tecgirl

What I received this semester was a royal ass whoopin'. I never really ever caught up from Burning Man, and put a week long shoot after that and I was two steps behind. I managed to keep up finally-my last week of the semester. I slept no more than twelve hours over the course of six days, two of those being all-nighters. I drank more black tea than anyone should ever be allowed. I couldn't have finished it all without the help of my lovely boyfriend, who puts up with me when I spaz out from sleep deprivation.

This break will be spent catching up, relaxing whenever possible, being social, taking pictures, and working on our house.

In five more days I'll be one semester closer to graduation. I'm estatic. I have five more days of class and an obscene amount of work to do. After that I have one more semester and a single class over the Summer. I walk in May. I haven't had a chance to think about grad school yet. I think more than anything I need a vacation. A real vacation. I deserve one.

I just need either a clone to actually write all the things I intend to blog about, and then habitually forget to, or 8 more hours every day. Then, I would really be productive. I've been active on my Twitter account, however. If you aren't already, follow me.

SFO // Apple iPhone

These past few weeks have been simultaneously a blast and rough as hell. Let's back up a little bit to summer school. This was the first summer I've taken classes. I did a two week intensive then an eight week intensive - back to back. I had a week off to prep for Burning Man then off I went. We stayed in Reno for three days and I finally got home at 2am the day I was to be at school at 9am, and work that night at 10pm. Mind you my car was still packed from the Burn. From then on I hit the ground running. School, work, work, work, school. The flip-flop of my schedule has been more intense, and Sunday has become a half-day, which makes me sad. I am up at 7am Monday-Thursday, and 10-Noon Fri-Sun. After a week of school, I headed down to LA to work on a three-day summit shoot (with two travel days). United Airlines set the tone by canceling my last-flight-out giving me three hours of sleep to start the summit the next day. Add four more days of 3-4hrs sleep and back to SF on Friday to work the weekend. Then back to school to catch up on the week I missed. I finally slept in this past Sunday but felt horribly guilty doing so. I have so much to do! That must be why today I came home from lunch and washing my car to pass out on the couch for two hours. My body is finally taking over. Now if I could just get my mind to finish all of my homework...

My head has been swollen in literature from antiquity to the middle-ages. Stories of love, hate, lust, deception, war, cannibalism, and Orientalism. I am relieved to have my papers written, now onto my final project - that I think will be a staged photograph relating to one of my favorite stories. Attention SF friends: I may be calling you!

As of today, I have a week and a half left of summer session classes. Which means, I will have about two weeks to prep for Burning Man (not a big deal) and then I actually get to have a mini-cation for a week before I come back and go back a full time class schedule the day after I return. Being out on the Playa can be awfully draining, so I won't feel totally rested until our exodus back home. On the way back, we're making a two-day stop in Reno and are staying at the Grand Sierra Resort. We decompressed there last year and it was wonderful. Several hundred other Burning Man attendees had the same idea, and we continued our party out at the pool with 5-star buffet and a full bar. Also, submerging myself in a pool after being in a desert of alkali was the best.

I may attend Midsummer Night's Dream at the Playboy Mansion again this year, but don't know if it's feasible with everything else I have going on. I do have a credit on Virgin America and great friends to party and stay with, so really all I need to do is get the night covered at Slide. Taking a night off hurts my wallet but I think I need a good party to celebrate the end of summer session.

My sickness turned into a rather nasty case of bronchitis/laryngitis, and I must say - last Sunday was still the worst of it. I still wake up several times a night with coughing fits, but the headache and soreness was at it's peak a week ago. I made it to class on Tuesday and then flew to LA for a content summit shoot. We shot in Agoura Hills the first day and Malibu the next. I shot interviews and was so glad - I couldn't have directed anything if I wanted to - I totally lost my voice! Several times I had to cut shooting to have coughing fits, and by the end of day two I was in full whisper. The shoots went well and we had a great time, despite me sounding like a 13 year old boy. At our wrap dinner I had to whisper into the ears of friends to order for me. I was thankful that my flight home on Saturday wasn't a red-eye, since I had another coughing fit and only got about five hours of sleep.

I rode to the airport with two other videographers and we had a quick bloody before our flights. When I went up to the counter to check in, the man asked if I wanted on an earlier flight, and of course I said yes. Then, not a minute later I was being paged on the PA to get to Gate 1 (I was at Gate 9). So I ran to Gate 1, gasping and wheezing. I nabbed a decent seat on the plane and gained composure only to be informed that we'd be sitting there for another 45 minutes to get clearance from SFO. I came home to a very sick boyfriend. His symptoms are a little different, but we both feel like shit nonetheless. I curse the bug that plagues us both.

Yesterday I noticed a little bit of scratchiness in my throat. I took lots of vitamins, dranks lots of water, and took it easy. By the time I came home at 330 I knew I was doomed. I barely slept and had dream after dream of my throat hurting. Then, this morning I awoke and could barely speak. Then I started coughing up blood-laden yellowish goo - from what I could barely cough up. It's like my throat is on lock-down. WTF? I've spent all day either laying down or doing homework, in a haze. I am hoping that the paper I am writing makes sense, and hoping that tomorrow I feel better so that I can edit the gibberish I am writing today. Now I'm on my third cup of tea, second bowl of soup, and really wanting this to be over already.

Unlike many other millions of Americans, I am not doing anything for the holiday. Not really by choice, either. I originally wanted to go down to LA for the Fourth of July party at the Playboy Mansion - since I have not been to a "day" party there and thought it would be grand to have a private fireworks show. Ford had planned to go out to the Black Rock Desert for a Ranger event. He decided to stay home and save the gas guzzling for the main event in August. Then I realized I had way too much homework and not enough expendable income to cover two days off from work and lodging and travel for two days, or the time to finish my first paper for my humanities class that is due on Monday. So, like a good student I stayed home. I still have to work tonight, so my Fourth will be spent working on my paper and living vicariously through others. I'm sure whoever comes into Slide tonight will be nice and toasty from their wonderful social gatherings. I would love to be out on a boat somewhere soaking in the sun with the smell of a good BBQ in the air.

The web has taken an interesting turn in the way we share ourselves online. I used to blog everyday, without hesitation. Then, flickr came along. I started posting photos damn near everyday. I eventually incorporated photos into my website, and tecgirl became a photoblog. Sometime later I started blogging on Vox. For personal and legal reasons I wrote more personal stories or about my work in the entertainment industry that I wouldn't necessarily want everyone to see. Vox has a wonderful privacy option. At one point I made everything on Vox private, then scaled back and started opening content up again. Then, along came Twitter. What a novelty! 140 characters. Boom, bang, you're done. All of my blogs suffered. What do I post here, what do I post there? Is it annoying to have your update statuses mirrored on ALL of your social networks? What can I write anymore? When do I have the time? I'm happy to admit I don't have much of an excuse not to write other than I feel that over the years what I say has been distilled down to little blurbs that are more fit for Twitter, and not on my flagship website. I think going back to blogging regularly may help me balance my geek load out a bit. I love to justify things.