Saturday was odd in that we spent it a lot like we do Sundays: we did errands, we went on a long scenic walk, all capped off by grocery shopping. It felt good to do very little thinking and be on autopilot after the past couple weeks at work. Getting ready to go on a long vacation from work almost outweighs the benefit of going on vacation, IMHO. I had three gigantic, important and highly visible products to produce before I left, which I did and was proud of.
I did do something arty, something new and "stretched myself" by taking a class at the San Francisco Center for the Book last Thursday evening (and it counts towards my "something arty at least every other day" item even though it was technically before Staycay!). I took Intro to Letterpress: Business Cards and it was awesome! It was not like taking classes at SFSU when I was getting my degree in Art, which threw me a bit. In university, we experimented a lot but projects were still pretty focused and believe you me, professors and classmates did NOT hold back their real opinions on project critique days, where you were held accountable for having articulated your vision (ie. it couldn't just look cool, it had to mean something and be clear in its message). The SFCB workshop, however, was quite a bit like taking classes at California State Summer School for the Arts (or InnerSpark, as it's now known), where I went the summer I graduated from high school. Dude, that was 20 years ago when I was a young person and had carte blanche. In 20 years, I've gone from wackadoodle art junkie who would photograph, paint or build anything, who the fuck cares about the outcome??, to an adult who needs financial stability before all else and who is soon to become a Volvo driver. Here's what: the last 20 years have turned me into a Perfectionist Gone Wild.
In this workshop, I had some room to fail. My vision for the business card design and execution did not have to be perfectly articulated. All I had to do was design something, anything!, and print it because I'm completely new to letterpress. Does that mean the perfectionist side of me turned off? Nooooo. I still put a crazy amount of pressure on myself to do the best out of the seven of us in the class. I have an art degree, afterall. Shouldn't I be the best?? BARF! In the end, I liked my card second best. I look forward to taking many more classes at SFCB, including linotype which my mom - a journalist in the 50's - told me some funny stories about last night.
Our long walk was at Land's End, which is as darn near perfect a walking course as any I've ever done. The dirt path winds along a cliff right by the ocean, consists of rolling hills with nice flat sections, and a huge stairs portion in the middle. It's 3 miles if you go to one end and back, which we normally do. This time we added on another section because my honey had to visit the porta-potty in a nearby visitor parking lot. All total, probably 3.5 miles. I know that's nothing to a lot of people but it's a big deal to me. I'm not the type who exercises readily and I have a hard time getting into it when I do seal the deal. My personal trainer has always worked hard on getting me to see that I enjoy it once I get over my jittery, reluctant hump. It's true... I always love what I've done after the fact, and it makes me feel accomplished and strong. Now if only I could conjure that feeling at the beginning of exercise, but for whatever reason I just don't or can't.
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