza) are done and laid out. Still needs text, though.

7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. I screw around a little, get up and stretch and walk around for a minute, then one of my classmates comes in and I end up chatting with her for a while before deciding to take another break. I go and get some coffee, stop home to check on the pets and change my shirt (I'd been wearing this huge sweater and that studio gets hot).

9:00 p.m. - 4:30 a.m. Finally finished with the layouts and printing of all eight sides, the piece is ready to for the construction phase. I decide to do this part at home, because at this point I'm really sick of the inside of Upton Hall room 203. I've had enough. I have bags under my eyes, my vision is blurring, my left eyelid is twitching, my back is stiff, and my right hand is permanently formed into the shape of a mouse.

4:45 a.m. Stop at Tim Horton's for coffee, and for the second time in two weeks, I pull up to the drive-thru only to be shot down. Who knew they closed every night from 4:30 to 5:00? Damn it!

5:00 a.m. - 6:30 a.m. Prints are mounted onto board. Boards are cut and slotted and fit together. Turkey the cat keeps jumping on me, the piece keeps falling apart, and I'm getting increasingly agitated. Finally, at 6:30 a.m. - 17 hours after I started, and 24 hours since I'd last slept - the thing is finished. I'm so damn proud of it, I take it to Starbucks with me when I go to get coffee. My coworkers are slightly baffled as to why I do this, but I wanted someone - anyone - to see the fruit of my labor. Unshowered since Tuesday, skin a sallow shade of gray mixed with the flush of sleep deprivation, looking like I'd been socked in the eyes, rocking indigestion from gallons of coffee and some horrid fried chicken strips, and on my 25th hour with no sleep, I am a picture of creative psychosis.

6:30 a.m. - 7:30 a.m. I still have two books to finish reading for my Anthro exam, which is happening in six hours. I'm confident I can do it, since they're short books with interesting subject matter. Plus I'd been to all the lectures and figure I can just skim over the contents and pick out the stuff I think he's going to test us on. At 7:30, however, my body just gives out, and I literally drop the book I'm reading onto the floor and walk, zombie-like, into my bedroom where I curl up on the bed, clothes and all.

11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. I wake up in a panic, thinking I'd overslept. I look at the clock and realize I still have two whole hours before exam time, so I read for another half hour and then go back to sleep for another 45 minutes. Then I get up and - for the first time in two days - take a shower. Not since the shower I took after hitchhiking for 12 hours in 90-degree weather from Mansfield, MA to Rindge, NH in 1989 has a shower felt so good.

A short time later, I sit down to my Anthro test, and I know all but a few answers. I hope I am right and not just delusional as a result of the previous day's activities. But I'm done in 15 minutes, and walk out feeling pretty confident that I'd done okay. Shortly thereafter I meet with a professor who has agreed to look over my portfolio and advise on some things I can do with it over break in preparation for my review in February. He has lots of advice. I'm going to be busy. Anyone got a copy of Illustrator for PC they can give me?

And then...the answer to the burning question that has you all on the edge of your seats right now: How did I do on the kiosk project? Well...my classmates seemed to like it, but the prof panned it. Not totally, I mean, he didn't tell me it was the biggest hunk of crap he'd ever seen or anything like that, but he had lots of "suggestions for improvement." Basically I'm going to have to do it over again before my review.

But for now, I'm just going to get some sleep. I deserve it.