In Which These Are My Summer Plans

The semester is basically over now, which gives me a nearly four-month break from schoolwork. You might be asking yourselves what I plan on doing during those four months, and I am nothing if not an answerer of your questions. So:

The day after final grades are due (since I’ll be grading papers right up till the deadline) I’m leaving here to go live with my sister for a month in California. I’ve never been there before, I plan on doing some thesis research and relaxing, and I figured now is as good a time as any since nobody is hiring for anything this summer anyway. I’m driving across the country, making stops in Nashville, Little Rock, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, and Las Vegas before ending up in Santa Monica, and I’m going to see all the sights along the way (Sedona, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Renzo Piano’s museum in Dallas, etc.) while staying in hostels and on people’s couches. So that’ll take about a week.

Once out there I plan on being creative and quiet. I’m hoping to do some screen printing, make some beer, visit architecture and the beach, and put together a book about my trip. The idea for the book is to use my Holga camera to document my trip and combine that with writing and sketches to make a kind of travel diary which I’ll then self-publish and sell/give away copies. I have a feeling doing this kind of project will be important to my creative growth. I also plan on working on my “beach bod” a lot.

My sister and I will then drive back at the end of June, taking a different route than by which I go out there. We’ll go north through Salt Lake City, Denver, etc. and then through Cincinnati to see what’s changed since we lived there.

Then a three-week break before I travel to Vermont to be a part of a two-week community design/build program in which I’ll be working on some kind of community shelter. The class is put on by the Yestermorrow school, if you want to look them up.

And then back to school for my final year. Should be a fun summer, and hopefully one that’s exciting and full of personal growth and a deeper understanding of myself, others, and my place in this world. If you’ll be in the L.A. area in June, look me up; I’ll buy you a drink and you can tell me stories.