Diary of a DAAP Kid: Outside my Comfort Zone?

Classes have officially started for winter quarter, and it's starting to get a little crazy up in here. One of my electives is a fashion design class called Trend Forecasting. My professor is the VP of Trends at LPK, a branding and design firm located in downtown Cincinnati. Over the last year my interest in branding and how it relates to design has really peaked, and I jumped at the chance to try something new. So far, it's a lot of fun. This past week my assignment has been to learn to pick up on cultural cues by stepping outside of my comfort zone. For an entire week, I've been consciously having experiences both big and small that are not what I would usually do.

Below is a recap of my crazy week. Enjoy!

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Monday:

I turned right instead of left out of the classroom upon leaving Trends class, and wandered up to my studio on the 8th floor past the Industrial Design Transportation Studio, which is pretty freakin' sweet and also used to be the Interior Design Library. Funny how things change when there's outside money involved.

During studio I experimented with some different music types. This is a hard exercise because random is sort of my MO. I usually try and mix up my routine, so for my iTunes selection I picked music that I would never listen to. There's a reason I never listen to it, and that's cuz it sucks. Mostly I'm talking about Death Metal, which hurt my ears and freaked me out upon googling some lyrics ("Corpses awakened, awakened by nukes, Atomic power that brings back the dead, Humans living with melted off skin, Features mutated and rotting off bone"... mmm... zombie screaming music...delicious.)

Tuesday:

I mixed up my routine on the way to and from classes, taking my time and exploring parts of campus I generally avoid. I currently play on a broomball league downtown. I've never really excelled at sports, and broomball is especially different because there's ice, and it's slippery, and I'm clumsy. However, I screwed up my courage and decided to give it my all out on the ice. I ended up getting a two minute penalty for checking the shit out of some guy and throwing him over the boards interfering with a player. I slipped and slid all over the ice, and ended up with some bruises and even more memories.

Wednesday:

I'm as fashionable as the next interior design student, but I have a hard time with wearing heels without necessity. I'll pull out my pointy toed pumps the morning of a big critique, but you better believe that my trusty, comfy flats are tucked away in my bag, waiting to be slipped on for the long walk home. Today, however, I pulled on my highest-heeled boots paired with a cute outfit. No slip-on emergency shoes for me - I was going to walk all over creation with my head held 3.5" higher than usual. I managed to make it through the day, but my feet were positively aching by the time I got home that evening. Not only did I walk to and from home to DAAP, but I also went on a trek across campus to find some food. Walking up and down stairs was definitely the worst. On a positive note, I got a few catcalls, compliments, and definitely felt cuter than usual, but I don't know if the perks were worth the discomfort and pain my shoes brought me throughout the day. Someday I'll have the cash to get a really nice pair that fit well, but until then I'll be switching up my footwear, for sure.

Friday:

Friday was an epic night for trying new things that pushed me outside my comfort zone. I knew that my biggest challenge lay before me: 1) entering the establishment known as Cadillac Ranch and 2) riding the mechanical bull that lay within its godforsaken interior. I met up with some friends beforehand at Mynt Martini to kick things off and imbibe some liquid courage to get me through the evening. I ended up doing some never-done-before/out-of-the-ordinary things along the way whilst at Mynt. These include but are not limited to, drinking gin for the first time, requesting a song to the DJ, lying to said DJ and telling him it was my birthday, dancing up on the elevated VIP area, having 4 drinks in 1.5 hours (I'm a lush...) and getting a free shot from the bartender for it being my "birthday."

By the time I was ready to go to Cadillac Ranch I was quite belligerent but still able to stand on my own two feet. My date for the evening generally humoured my drunken state, but was getting tired of me citing both this class and my "birthday" (which had by this time become quite real to me) as reasons for my actions. Luckily a girl I had met back at Mynt happened to have free passes for entry into Cadillac Ranch as well as one for riding the bull. I stumbled up to the hostess and informed her that it was my birthday(!!!!) Without bothering to look at my ID, she stamped my hand, gave me a drink ticket and let me go on my merry way.

i'm a little long-legged for that dumb bull.

Even in my tipsiness, I was still a little nervous about riding the mechanical bull. I've never fully trusted carnival-type rides, and the thought of skeezy old men recording my ride from afar definitely creeped me out. I was in luck, for at 11pm on a Friday night, Caddy Ranch was only about 40% full. A couple girls and my date were the only witnesses to my bovine-riding experience. As for the ride itself, I actually managed to stay on almost an entire minute! I hung on with all my might, and only got flung off when things started getting really wild. It was a novel experience, but I would definitely not do it again. When all was said and done, both my date and I gained entry, I rode the bull and did yet another shot... all for one dollar. Not bad for my least favorite establishment in Cincinnati.

Saturday:

I slept in until 1pm and then laid around watching trash TV until approximately 4 pm. I watched my first episode of Jersey Shore, and managed to make it through the entire show without breaking down into tears or switching channels. All of the aforementioned activities are extremely unusual for me, as I am a 'get up around 8 am and get shit done' kind of girl. Deliberately taking both a brain and body break was a fun diversion from my usual schedule, but I felt guilty about it at the same time.

Monday:

The goal was to get up at 5.30 am and go for a run. I got one of these things accomplished. Kind of. Okay, I went for a run around 8am this morning. I am not a running kind of girl. I'm a yoga/pilates/group class kind of girl. Doing physical activity on my own and out in the elements is really not my bag, and I haven't gone running in God knows how long. Even though I slept through my alarm, when I did finally awake, I rushed around and put on my running outfit: a pair of shorts, running shoes, a faded yellow T-shirt from highschool reading "Have a Nice Day." This would have been a fine outfit for jogging outside if it was, say, July. Or I was in Florida. However, it is neither of those things, and the shock of cold that hit my body as I stepped outside should have been a warning sign. Stubborn fool that I am, I breezily brushed off my initial feelings, believing that surely the cold would wear off as I started running.

I am ashamed to say that I barely made it a mile. I would have gone for longer (honest!) but it was too damn cold. As I turned down Calhoun Street the icy wind whipped around my legs, and my hands began to ache from the chill of not wearing gloves. I passed two other runners who did not acknowledge my presence. However, they were both dressed in underarmour tights, wearing hats, and other such cold-weather gear. Maybe I'll try running again in the spring.

Tuesday:

I woke up and got up at 6am today. Initially, it was really great! By the time I got ready, ate breakfast, putzed around a little, it was only 7.30/8.00, and I could easily transition into working on schoolwork. However, I went to bed around 12.30, and as it nears 10.00 am, I am already starting to feel tired. I have a feeling getting through my 3 hour class later this afternoon is going to be a challenge this afternoon. Maybe I can get my work done early and take a nap...

The other unusual thing I am doing today is taking a 24 hour respite from Twitter. Twitter is a constant part of my life, and a resource I use to keep up to date on what's going on both in Cincinnati and nationally. It's a sizable part of my social life, and whipping out my Blackberry or having a client application run in the background of my laptop is a part of my normal routine. So today I'm not checking it at all. This is hard. What if a famous celebrity dies? I won't know about it until 3 hours after it happens, instead of 30 seconds. How will I know what the funniest/most interesting links are on teh Internets, and how else will I get into intellectual debate about Cincinnati politics if not for Twitter? Hopefully all the A-listers will keep breathing until tomorrow, and I will have to keep calm and carry on until then.

**Update** I made it from 11pm last night to 7 pm tonight Twitter-free. I managed to not check it on my phone OR the Internet. Instead I kept a running tally of things I wished I could've tweeted in my head. Then I texted my sister, just to have something to do. But... I did it!! Now, back to my 140-character limit!