Totally didn’t pass it. I wasn’t prepared at all. It sucked. Badness. But it’s over. Will try again.

So we’re both back to work and feeling the pain of readjusting to a scheduled life. It’s actually really painful. I’m wearing workshoes again and getting blisters and waking up at 6ish. But, I’m happy! I’m glad to be teaching art again.

Xofi passed her puppy graduation test last night! She actually was able to skip the test because she did so well on the pretest! She just got to play with the instructor’s pit bull for the hour. She clobbered him! It was really cute.

Also, tonight is my first class at DeAnza college.  I am taking Art of Asia. It’s a Wednesday only class from 6:30-10:10pm! It’s only for a quarter so it goes until the end of March. I needed 4 more units of Art History to apply for the SJSU Masters of Fine Art program. So, here I  am at community college. I won’t be getting home until late. Wednesdays are going to kick my butt.

Orlando and I decided to be super dorks and create vision boards of our new years resolutions. 10 in ‘10. Some of ours overlapped and some are uniquely ours. These are the ones that happened to be the same on our lists:

1. Pay off credit cards (specifically store credit cards)

We have a bit of credit card debt. It’s not all store cards, but I figured the store cards would be a good place to start because those cards generally have the highest interest rates. I figure once the store cards are taken care of, the others will follow.

2. Lose 50 pounds.

So oddly enough, we chose the same amount of weight to lose. Obviously, this is going to be a bigger percentage of  my total weight than Orlando’s, so I know it will take longer for me to lose than he. Any weight lost this year will be good for both of us.

3. Get into San Jose State University

We both plan on applying and/or attending San Jose State this year. We may not get in right away, but if we don’t, we’ll definitely reapply before year’s end. Orlando is applying to the Art department in Animation and I am applying to the Masters in Fine Art program, visual, pictorial concentration.

4. Save for and buy a house

We really are done with apartment living and want to buy our first home. The city of San Jose has a special Teacher Home buyers Program that will help with the down payment and the loan as long as we buy within the city limits of San Jose… so… looks like it will be in San Jose!

5. Travel!

Vancouver is on both of our lists. On my list I also had Seattle, which I thought could be part of the same trip. Orlando also had several other places on his list. It is very ambitious: Mexico, Chicago, Florida and New York City.

6. Make paintings… a lot of them!

We both agree; 2009 was not a good year for art. We didn’t really do any. Not for our own consumption anyway. So we want to do more paintings for ourselves. It’s an important part of who we both are that has been neglected for the part few years, so we’re going to try to make it a priority again. Orlando has no numerical goal, but mine is 25 paintings by year’s end.

Happy New Year!

Torie