The Musings of a Wandering Soul

Thursday night we went to see the New York City Ballet. This performance is why we came to New York this weekend specifically. This was the last performance in a series of collaborations between NYC Ballet choreographers and Santiago Calatrava, a Spanish architect. He worked with the choreographers to incorporate their vision as well as the flow of the dance into his set design. The series was called "Architecture of Dance". Very cool concept with an amazing architect. I planned the trip around this performance.
The performance was a collection of 4 pieces. Three dance and one orchestral only. The the second dance piece was truly amazing. A double pas de deux, with one couple dancing classic and the other contemporary. Then they switched partners. Perfect, exquisite, I loved every second of it. But that is not the piece we came to NYC for. We came for the first piece. Which was odd. It was more musical theater than true ballet, classic, contemporary or otherwise. It even had dialog. It really didn't speak to me and I was disappointed in the sets. I felt that she went with something to literal and didn't utilize the talent offered by such a skilled designer. The third dance piece was just painful. Two words: Western Theme. /shudder

All in all it was a good night out, just not what I was expecting.

I need one. I haven't been looking hard enough, or for the last few months at all. It's time to get back out there. My brain is just about balanced again so I should work on balancing my life now. Having to do some recent paperwork towards my registration exams has got me thinking and moving in that direction. So I am basically writing this for myself as some inspirational musing/navelgazing.

So every now and then we all get asked questions like these:
"Are you actually happy with your what you do for a living, is it something you want to do for 20 years or the rest of your life. Why, what do you want to accomplish, what makes it meaningful to you?"
( I thought now seemed like an appropriate time to answer them. )

All epic journeys involve at least one night spent in the car.

I love old bricks.

Whenever I start a job search I need to be sure to spend a little time, or a lot, doing things that remind me why I love what I do. I spent all of this morning and some of the afternoon wandering around St Louis taking pictures of houses and street lamps and old warehouses and power plants. It was very good and it has been far too long since I have had the uninhibited desire to wander down random alleys and through not quite vacant lots. Of course as I was taking a series of shots of nice row houses in Layfette Park, it occurred to me. How does one prove that they are a trigger happy architecture bum and not casing houses? I should really figure that one out.

Headed onward to DC/NoVA.

More later.

Busy busy lots of stress, but some happy happenings sprinkled in.
The biggest in both these categories is studying for, the heinous stress part, and passing my LEED A.P. exam. This the US Green Build Council's professional certification. ( www.usgbc.org ) This is the national organization that defines and certifies 'green buildings'. Although the term 'green building' is currently in an ambiguous state similar to where organic was 15 years ago. It has meaning, definitions and criteria. All of which are interpreted and defined differently by many groups. The USGBC is striving to change that.

This was a big deal for 2 reasons. One the test is difficult and involves at lot of memorization. Not my strong suit. More importantly though, it was a big step in my professional development. Failing it would have been pretty devastating, and expensive. Whereas passing it has given me a lot of confidence in aggressively pursuing the 10 exams required for my Architect's license. I didn't realize until after the LEED exam, how overwhelmingly intimidated I have been by all of them. So here's to personal and professional growth.

More good stuff.
This week I have been reminded how much I truly enjoy object manipulation. I now have 2 sets of fans, 2 batons, a 5' staff and a boken. And have spent enough time with each that they are starting to feel like an extension of my body. Especially the staff. Both contact (body rolls and other manipulations not using the hands) and spinning have a flow and a rhythm in tune with my body. I did competitive baton for 10 years when I was younger (8-18), but haven't done much since. Though sometimes my body could feel the movements and want to do them. whether I had something in my hand or not. I went to a fan workshop on Saturday up in LA. It was amazing. I was the only person in a class taught by one of the best fan spinners in the US. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtbWjHKdU-E she's a bit more polished now, this was about 9 months ago) Mainly we concentrated on tosses, hand placement and transitions and advance plain positions (behind the back etc). Much much fun and well worth the drive.

Headed to NoVA this weekend for a wedding reception and catching up with people. Waffles with julesk and wahyagar Saturday. Brunch gathering at kaelikat's on Sunday. And afternoon coffee (mmm...coffee) with drlori and sometimerose(and baby!). Maybe even some baby goats.

Hopefully more later.

Where did the week go? To some extent I'm just not sure. Although things are better than last week, and should continue to improve.

I found yesterday that I have a like soul in the music forum at work. She wanted to hear what had inspired me to blast my eardrums Wednesday morning. (I usually keep the headphones low enough to hear those around me. Wednesday Morning you could apparently hear music leaking out all over the place.) And she agrees, "Sophia" by The CruxShadows is just that good.

I also spent yesterday truly honing my craft. Most people hear the word architecture and think floorplans or pretty pictures. And yes we use those to communicate. But the really real stuff is somewhere else. We hide it from all of you. Its all about the section. A plan can tell you how to evacuate. But a building section, a slice through the middle of the building, tells you what it will feel like and how to build it. Yesterday's effort was of the how to build it variety. It was fun and reminded me that yes there are things that I have learned and no they aren't all easy. I was also drawing details and helping to figure out what exactly the plan checker wants and do we have to give it to him.

Well I am now late for said endeavors. More later. ciao ciao

It is so wonderful to once again enjoy my job and feel like I am finally making real career progress. I actually go to work happy in the morning. There are interesting things to do involving problem solving. I get to research cool, new products by companies that actually think about sustainability and enviromental impact. So a few links as to why I love the what I do. :)

Sprotte+Watson Architecture

new product I'm playing with

Maybe next year