My goodness it's been a while. But so many great things have been going on I figured it was worth a pause to post some of it here! Last we spoke, Jimmy had started school and was enjoying it so far and I was on the seemingly promising hunt for jobs and internships. So now the question is: has any of that changed?
The good news is YES and NO. Yes, Jimmy is still thoroughly enjoying law school (from what I can observe) although his study schedule doesn't really allow for many adventures these days. But that's an acceptable sacrifice.
NO I am not still looking for a job! I started my 3-day per week internship at the San Jose ICA back in September. It's going pretty well so far. Ok, no, actually it's going AWESOME. I keep on having moments when I get home from work and Jimmy asks how the day went and my immediate reaction is to moan and mumble some unintelligible words about how much it sucked but then I suddenly remember I am no longer working at Nokian... I'm working at a MUSEUM! And I'm actually making a difference there. And the people there are teaching me so much about what I actually want to do with my life and it just feels great to actually be a part of something as awesome as the ICA. And when all of this hits me all at once I smile like a fool and say "NO! I had another excellent day! What about you?" At which point he usually gets up and goes back to studying. But anyway, I'm serious. The ICA is going really well. As usual, it would appear that I've started yet another job right when they are in crisis mode. Except this is not the crisis mode of winter tire sales... this is the fast-paced mode of the ICA's epic annual art auction. Since they're an entirely non-profit organization they hold a huge auction every year - that starts as an exhibit and then ends with a huge gala and live auction that people have to buy $50 tickets just to get in- and with a staff of about 7-8 people organizes this event becomes absolute mayhem. I started just as they were trying to get everything set up for the exhibit to go live which meant a panicked frenzy of trying to obtain artist information and upload artwork, information, prices and artist statements for over 170 pieces onto our flickr page and the mobile access website that they are testing out this year. The upside to being 22 is that they've entrusted me with all the social networking which means I have already learned so much about how to create a mobile access site that people can access from their smartphones. I actually got to film and then edit an entire clip just to promote the auction AND THEN had to figure out how to upload THAT onto the mobile site. It's crazy that this is actually amazing experience to rack up and I hadn't even expected to pick any of these skills up at the ICA. All in all, the whole internship is going super well and I honestly really am overly excited about the auction. So excited that I'm going to make you all look at the artwork too! Noo, not actually. Only if you want to...
SO first, you should all go through our Silent and Live Auction galleries on flickr.
Silent: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjica/sets/72157627597961267/
The Silent Auction is on October 8th and 3 pieces have already been "slamdunked" (which means people can pay the full retail price any time between now and October 8th and win the piece... but they have to leave it in the museum till the end of the exhibit...). My favorites include Andrea Borsuk's piece, Llisa Demetrios' two bulls with attitude (that's what I call them because I think they look quite persnickety) and Ken Matsumoto's flower wall... go on... click on those pictures and tell me they're not awesome:
But all in all pretty much everything in the silent auction is surprisingly VERY colorful and I personally think a lot of them should have been in the Live Auction.
then there's the Live Auction: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjica/sets/72157627395998596/
Which is the huge gala fancy event for which I am also the Restaurant Coordinator (meaning I have to call and arrange for food donations from all the restaurants that people otherwise assume donated magically the evening of).
My favorite piece in the entire exhibit is in the Live Auction - Mary Souza's "Azure Guest".If you don't look at any other pieces, at least take a peek at that one. It's also huge and I got to meet the artist. She's a pretty awesome lady who wears bright while cowboy boots that are too big for her.
There's also this ridiculous machine up called the "TO DO" list which just cranks out an epic long to do list using a little battery-operated arm that writes in the artist's exact style and has yet to repeat itself. Downside is it just keeps on writing on this long sliver of paper that is piling up and making a MESS of our floor. But I think that's kind of the point.
OK so then IF you have a smartphone (cough cough MOM AND DAD) you should try the mobile site and let me know how AWESOME it is: http://mytbc.mobi/wap/site/sjicauction
You can watch the little video I made on there too. I'm honestly really proud of the first part... which required taking hours of footage that I had taken while they were installing the exhibit and editing it down to 1 minute and 30 seconds... and then the second part just shows you the goofy awkward people that are actually in charge of this place... ohhh fine. I'm sure you're all SUUPER curious. (probably not). I GUESS I can include the video here too. (since you asked... wait nope)
OK SO THEN now that we're done with all that! The other good news is about 3 weeks ago I ALSO got a PAID internship working as a "winemaking intern" at a small urban winery right in San Jose! Not to take away from the coolness of the ICA but this is also a totally awesome job! The winery is called Coterie Cellars and it's run by a husband and wife team (and sometimes their adorable 2 year old or the Italian/Spanish grandfather). So far I've gotten to bottle their 2010 Pinot Noir and crush the grapes for their 2011 viognier. [IMPORTANT TIP FROM CALIFORNIA VINEYARDS AND WINERIES: Buy 2010 california wine NOW. Apparently 2010 for California is proving to be an amazing year so you should all buy bottles now while no one else knows and then save them for a couple months... or years.] This weekend they're doing more harvesting so I'll be in there tomorrow and Monday probably crushing more grapes! It's a labor-intensive job but with some of the nicest people I've ever met and they always make sure to buy lunch for everyone and there is usually always at least one wine-tasting break a day. The day we were bottling, Kyle (one of the owners and wine-maker - his wife does most of the marketing) just grabbed a bunch of glasses as was sticking them under the filling machine (that I call the wine cow because it was BASICALLY an udder filled with wine that you just attached bottles to) so by noon that day my workstation looked like this:
So that's my life now. Add on top of that the fact that I'm taking the GRE on October 10th and I'm still trying to run 5 days a week and hopefully that will begin to explain why I've been so busy. Jimmy is a different story. He does mostly this all day:
And yet he's still busier than I am. I guess that's the difference between being in law school and... everybody else's life?
Other updates include: I sprained my left hand a couple weeks ago. Mainly due to a in-road train track that was poorly placed and the fact that I was on my way into work... on my bike. It got to a pretty ridiculous size and color but no breaks! It's almost completely healed now. I just have problems gripping the handles or tops of things (like pots full of pasta, coffee mugs or the lids of jars) But it was pretty epic. The doctors were all shocked that I hadn't broken anything... especially considering all the bruising. I wasn't really sure how to tell them I bruise better than a plum.
And that's mostly it! I think. I don't think I'm missing anything. Either way I should get to studying (I'm taking a practice test today) since October 10th is creeping up on me. Miss everybody lots and lots! It's still sunny here but the weathermen are totally promising that we [might] get rain this coming Monday.
Love, Meg
