Consumption and Collection: a 30 Day Journal @sydneyulrichblog - Tumblr Blog

Collected: gratitude for this sweet, cuddly girl

Day 30: February 21

Today is a Friday. In exactly one month, it is my birthday!

I’m looking forward to the weekend, though with impending projects, presentations and exams all in the next week alongside my usual homework, I’m feeling a bit stressed and realizing the weekend needs to be a productive one.

I omitted eating until I got to work. I took the train to downtown and then walked 5 blocks to my work. Once there, I worked primarily on newsletter items of business and tweaking designs. For lunch, I had a salad with salsa, avocado, cucumber, lettuce, and croutons I made from stale sourdough. I had apple sauce, tortilla chips.

After lunch, I worked on some homework and stayed at my work computer until 5:30 finishing up the homework because I had gotten into a groove. I took the train home after walking the five blocks to the station and and then had my fifteen minute walk home from the train. I worked on more homework, ate some chili, showered and did more homework and then went to bed. I listened to classical music again while working to be more productive.

Collected: a moment with Max, in which he decided the warm dryer was his new home.

Day 29: February 20

Today is a Thursday. I woke up at 8 this morning, which was like sleeping in for me and it was glorious. I ate my oatmeal with strawberries and a banana. I had a cup of coffee, and then I took the bus to school.

Once at school, I listened to a brand redesign presentation, worked on homework and had an in class critique. I worked on more homework in my next class and then had Design and its Discontents. In class, we discussed a new project, listened to a reading presentation and then I took the bus to my last class of the day: a discussion section. I have a gap in between, so I was able to get some more homework done. I ate my food: a quinoa, salsa, bean and lettuce meal, with clementines and cucumbers on the side. In class, we reviewed lecture material, and talked about our upcoming exam.

For dinner I had chili, with vegan cheese and tortilla chips. I drank water, per usual, and then jumped into more homework. I scrolled through Instagram a bit and posted to my dog’s Instagram. I listened to classical music on Spotify, which I find helpful for concentrating while I study.

I went to bed at a decent time, around 10:30.

Collected: appreciation and curiosity. Curiosity to learn more, like this word to say and appreciation for the idea of communication. I think part of what makes my relationship with my husband so steadfast is that we speak with clarity to each other. We don’t string the other along and make them guess how we are feeling. Instead we share openly how we feel and believe the other will accept us as we are. I love that we can do that and so today I am collecting appreciation and gratitude.

Day 28: February 19

Today is a Wednesday.

I woke up and packed up my stuff, got ready and walked to the train to take to downtown Minneapolis for my internship. I ate some oatmeal with strawberries and blueberries, alongside some coffee. I ordered some prints and designed some signage for the Polar Plunge.

We celebrated at lunch with a baby shower for one of my coworkers and his wife who is due next week Tuesday. We had chips and salsa and guacamole, and cookies from his favorite place. Aside from that, I had my same quinoa dish with salsa, beans and lettuce. I ate some apple sauce and had a clementine as well.

At 3 pm, I left for class and took the train to school. I got there a bit early and so I worked on some homework while I waited for class to start. Staying up extremely late on Monday night has left me exhausted this whole week and so I struggled again today to stay awake during this particular class (which is not something I traditionally struggle with). After class, I took the train home and walked my almost mile walk to my house. I played with my dog in the yard and settled in to do homework. I took a break to assemble some of our house we have yet to unpack (which is most of it), and I made croutons out of some stale sourdough I made last week and IT IS SO GOOD. For dinner, I had spicy chili with cheese and tortilla chips on top. I drank water with it.

In fact, thinking about it, I would venture to guess that 95% of the beverages I consume are either water, tea or coffee. Rarely do I drink anything else. I don’t drink soda, sparingly juice, and since I’m doing 100 days of no alcohol, I don’t have that either. Currently I am on day 75!

Collected: curiosity and learning a Chinese word.

Day 27: February 18

This morning I woke up early, got ready for my day, and heated my oatmeal in the oven again. I made coffee and then left for class. I took the bus and had 2 critiques. I watched The Bachelor in between and ate my quinoa, salsa, beans and lettuce dish. I ate applesauce and Goldfish crackers because secretly, I’m a toddler.

I went to Design and its Discontents and worked on my paper. Then, I went home and played with my dog, took a nap, worked on homework and unpacked. Another long day in the books.

Collected: Sadness and more snow, because winter is never ending.

Day 26: February 17

I woke up early and began homework right away. We moved over the weekend and don’t have a microwave now, so I attempted to reheat my oatmeal in the oven. It was dry-ish. I worked until noon, and then went to Michaels to buy supplies for class, and then went to Coffman printing services to print homework.

I ate a salsa, bean, quinoa and lettuce dish as I worked. Then I went to my Algorithms and Data Structures class. I then took the bus to my Travels in Typography class. Afterward, I drove back to our old apartment and got a load of our stuff to take to the new house.

I ate some chili for dinner and then went back to homework. I stayed up extremely late working on it.

Collected: Joy with a tinge of annoyance and footage of my kitten, Max, being mischievous.

Day 25: February 16

This morning started out early, waking up to feed the pets and let Rose, our dog, out. Since we don’t have a microwave yet, I reheated our oatmeal in the oven, which worked alright. We had that for breakfast with fresh berries. Afterward, we continued our research for things for the house.

I did homework and more homework and more homework and... it’s never ending, truly. I stopped to run and grab coffee. We haven’t unpacked everything in our house yet, and the coffee was unfindable. For lunch, we ate tacos. My husband started to paint the living room, while I continued to do homework (which lasted late into the night). As I write this, I’m continuing to knock things off my to do list. I have a glass of water to my right, a sleeping pup to my left, a kitten laying on my legs, and some music playing. I suspect we will be up late again, unpacking and cleaning and doing homework.

Collected: Gratitude to friends and family for helping us move.

Day 24: February 15

Today is a Saturday, and today was MOVING DAY!

I drank a cup of coffee, and we got to work. We drove to get our UHaul truck, and then came back home to get packing. We forgot to eat breakfast and drink our morning coffee, which hit us later on.

We packed up our bedroom first, and everything in the closets there. We worked on the living room next, and then disassembled the bookshelf. Four friends came over to help move/ wrangle our pets. By 11:30, we were at our new place with about 85% of our stuff moved. We ran out of boxes and places to put things, so we will have to finish up moving this week. We started arranging in the new house, and figuring out what we would need. We ordered pizza from Checkerboard pizza, a new personal favorite. We went to Ikea and bought a few small things. There are so many things we need in our new house that we didn’t realize. For starters, a microwave would be good.

After Ikea, we came home and ate some leftovers. We got ready and by 7:30 pm, we were headed to the ADES Senior Fashion Show. We parked in a lot and found some seats. The show was spectacular and so full of talent.

After the show, we drove home and did some more unpacking. We went to bed pretty late, spending a lot of time researching storage and organization things we need for our home. It was a busy, exhausting day.

Collected: a happy, yet sad feeling ,and a photo to act as a memory of our old apartment, our first apartment.

Day 23: February 14

Today is a Friday! Happy Valentine’s Day!

I woke up early and took my dog for a walk. It was freezing cold. I had oatmeal and blueberries for breakfast. After working for a while at home, I headed to the coffee shop to do some work. I drank coffee and water. I ate a naan pizza there and got in some much needed studying. At midday, I headed home and took my dog for another walk. The wind was strong and she wasn’t interested in staying out too long (nor was I).

I ate some carrots and cucumbers with hummus, and had some clementines.

I cleaned up my house, played music of all kinds, including the aforementioned Trivia 47 playlist. It’s such an eclectic, random variety of music and I love it.

For dinner, I ate some leftover pasta with veggies and sauce. We began to pack up some things for the new house. We bought paint at Menards as well.

It was an early(ish) bedtime, knowing we had to be up early to pick up our UHaul truck and start moving things to the new house.

Collected: A moment with a pouting Rose, who would like nothing more than a good play session.

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Consumption and Collection: a 30 Day Journal