A day... by design

The morning drive was really ridiculous. 20 mph for one and a half hours was really not what the highway was meant to be.

Got to the office at 8:29am. Took a few minutes to settle down, drank a can of Coke (to get the heart pumping), checked my “To Do List” from Friday and read some headlines from the internet and… there. I am ready for the new day. It’s now 8:41am.

I reached for my roll of sketch paper,… rolled them out on the drafting table. Took a deep breath and glanced out of the windows and saw the flowers reflecting all the sun’s glory to the world. Summer is always beautiful as long as you are not roasting in the sun.

I smiled looking at the flowers. Took another deep breath and hold a Pentel Sign Pen in my hand. Studied the programs, then closed my eyes and started to brainstorm. Writing down ideas for a new little project that I was assigned… first page and then second page. By the time I finished, it was 9:44am. I had about 43 listed ideas with elaborations on the pages.

I took another deep breath, looked out the windows again, and this time the yellow leaves were falling off the trees. The wind was blowing in a comfortable pace, a couple went by laughing as they walked. Autumn had arrived and the whole earth looked like she had been caressed by King Midas.

I paused a little for the leaves. Look down and seriously concentrated on my brainstorm list and start to put more notes next to them. Eliminated the “far out” ideas by crossing them out. I then torn up more papers from the roll and start sketching these ideas into lines and forms that communicates. I sketched with speed but with not much precision. By the time it was 11:02am I had 7 pages of sketches. And from the 43 ideas in the brainstorm list, only 11 survived.

Overlay them once again, sketched the necessary lines bold and ignored the rest of the chicken scratches. At about noon, I was down to my final 2 designs that I liked and workable. I sat there staring at them debating with myself and then try to combine and fuse some of the ideas together. By 12:00 noon, I got it. I had one sketch in my hand to show, for of all the work that I put in this morning. The muses had been kind today.

I turned my cell phone to silence and put it in the drawer. Took my faithful pocket size sketch book, got my coat and scurf from the closet, and then went out into the snow. The cold in the air pinched my ears and my nose a little, but it was not too bad, it was not windy. I walked slowly, smiled thinking about the design while enjoying the misty puff of air from my mouth every time I breathed.

I walked two blocks to get a burger from the Prince’s Dinner. Ordered a Classic combo with onion rings and a homebrew root beer in a chilled mug (yes, even in winter), emmm... just beautiful. I then open my sketch pad, took out a Razor Point and start sketching the silhouettes of girl, she had short hair, and was wearing a heavy leather coat, laughing joyously while enjoying her burger. She was definitely conversing happily with her boyfriend and very much in love with him. I stole a little of that magical moment into my sketch book. That made me smiled (and I will smile every time I look at the sketch again).

Got back to the office, poured a cup of hot black coffee and here it goes again. Checked my e-mail, checked the messages on the phone, and checked the messages on my cell phone. Good, there was no fire drill (urgent problems to solve) at lunch. Turned on AutoCad and start to make my sketches into electronic form.

By 4:43pm, the CAD drawing was now more presentable. By then I had drawn 9733 lines. Trimmed and deleted 6782 lines to get 2951 of recognizable perfection from it. Stretching my tired hands. It was 4:47 pm when I printed the drawing out for a brief moment and then turn it into a PDF file and then e-mail it to my client. I sat there, arranged my files and put the sketch papers in a folder while waiting for the phone to ring. 5:12pm… hmmm… he was not there when I e-mail it. I knew this because a client will always have an opinion, after glancing for 120 seconds, at the simple 2951 lines that you presented to him.

Packed up and rearranged my area a little, then I made small talks with my colleagues, about football, the humidity, the weather and of course the traffic. In that order, too…

Working on a small innovative project that the client did not care much about the cost… This was almost a perfect day, I mean it’s not everyday that the season changes within a 10 hours period right? I am getting a little hungry again, hmmm… I should now go join my fellow Houstonian in the highways. Well, at least it is now spring time and the birds are singing.

Got to save this. Here we go… Bye.