Show Is Up!

After a good night's sleep, I went to the gallery to sort out the projector problem and make sure the monitor got everything turned on ok. The gallery coordinator was there and it turns out the gallery recently acquired a digital projector that I can use for my show! So I switched the projectors and now the image looks GREAT. I'm very pleased. I also got my price list in the gallery, and schmoozed with some design guy who might be interested in my work (to buy? i dunno, it was kind of vague). Pricing artwork is a really awkward and difficult thing to do, but I decided to just price things cheaply for this show, hoping some stuff will sell. I'm not looking forward to figuring out how to store a dozen human-sized stuffed animals.

You can see a few more images at my flickr page. I will take more photos tonight and post them when I can.

I now plan to take a nap and work on my presentation. My defense is tomorrow at 2, and Wednesday at noon is my presentation/gallery talk. I'm scared for both of these events, but I guess they should be ok.

exhausted

all weekend has been setting up the show. i'm very grateful for the help i've had (thank you aaron, esteban, nick, and juan). i will tell you more about it, and will post more pics. but here is a sneak peek. everything went fairly well except the video projector died (and that has a nice long story to go with it too) so i'm using one that does not have a good picture at all, so i get to spend tomorrow hunting down a good video projector. oi. and tomorrow was supposed to be my day off!

anyway, here are a couple of images ...

My Good News

Yesterday was a very long day -- about a 12-hour work day, which is a lot for this mama to be. A good chunk of the middle of the day was more time wasted trying to convince my DVD authoring programs to make a looping DVD. Alas, around 8 o'clock, my friend Juan was able to save the day by lending me his Mac so I could use iDVD to make my avis into a looping DVD. THANK YOU JUAN! (even though he doesn't know this blog exists, ha ha). I am still grateful. He even stayed late watching the Office (British, of course) while I made all the DVDs I wanted to make.

In related news: I met with my professor last night. I asked him a few upfront questions, to which I received ideal answers:

Q. Are there any potential roadblocks or surprises I might encounter this week that might prevent me from finishing school?

A. NOPE! He confirmed that as committee chair, he would have given me ample warning if such a thing were a possibility.


Q. I told him I was really scared for the oral defense. Is there anything I should do to prep for it? Do I need to be on top of data and facts related to historical information that I reference in my "non-thesis" terminal paper?

A. NOPE! If I didn't spend several pages talking about William Morris and John Ruskin, I won't be expected to be an expert. He also said that the defense would focus mostly on my work -- what I've done over the past 3 years, how it got to where it got to, where I see it going now, what professional goals I have..
Most importantly, he described the oral defense as a FORMALITY!

Q. What do I do AFTER the defense?

A. I'm DONE!! He confirmed that after he signs the official form at the defense, then I can technically give him the finger and run out the door! (his example!!) Though in reality I need to submit a portfolio and stuff by the end of the semester, but that's not a very big deal!

So I'm pretty excited about all of that. Now I should stop blogging and make sure I get the rest of the stuff done for next week. I still need to revise my artist statement and do some last minute sewing. Plus we have some CAI work to do.

etiquette

So my sister and friend are going to throw me a baby shower! Or throw the little one a baby shower. Well, however you look at it it's super sweet and I'm not sure anyone has ever thrown me a party before so I'm very honored. But as I begin to think about a guest list, I realize I am not sure how etiquette works on this!! SO if you read this, please voice your opinion in comments, because I need advice...

Here's the deal:
At this point the plan is to do the shower here in Indiana. This is great for Aaron, my Indiana friends, and me, but not ideal for my out-of-state friends and family. Aaron and I have a number of close relatives and friends that we would love to have celebrate with us during such an event, yet in all probability they will not be able to attend. What do you think? Is it more rude TO invite or NOT to invite? Does an invitation feel like we're just looking for gifts? Does lack of invite come across as a slight?

I'm not so good at this social stuff!!

Happy Easter!

I stayed up late (for me these days that means past midnight) working on my paper, battling with MS word and their silly auto formatting stuff. I consequently slept in late to awake to a beautiful sunny morning with the birds singing outside and all of that. When I took the dogs out I heard a woodpecker but couldn't spot it in the trees.

Basically the rest of the week will be consumed with finishing the paper and exhibition. I can't imagine how next week will feel to actually go through all of the big events I've been working for over the past three years. In some ways it seems very anticlimactic, but we'll see.

The pregnancy stuff continues on! I feel bigger everyday, and I can feel him in new parts of my belly so that's always funny. I'll feel something closer and closer to my ribs and think -- that can't be him!! But it must be. Unless my other organs have learned to kick me too.

A note on sleep: I am a good sleeper. It's one of my skills. So far this pregnancy I wake up on average once per night to use the bathroom. From what I read about other pregnant women, I sure feel fortunate about that! I am by nature a tummy sleeper though, so converting to side sleeping has been a challenge. But since I can usually fall asleep nearly anywhere at anytime, I have managed to make the transition fairly easily (it now takes me maybe 10 minutes to fall asleep instead of 5) and I usually simply flip sides once or twice through the night. I have discovered that I will get hip pain, however, if I do not separate my knees with a pillow, and last night I seemed to get pain even though I was pretty darn sure I was using my pillow!! So that is frustrating. I folded the pillow over though to get twice as much pillow goodness and that seemed to help.

Other than that, things remain consistent! I guess I'm 25 weeks and 4 days today...the third trimester is quickly approaching. It's hard for me to imagine that I will meet my little one in as little as twelve weeks, and not much more than 15. That's not much time!

Spring?

It feels like spring!! I guess they are still getting snow in Michigan and they say we will get some tomorrow, but I think I'll call it a spring snow.

Here are some pics of Mabel and me enjoying the sun (even if it is a little chilly). You can see that Mabel was far too interested in the world outside and didn't want to pay any attention to the camera.

The End is Near (school, that is)

SCHOOL NEWS:
The end is near!! I met with my committee yesterday and I have lots of exciting "ps & qs" to fix in my paper, and one paragraph I need to sort of significantly rework. So with my slow way of editing, this will probably consume a number of hours. I wish I were faster working with text, but for some reason it is just a slow process for me. Unless I'm writing for this blog in which case I just type and ramble away, ha ha.

Despite these necessary editions, they seem satisfied with the paper and I might just graduate after all! The image above was used for my show card, many of you probably already received that in the mail. If you want one and didn't get one, then I don't have your address (so send me that and you'll get a card!).

I plan to show work from the past two years. I am now going to use the big gallery so my collaborative art group can do an exhibition in the small gallery, but I think I have found ways to fill the larger space. We'll see how it goes. I set up a week from Saturday. Shall I remind you that after the week of my show I am essentially DONE with graduate school?? AND I will be entering the THIRD TRIMESTER that week too. I should consult my astrological chart and see what's going on.

WORK NEWS:
Things are fine at work. I took the day off today because last night I just felt completely worn out and the prospect of getting up to go to work seemed too daunting. I think I'm spoiling myself a bit, but with all I've got going on, who cares. After my show is done, all I'll really be doing is my job at the archives, so they will have all my energy and attention (except for that minor detail of my first born child).

Last night we had this funny reception for the exhibit we have been working on in the archives. I should have taken pictures. That's what good bloggers do. Anyway, it was definitely an academic pat-ourselves-on-the-back sort of ordeal, but it was nice. I had to leave early because I have a million things going on, but I did make my obligatory appearance. I feel so weird at those departmental work things, because I don't know anyone beyond about five people I work with daily. I am student worker there, though I've been there for nearly two years, and I continue to feel like an outsider looking in. If they hire me on after school, I wonder if that will change.

HOME NEWS:
Aaron is leaving me. Well, for the weekend, I mean. I think he'll come back. He takes off this afternoon to spend Easter with his Grandma in Cleveland, and his sister from Michigan is going there too. So that will be nice for them. He tried to convince me to go but I just have too much going on right now to take up this valuable weekend. I need this weekend to finish making things and editing papers and all of that, because next weekend I'm installing the show -- yikes! So maybe it's good that he will be gone and I won't have a car so I'll pretty much just have to lock myself in and WORK. Well, that's the plan anyway. I think I'll be fine on my own, but I have noticed that if he's gone for long stretches of a day I get really depressed, so that's annoying. I consider myself a pretty independent lady (despite the fact that I've been dependent on this guy for many many years), so the "my husband is gone" depression seems to make me feel worse because then I get frustrated with myself for feeling that way! Somehow I think I'll make it through the weekend though :)

PREGNANCY NEWS:
No news is good news I guess! The little one has been moving more frequently, so that is always comforting. But I still realize there are days when he seems much more active than other days, and I wish I could figure out why. The band practiced here they other day, and he sure wriggled around during all the loud noise! He seems to really respond to the bass :) So I guess if I get worried that he's not moving much, it's time to plug in the bass (forget cold water and ice cream!).

I do still feel contractions, but they aren't regular, and it does seem to be more noticeable if I am engaging in some sort of physical activity, if I am tired, or stressed -- that sort of thing.

My belly is getting bigger every day, and I am officially undeniably to the point where strangers recognize "my condition". Last night someone I had just met at the reception commented on how it looked as though I wouldn't be partaking of the wine that evening, but that I should enjoy the snacks. I find it funny too how when I see other pregnant women I want to run up to them and be like "HI!! I'M PREGNANT TOO!!", but luckily for them I resist the urge. Last night I talked to a fellow pregnant gal at the reception thing and was finally able to fulfill this secret wish and it was awkward as h*ll, ha ha, no, it really wasn't the bad, but those things always make you feel like a social weirdo anyway.

I do sometimes feel very very different. Fundamentally different. I guess that makes sense, but it's still weird to go through. I think it's really just these transitions lining up at the same time: end of school, beginning of motherhood. Lately I just have been feeling sort of isolated, which I then seem to try to manifest physically by choosing to stay in instead of going out with friends and stuff like that. I feel like all I have to talk about is the end of school and being pregnant. Like these are the only two things I can contribute right now, and they are two very self-oriented things. I also can't or don't like to do some of the things that my single and non-pregnant friends like to do. It is all very natural to go through this, I guess, but it doesn't mean it doesn't feel weird. I think I'm particularly sensitive to it because of the additional stress of school ending. It all scares me a little, though, because it makes me wonder if we rushed into this parent stuff. Yet I also only feel this way when I compare myself to others. I never feel this way when I just assess my life, my values, my goals, and my priorities. And it doesn't change the fact that I am a mother already, I can feel it, even if I don't know how to be a mother yet.

With that, it's time to be a student again... I'm sure I'll post a lot this weekend since I'll be home alone with nothing but work to do. And who wants to do work??