Dedications

"Peas and other minor objects" is dedicated to Pete (see blog under Petate) who always takes pictures of his plates of food before he eats them. Pete flew back to Orlando on Tuesday for a short stay. Over a month ago he rattled off to me his plan for every meal he would consume on this trip. The kid likes food, and he really misses the food back in the States. C'mon, Pete, get on the Piadine bandwagon.
I simply found this meal heavy-on-the-peas highly ridiculous and therefore picture-worthy.


This second pic is Alessia, my best good Italian friend, and I. Alessia: for the stress, the coffee breaks, and the late-night spontaneous dance breaks...here's to you, cusser.

A great big public THANKS to miss ruthie fisher for the lovely package she sent me this week, which included Andrew Bird's new release "Armchair Apochrypha."
I betcha didn't know, I created almost my entire entry for the Domus competition while listening to Andrew Bird's "The Mysterious Production of Eggs." This new release seems to pack even more of a punch, and I should be able to shuffle a coupla projects out during airtime. If you don't have this album, run out and buy it right now. Or quickly point your mouse towards iTunes and purchase. That's an order, Mista!

forgotten thoughts.

Journal Entry July 30, 2005:
"I woke up this morning with thoughts of Milan on my brain. Where did those come from? Why Milan and why now? This is the first time Italy has come up. But perhaps this is something for me???
My thoughts about Milan were to go to design school, preferably grad school for creative entrepreneurship and learn Italian. Is this crazy?"

I remember that summer morning, waking up with these ideas out-of-the-blue, a revelation of sorts that bewildered me. After moving to Portland, I had a period when I was trying to figure out a new plan, avoid settling there and move to the next spot. I'd thought about other places before, LA, NYC, Colorado, but never Milan.

That morning I stumbled down to the Portland Coffee House, my Saturday morning wi-fi spot, and looked up possible grad programs. I felt I finally had some direction of where to go, and I was going to research it. I told a few friends, and Alan even bought me a book on learning Italian. The idea of going to Italy continued for a few months, but nothing ever panned out. In all honesty I didn't pursue it beyond a few internet searches and some passing prayers.

July 30, 2005 continued...
"I am very smitten with the idea of going far, far away. I am very smitten with learning a language, just really pursuing that. I want to own my own business, I want to live a creatively charged life. And at this point I am not pursuing any of those things.
I am in Oregon (which I love)
spending tons of time with friends (whom I love)
working a job (that I like)
and spending a lot of time training for the triathlon (which I love)"

I had been in Portland less than a year at that time. I was just getting to know the city. It was only a few weeks before that I ran the Nike Run Hit Wonder with over 10,000 people right past my apartment in downtown and thought, "I love it here." And a week after this entry I moved in Peter and Jessica's with Ruthie...a real home with real friends (some of my best friends) instead of a studio apartment for one. There was still a lot of life to be lived there.

I stumbled onto this entry, filed in a random folder on my computer, a few nights ago. My current brain had forgotten about those thoughts. This fall when I e-mailed Alan to tell him I was moving to Italy, he said his mom always says that I always make good on what I say I'm going to do. The idea of school in Italy came from another place entirely this last fall, a suggestion from Barbara, and even with Alan's words I never fully connected the two. Running onto this entry has been just another link that has calmed me and settled me into this here foreign city.

There comes a point in every situation in which I stop running and settle in. Summer '05 was when it happened for me in Portland, and May '07 is when it happened in Milan.
(I still love you, Portland.)

turning the leaf.

Pops is learning Italian. Danyelle sent him a CD set to get him started. At the rate I’m going, with design work taking precedence, he’ll be better than me by the time they come to visit.

I went to Paris this last weekend. I visited my friend Kathryn but found myself alone all day on Sunday while she worked at her boyfriend's shop. I visited all the familiar places: Notre Dame, The Eiffel Tower, Musee' D'Orsay...I was surprised at how well I remembered the city. It's the first time I've visited since I studied there in 2003.

Overall it was a time of thinking and refreshing after the last project. I considered some of the things our project leaders said during my critiques. Through their words and my own honesty, I realized that I have been fighting my own education.

Those of you who know me well know that I really struggled with the decision of whether to come here or not, whether to get my masters in fashion or even to stay in this field of work. That same debate has raged in me here. Although I have been working hard on my projects, I have taken all the fun out of them with this internal fight. Our last project leader said to me during a critique, “Design school is the most fun part of a fashion designer’s life. If you are not having fun, you might want to rethink this.” Besides the fact that that statement is the most depressing news I've ever heard for designers, he could obviously tell that something was amiss.

This week I feel like I’m starting anew. I know there’s no way I’m backing out of this program, it’s all been paid upfront. So this internal struggle is useless. Why am I preventing myself from learning everything I can, from soaking it all up? I'm ready.

Today a new brief was assigned, and it’s a beautiful thing. The project is to design ecologically responsible product for an outdoor and sportswear company. Could it get any more perfect? Meanwhile all my classmates are groaning. One girl even said, “I’m not designing clothing for safari people!” (Although her last collection was done entirely in safari colors.)

And so the summer begins…