Happy, Healthy, and Living the Dream

I wake up at 6AM, make breakfast from some nearby farmer's produce [we designed an built his chicken coop together, now he wants to do a garden shed], and get dressed for work. [I over dress for my studio/shop, but it's only because I want to believe that I am a neat and tidy worker.] Always prepared, I pack some extra clothes, just in case. I ride my bike to work at 7:30.

 

[I can't decide if my work is downtown or in the old industrial part, near downtown, but never-the-less, the further from the front door you are in the building, the messier it is. Walk in, reception/lounge, meeting space, studio, shop, outdoor shop, all in a line. You can see parts of each space from the front door. There are 10 other people there and we are all friends. I'm pretty sure everyone works here, but not everyone is employed. No heirarchy, tons of worker bees.]

 

Times are better than they were in 2008... but, as the people who work where I do all predicted, the economy was forever changed. I have three ongoing projects which required me to inlist the help of 4 other people. No one is getting rich, but we love what we are doing and that keeps us comfortable.

 

The first project is the big project. A few local community members pooled their cash to buy the abandoned drive in movie theater. [Screen, soaring, mostly intact, graffitied by some "gangster" farm boy. Lot, gravely asphault, pocked with rusting poles that radios used to rest on, someone dumped a bunch of tires next to an overflowing dumpster. Cinder block projection booth/bathroom/concession shelter is falling apart. The roof caved in, mortar has eroded, allowing walls to pile upon themselves. When I was in Detroit one time, I said "The best type of building has a tree growing out of it." I'm not quite sure how the saplings got here, but this arboretum upon ruins makes me recognize the insensitivity and immatureness of that statement.] My group has been hired to masterplan the site. The community members want to make it an affordable, year-round attraction. [... a year round drive in? How does that work?] We're proposing a restaurant in the on top the rubble called "The Projection Booth." The waiters and waitresses will race to wrap the film, then patrons will be able to watch the double feature while they have dinner. During the summer, drive-in operates how most do. [Maybe we pressured the investors into this, so what? If we understand one thing, it is increasing quality of life for the community. How we do it? By convincing other people that they are able to affect change and then stoking their fire into action... and donations] We're excited to be part of the idea making process. Call us old fashioned, but today we are watercolor rendering print outs of the digital model. When you are working for scraps, you understand that you get to do what you want to do. [People like watercolors]

 

The second project has me off to the vocational school. I'm teaching two classes for the young men and women going into construction. [I could try to pressure them into thinking that they were designing things, but for reasons that design is still largely considered a plaything of the elite, my ultimate goal is that they understand that everyone can be creative. Seeing someone who says that they can't think outside of the box literally burst out of said box makes me so happy. I think they are pretty satisfied with themselves as well. So what it isn't practical? A parade float is a harmless way to test structural forms and building techniques. It looks a lot like the model from tectonics studio my 2nd year of undergrad got thrown into a kaleidiscope.] I really enjoy teaching. It's in my bones.

 

The third project is rogue. [It could be illegal. Laws aren't that enforced here.] We've been making art out of haybales. [Art is probably an inappropriate way to describe it... but it is the only way to describe it so we don't get in more trouble. I'd like to call them playgrounds, theaters, plazas and picnic shelters. So we don't get sued, we call them art installations.] They're on sidewalks, in parking lots, attached to buildings, engulfing unsightly or dangerous objects, abandoned cars and dilapidated signage. Hard to miss. Highly allergenic.

 

I work through lunch [that's how you stay skinny] without realizing it. Stomach growling [howling more like it] I call up my friends who are working the buy local campaign and ask them if they want to have linner [lunch+dinner] at a local deli. They oblige... barely eating around noon because they were so busy as well... solidarity in hunger and being addicted to our jobs. I still don't eat meat much... but the deli's chicken supply comes from my farmer friend, so I order the chicken melt. We play scrabble with half the letters missing while we wait. Everyone and their mother seems to have had the same lunch ignorance, because there is a steady stream of customers at 3:45. We know every other person in line. Makes it hard to eat.

 

At 5:00 I go back to work. [If I had a wife and kids, they would have either been there, in and out, all day, or showed up around this time to hang out. The studio is a comfortable, hangout-y type place] I keep working until 7, not really minding the time. 8:00 is a good time for dinner, at least that is my defense for not being able to depart from "work" in time for a more traditional, American, dinner time.

 

Back home, it's dinner, outside chores and general soaking up of the evening, reading. [That sounds a little too relaxed, I would undoubtedly do those things, but also fit in a committee meeting for something, replying and sending e-mails, and perhaps visiting friends at a watering hole or some other type of community function... there, that adds a proper amount of craze to my schedule.] I make sure I get no more than 6 hours of sleep. [dreams happen while you sleep, yes, but no matter how many dreams I have sleeping, nothing stops me from being a day dreamer]

 

I probably won't do the same thing tomorrow. It will be recognizable to the previous day, but definitely not the same. Who am I and what is my title? I have no idea. I am happy, healthy, and living the dream.