Tools of the Trade

Well here it is 2 weeks from my last post - where on earth did the time go?

So, as I expected, I'm really loving Design Studio, the Fundamentals of Design class . . . while I am definitely learning so much interesting information and about what I've known all along, that interior design is so much about psychology and how our homes/rooms make us feel, I am more a hands-on person, not a lecture person (is anyone a lecture person?).  As part of taking these classes, I felt the need to transform my former craft room into a design room.  I haven't been crafting lately, so this was a perfect time for this transition.  It's so cool and affirming when timing seems to line up perfectly like that.  This is turning the page to start a new chapter for sure!  We had to purchase quite a long list of supplies for the class and I also purchased a portable drafting board to work on since I can't hang out on campus using their drafting tables.  I was like a kid in a candy store, walking through the art store ticking items off my list.  I love the drafting board I picked out (and was thankful that I took time really thinking out what I wanted to purchase for this) as it is very sturdy and portable (which ended up being such a good thing last night for I had to completely redo my homework that took me 3 hours to complete after I realized I had added up my room measurements incorrectly and couldn't fit the required furniture into the room.  By that time, it was 10 at night and I wanted to be upstairs with the company of the TV, so just moved my operations upstairs and completed the work without a problem.  OY VEY!).

Due to my life-long love of office supplies, having to purchase these tools of the design trade just about gave me hives!

I have to say that I am absolutely LOVING going to school and what I'm going for.  While I had visions of my junior high art classes and how horribly I drew buildings and how slowly I had to work to get my not-so-great artwork even done, I am actually keeping up with the class and able to complete the homework we've been given so far.  I feel as comfortable in both of my classes as if I'd been with these groups of students for years.  It feels REALLY good to be in this setting at my age, the age where I finally really don't give a rats patooty about what people think of me, so I am not at all shy about asking for clarification on something or sharing a frustration about how difficult something was to do, etc..  I was so painfully self-conscious and shy when I was in school in my youth that it was a huge distraction and I didn't get far with my schooling.  I truly think it's backwards that kids at the age of 18 are supposed to have the faintest idea of what they want to do with their lives and the confidence to carry it off.  So much money is spent on college educations that these days seems to go straight down the drain.  UGH!

So, with the deep freeze coming again this week, I will bundle up in my boots and my neck warmer that turns into a hood (that Kylie promptly, with more than a hint of sarcasm told me was quite the fashion statement) and will make my trek across the parking lots and the campus with my college luggage full of my tools of the trade and my portfolio without a care in the world what anyone thinks of me - and boy will I enjoy it!

If any of you are considering heading back to school, whether it is to complete an unfinished degree, to start a new career or to further an existing career, I HIGHLY recommend it.  It's hard work to be sure, but so very rewarding and life giving!

I'm Going Back to College - Come on the Journey with Me

Hi Friends - I am so sorry that it has been so long since I've posted.  I spent two months doing a temp job for a friend who had a baby and the absolute next day after that was done, my dad went into the hospital.  After 3 1/2 days there, he was released with some much needed tweaks to his health and a week later, it was Christmas, then New Year's and, well, here we are, it's January 16th and I'm finally writing a new post.

One thing that came out of the time I spent doing the temp job was the chance to step out of our own office and to step back to analyze the next phase of my life as the mom of 2 college girls who will be spreading their own wings and getting on with the next steps of their lives.  So, with that job of raising them nearing it's end it's time to enhance my future with Randy and the work that we do, so I decided to head back to college myself to get certified as a Kitchen and Bath Designer.  During my first phone call to Harper College to sign up for this, the head of their Interior Design program said, upon finding out that I am a Certified Remodeler, "Well, let me take a look at your work, and we can clep you out of some of the beginning classes" to which I chuckled and said, "Oh, no, you don't understand, I know absolutely NOTHING about design, I need those beginning design classes".  My giftedness in being a Certified Remodeler is in running the company/office in general.  I am not at all in charge of any of our design work.  That would either be Randy or we utilize the talents of designers are our cabinet suppliers.  But, I do have a creative side to me and a HUGE passion for people getting the absolute most out of the use of their kitchens, so to be able to use that creativity and passion in doing our own designs is exciting beyond words to me!

So, I'd love to take you along on this journey with me.  I am anticipating some humorous stories to come out of this along with some realizations of who I am and who I hope to become.  Already, it has, well, I'm going to be honest here, annoyed me greatly that the majority of the people I have dealt with getting registered, getting my financial aid in line (have I mentioned that because of Chelsea being at Judson and Kylie now going to college, I qualified for a Pell Grant and, tada! get to embark on at least the first semester of this adventure for free - weeeeee!), getting my books, etc., have been people more than half my age who I have to say, are sorely lacking in the customer service department.  Come on younger generation, act like you are grateful to have a job; that you do, indeed, have a brain in those pretty little heads of your's and that you are happy to even be alive.  Seriously, if this is what our future generations think is acceptable at their jobs, we're all in HUGE trouble!!!  I have also come to the conclusion that the thermostats at colleges are not at all set for the comfort of premenopausal women.  I was so hot the other day that I seriously wanted to run outside and throw myself, face down into the snow.  I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO hot!!!  Note to self, dress lightly or in layers (though, I have yet to find layers that I can wear that as I peel away, don't show off my unfortunately overweight body - but I am working on that, a story for another time).

So, come along on this new journey of mine, would you?  And, let's experience this middle-aged college adventure together.  It starts on Tuesday, so here we go . . .