Kumbaya Helen

After a weekend of lectures about how as a designer I can save the planet, I decided to get back to nature and camp! Normally, I would never go a day without my hair straightener or a nice bed, but whats a couple of days without them when I can be one with the woods. Oh yea, it was Oktoberfest...but who really needs a reason to drink?

After a three-hour drive to Helen, well really we got to Helen in the time it should have taken, but someone forgot to print out directions to the campsite...ahem..so it took three-hours instead. We finally got to our campsite where everyone was waiting and wondering where we were...damn cellphones!

The next morning we ate breakfast and some how came up with a new game to play in the woods... Rock Golf. Basically, you throw a rock at a tree and however many times it takes you to hit the tree is your score. Greg was the winner of the first round... here he is kissing his trophy. Notice our locker room... We had a lot of eligible players. By the way, my team won the second game. I think we could have made this game into something big! Am I obsessed?










We then went into to Helen and did the usual... drink, watch football and mingle with the men in Lederhosen! Oh yea! Good times!! Nothing too interesting happened, which I thought would since I haven't camped....never. It does feel free to pee in the woods! ;)

I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a lot rockier than this

That John Denver is full of shit...turns out Denver is a drive a way from the Rockies. For some reason I was thinking of Aspen? We're there! I mean I could go on...

Every two years, AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) holds a Design Conference and this year the title of the conference was called NEXT. "What is next in design?" Obviously, there are many answers to this question, but the one answer that was common amongst the designers at the AIGA Conference was that we as designers can help "save the planet" (sorry to be cliché about the whole thing). Whether it was the type of paper or ink we use for clients or what we can do to help change the future of the Earth by doing small things in our everyday life. Some ideas were definitely doable for me and some were probably too idealistic for how I live my life. I'm not RICH!! It definitely make me think of what the future holds for our planet.

One lecturer by the name of Janine Benyus caught my eye and that there are people...smart people...out there who are not just doing the small things to change the destiny of the Earth, but who are doing bigger than big things to change the destiny of the Earth. Biomimicry-the process of finding sustainable ideas by echoing nature. Who would have thought that the way to save the earth is to follow nature's processes! Please read about it! It's very interesting!

During this 4 day conference, we meet in the morning, break for lectures during the day and then meet again in the afternoon. I attended some inspiring lectures:



House of Bumble: Creative Vice President, Alexander Brebner, talks about the creation of the company's identity.

One World, One Dream, One Look: Design Challenges and Ideas for the Olympic Games. Dana Arnett revealed their process to get Chicago to host the 2018 Olympic Games, Patrick Cox talked about how the London 2012 Olympic identity is a hot debate and Min Wang talked about how he created the 2008 Beijing Olympic identity to enhance the experience of the athletes and spectators.

Shoshana Berger and Grace Hawthorne discussed the beginnings of their magazine, Ready Made. It's a magazine about how the ready-made is an art object and how it's evolving into everyday living.

The wonderful Ellen Lupton gave a heart-warming lecture about how anyone can be a designer... a publisher, a singer or a writer. She promotes the DIY movement and believes that it's the future and next for design.

Overall, it was a great feeling to be surrounded by the most talented designers, Michael Beirut, Michael Vanderbyl and Noreen Morioka just to name a few. I was star-struck! Hopefully, their talent somehow rubbed off on to me!

Pauline does not run

We all know that PAULINE DOES NOT RUN, but this past weekend, I did something that everyone will probably be really surprised about. On Saturday, Justin's vet school organized the Mutt Strut that includes a 5k afterwards for humans.

A couple of months ago, Justin and I decided to start training for 5ks, but for some reason that quickly died. So, when I arrived Friday afternoon, we went for a 3 mile run in Kiesel Park (where the 5k was to take place on Saturday) to test out the trail. We thought it would be a GREAT idea to cram 8 weeks of training into one night...not such a great idea when you have a race to run the next morning--the Toowoomba Pasta from Outback didn't even come to my rescue! The next morning my legs were like jello... and bootcamp with Mommy and Daddy (aka Jayme and Andy) didn't help things either.

But nonetheless we arrived at Kiesel Park, where dogs were running wild and runners were getting ready for the race. Then there was me...

Don't I look like a runner? With my New Balance running shoes (I have to say they look pretty damn new! no pun intended but they look new because I've maybe used them once since I got them), my iPod, my spandex pants and my headband to keep my hair from getting in my face when I'm running my 5 minute miles..oops I meant to say 10 minute miles.

I definitely struggled during the race and I'm not going to make excuses about bootcamp with Mommy and Daddy or that I ran 3 miles the night before (just a note, I definitely ran 6 miles in 12 hours! I don't think I've ran 6 miles in my entire life!!), but I have to say that it felt really good to finish no matter how slow I was or that I walked some of it. I accomplished something that I (and most of you guys) thought that I would never do.

So now PAULINE DOES RUN!! I finished in about 32 minutes, which I thought was good considering I haven't ran in a month or so. Don't expect me to be running marathons any time soon, but I think these 5ks could be a regular thing in my life...hopefully. Some day maybe I can make it to the first place winner's time...16 minutes and 21 seconds. Yikes!

I just want to thank Justin for staying behind with me and walking with me even though he probably could have ran the whole time and finished earlier. Maybe next time it will be me waiting for him. :)

2nd Annual Birthday Boating Extravaganza

Summer is such a happy time for me...the beach, the sun, hanging out with friends outside...all good times. So as the summer comes to an end, I am not a happy camper. It just means that it's going get colder and colder and colder and colder... BUT now there is something in my life that makes the end of the summer more bearable. It's the Annual Birthday Boating Extravaganza!

Every year (as in this is the second year) my friend Lindsay and Kyla organize their birthday outing to Lake Lanier. We rent a pontoon boat, drive around the lake for 4 hours and drink and be merry while playing in the cold water (just to remind you that we did this on the Saturday before the first day of fall)!

This year we had 12 people on the pontoon, but majority ruled that next year we should rent the Fantasy, which holds 100 people!! This means we have 1 year to make 100 new friends, but for now we only have 12 and we still had a great time! We had great weather and good company...someone noticed our happy time on the boat and wanted to join in on the fun and ride a long! Say hello to our little friend to the right! :)

So I know what you're thinking...you're jealous of our boat outing! You should be and maybe just maybe you will be a part of our Fantasy ride, with the slide and all!

After riding around Lake Lanier (good thing we didn't find any dead people), we all met up at Everybody's in the Highlands. It was my first time there and I have to say that I am in love with their cheese bread!! Such a simple concept, bread and melted cheese!! Sooo goood!! You have to try it! Anyways, enough of my love proclamation to the cheese bread. We had dinner there and then went to Highland Tap afterwards, where Maggie, Thomas and I watched the Dawgs woop up on Bama!!! (such a good game by the way) A good end to a wonderful day! And a good end to a long and happy summer! At least I have next summer to look forward to as well as the 3rd Annual Birthday Boating Extravaganza!