So far pretty good...

hello my friends, have you missed me?

no more posting links, unless they are really funny. This is a post about good times in the Pitt. I hope this finds you all well.

Let's start with me then move on to our dear sweet Jared. As you know I went for a hello meeting at Wall to Wall. It was raining on tuesday and I had to take the bus, transfer even! I got there a bit early and stopped in a Jojo's for a cup of ass coffee. It granted me some time to collect my thoughts, review my notes, dry my feet... I paid my bill and was on my way - of course it was pouring now and the door in was not where I thought it was. I eventually made it into the building, and thank god I'm so smart, I removed my napkin, from the diner, from my bag and dried my feet and legs. Brilliant! (I should clarify this I suppose, I had on capris and shoes with no socks)

I met with James, the Creative Director. He was great - asked lots of good questions, showed me their awesome work. The discussion seemed fluid, I don't think I came across as totally lame, which is one of the goals I try to maintain. I was there for an hour, got a tour of the space and introductions to all who were there. James mentioned that they weren't hiring, but asked if I might be interested in freelance work. Then I shared my "I would love to but.." story. Dammit, I wish it wasn't always an issue. I suppose the truth is, I really would rather a fulltime gig, with benefits and stability - since Jared is in school, it makes more sense. In my experience, freelance can be more stressful and harder to maintain your time "off" - when its your sole source of income. Anyhoo, at that point he gave me a bunch of names and firms to contact, told he I could name drop. He is genuinely a nice guy... I wish he'd offered me a job. :)

Jared also talked to Dan, head of the Design School at CMU and his professor for his studio class (current data visualization project). Dan gave him some names to pass along to me and I will be meeting with him in a few weeks. Very cool.

So I compiled my list of new contacts and will start the process of trying to connect. This is all good... forward momentum.

This is a long post, I hope you can handle it all.

Jared. That guy. He's funny. These days, it seems like we don't see each other as much. This is probably because thats true. We have gone from being around each other every single day, almost all day, for a whole year... now I see him in the evenings and briefly in the mornings. When he is home, we catch up a bit, eat, then usually he goes to the 'corner pocket' (small reading office in our apt) to read, think, sketch, work etc. I try not to interrupt him. There have been times, when I have... and I got the "look", like I've just stopped the creative genius process and now it's wrecked forever. But whatever...

So, last night he comes home around maybe 7ish? He wasn't assigned any work that HAD to be done for today. How rare?! a moment to be treasured and celebrated. So in the kitchen, while making dinner, Jared starts sharing about his day. What can I say, except that he was almost glowing. He said is was an awesome day. People - let's enjoy this... this is WHY we are here. Why was it awesome? Because he connected with people. He had idea brainstorming, sketching session where he and another guy were building off of each others ideas, thriving in the moment, connecting... They got each other and it was fun. There was another class, where Jared showed where he was with his data visualization, self-portrait project. The feedback was positive, people liked it, he liked it - things are moving in a direction that works. He was able to engage in conversations with fellow students where they were exchanging ideas and critiquing their work. My assessment is that it's been 3 weeks. 3 weeks seems like the right amount of time for people to start feeling comfortable with each other, figuring out who does what, who knows what, and how they all fit in. I'm sure there's more to it than that... but this is how it all starts.

Now for the funny part. Some of the students are assigned to the school web site, (like Jared is assigned as a TA), they are responsible for getting bios of the students and have decided to profile 3 students more in depth. Jared has been chosen as one of them. Why? Because he's old, HAHAHAHAHA. Well, that's not the only reason... mostly it's because he has a design degree already, has worked in the real world doing design and has decided to come back to school... and that he's old. This notion is very new to us. We have always been the youngest ones in our friend groups - generally speaking. It seems like it's now our turn to be the more "mature" ones. Yikes...

So thats the update. Please enjoy the good mood with us. We hope you all are having moments of happiness as well - be sure to share them with us when you can.