A Monkey Lost in an Urban Jungle

Sad to say, the past few weeks I have been consumed by my first round of college finals EVER. Things have been nuts. I went home to New Jersey (a seventeen hours train ride there, twelve hour car ride home) for a long (okay, really, three day weekend) to see friends, and family. It was GREAT. I didn't get to see everyone I wanted, but jeezus. It was only three days.

My job hunt hasn't been going so well. I thought I landed a personal assistance job, but I found out the guy didn't even work for the company he said he did. Good thing I did some snooping, or else only the gods would have known where to find my body.

Because of that (it wasted two weeks away from job hunting, waiting for me to start that job) I'm returning to my old job over break. It's good money, just not something I wanted to do. Why pay rent in a place I'm not going to live in?

So after this week, finals week, I'm returning home to the barren ice land called New Jersey. I guess I'm looking forward to spending so much time with my friends (probably only on the weekends... they still have school, icky.) And of course, earning some money.

I'm hoping all goes well with my finals. I'm already done with two of them, which is good. I just need to get my ass in gear and start my drawing final today, and work my booty off to get it finished and acceptable in time. I'm trying to pull all B's this quarter, but I probably won't, in English I'll hopefully pull a C.

Well, I'm off to sell my soul... oh, I mean, work on my finals.

I'm almost done with my first quarter at Savannah College of Art and Design. These past few weeks have flown by so fast. It's been a whirlwind of learning, adjustments, and just plain fun!

I learned it is not worth your time and effort to cut your own matting board with an exacto blade and ruler. Go down to Primary and get it cut. It's worth the 50 cents. You won't go nuts, and waste so much material. ALWAYS ask for the scraps. You can use them for bookmarks, a mat for cutting things on. You can use scraps. Promise.

I learned to use my bike to get around. Parking in down town Savannah is IMPOSSIBLE... sometimes even for bikes. Always lock your bike. Even then, I've seen bikes taken from bike racks when you only lock up the front wheel. There's some bike wheels locked up at certain buildings and bike racks. It's funny actually.

I learned to go out when you can. I've made it a habit that if some activity doesn't interfere with my classes, or sleep, I'm there. This has been a great way to meet people and to get me out of the house and onto campus!

Never miss a SCAD party... that explains it's self.

Today I learned a lot.

I have only one class on Tuesdays. I check my email usually when I wake up, around 9:30. Today I learned to check it before I go off to class as well. We were all sitting in class- there's only ten of us. We were doing our normal bullshittong we do before class starts. We've only been together for a few weeks and this class is like we're family. We razz and make fun of eachother like we were getting paid to do it. Our teacher usually has a habit of comin in at 2:10- five minutes before the walk out cut off. So we don't even notice that time passes.

That is until one guy goes: "Guys- it's already half after." That had a few of us scrambling to check our email via cellphone. Three of groan all at once. "She cancled it like an hour ago!" Another announced. We were all grumbling. The few that had cars were excited. I on the other was bitching. My roommate drops me off since she has class a few blocks down. My choices were either to wait around or walk the three miles home. As I'm doing this, one kid says he'll give me a ride. I'm happy. We drive to my house. He leaves. I'm digging around in my bag, lookingfor my house keys.

I realize where they are. On the kitchen counter. Cursing myself I walk around the house trying some of the windows. By the law of Murphy, they're all locked.

I'm sitting here, on my covered front porch, writin this blog post, thinking about what I learned from class today: Always check your email before you leave for class. Always check your keys. Make sure you have them so you don't have to sit on a damp porch getting your butt wet.

Thank you, Professor for these lessons today.

Being a poor college student, I'm looking for everything to be cheap, or atleast, cheaper, than the local art stores. There are only two art stores in my town, the school bookstore, and a small, independently owned art supply shop. The school book store is more expense than the family art shop. Usually, I would support a local business. (And for those of you wondering where to get good supplies in the Savannah, GA area, check out Primary Art Supply on Broughton) But with my current budget, I just can't afford those prices.

So I turned to the internet. I looked around on campus, asked kids where they got supplies. A few recommended MisterArt.com. So I placed an order. I paid extra for their extradited shipping. It was quick. The items were just as they described...

The only downside... all of the packaging. I got this huge box, filled with paper... luckily all recyclable.

As for the products, there is such a HUGE selection, they have great prices on a lot of stuff! They have two main sections, for art supplies, and for craft supplies. I have seen everything from drafting tables to gold leaf!

If you're looking for a new supplier, for a variety of items (with no minimum purchase!) Definitely check out Mr. Art.