Last night, around a fire, amid much pipe-smoking/banjo-picking/meat-grilling, among some people I don't know and some I know too well, I am introduced to the cousin of a friend:

"This is James. He's got a masters in architecture, but he's too much of an artist to be an architect."

Brilliant! So what have I been doing with the last three years of my life? (No, I haven't been posting to LJ, but thanks for keeping me around to everyone who's reading this now)

As it turns out, I'm finished with school a semester earlier than expected. I don't think this is very common, so none of the powers-on-current-rotation noticed it until they had us fill out some kind of progress report and I realized that I didn't have any more boxes to fill (this was maybe 1-2 weeks before the end of the semester). This is ultimately due to my semester abroad (the last time I was posting actively.. when I was threatened with being held back a year), which was finally recorded in February as graduate-level credit (rather than the undergrad prerequisites I was missing). While I expected someone to quickly answer "Does this mean I can graduate early?" with "No, you still need X," each higher level of bureaucracy looked over the paperwork, shrugged and said, "Looks like it. Congratulations. Good luck. (I don't really care, and I don't feel like arguing)" I won't have a diploma until August (for missed deadlines), but I crossed the stage and shook the hands a few weeks ago. I'm done. Now what?

The easier thing to explain is what I've been doing since, which has been very simple. I've been sleeping and eating.. cooking, reading, having long conversations, rediscovering wine and maintaining a healthy friendship with coffee. I've taken care of all the documentation I'd been putting off for years and am in the (very slow) process of assembling all of that into some kind of document to demonstrate my brilliance to strangers yet again. I've had some meetings with old professors to discuss possibilities and some e-mails from others to ask if I'd be around for digital rendering work later in the summer (have done a bit of this in the past, but unfortunately nothing lined up for the immediate future at the moment).

This is the first serious break I've had since before I started grad school, and it's at the point of becoming dangerously addictive. At least I'm making very good use of my days -- typically in bed by a reasonable hour, then awake without alarm about the time my roommates are getting ready for work (perhaps I could actually do 9-6 now), and the time between is spent doing mostly practical things at a somewhat more leisurely pace than I'm used to.

Of course, I'm going to get sick of this very soon, which should coincide nicely with the completion of the portfolio and its distribution across the world. In the time of conversations and waiting that might follow, I'll probably look for some kind of regular (salaried? benefits? egads..) employment around here, but the plan is to leave and get as urban as quickly and interestingly as possible. No need for lavish living at the moment, or even working in this field (actually, a bit sick of it at the moment), but I do demand interesting work and surroundings.

That's it for now.. just a simple state-of-life-at-present for those of you whom I haven't talked to in months or years, and for myself to read after another few. Even if I don't get around to writing again for another long while, I'll try to do a better job of reading and commenting.