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After leaving the office late for class, having to explain the mysteries of "Tensigrity" to my class so they can be "Gun-ho on the subject, and seeing their young faces "sooo full of enthusiam" to tackle the subject like "Green berets in Basrah"... leaving nothing but their footprints... I know why I teach... Because I can touch the future and steal some of their spirit in the process.

Cal Poly Pomona has a policy of "no repeat customers" (students cannot take the same professor twice) and I arrived at the Cal Poly staff meeting late as usual... I was interrogated by my colleagues about my roster, and stating emphatically "I did not recognize a name in it..." of course I had not checked it since my mind was still on Spring break...

However, when the dust settled and started reading their names, I discovered that over 75% were frequent flyers... My old students had managed to cross the borders of educational red-tape, and show up as undocumented aliens do, one by one... to say, "Yes we are here for some more tough love... and learning". We forged this alliance on the face of "Big Brother" and went about our business of... Slacking has no place in your life of becoming an architect anymore... Took them outside to the courtyard and did my usual routine...

Everyone got the "Come to Jesus speech" and the dog and pony show and finally I got in my gas-guzzling LR3 (or "RRRR... as we call it for its antics), picking up my usual parking ticket for parking on the red zone, I drove home with no traffic, at 90 miles/hour, blasting music and as I approached Palm Springs, I could see the dusty mauve colors of the mountains, the deep blue Accurender sky, and the deep shadows casted by our magnificent sunset... I was finally heading home!!!

I need to remember these days, when I get tired, huffy and just stuck on smoggy California freeways in the future... so I can recall for an instance why I refuse to give up my teaching on the face of everything I have to do to keep a viable architectural practice day in and day out... Simple, because I love my students, my teaching and the opportunity to touch the future and that will keep me away from becoming a cynic, a has been or even better yet, because a part of me will continue to be reborn in each one of them as they become leaders in our depleted field of Architecture...

They are a force to be reckoned with... Bring it on Spring Quarter, we are ready to rock...

Ana

Justin and I ran from our office to Murray Canyon and then took Hwy 111 til we got to Rancho Mirage and ended up at the intersection of Frank Sinatra and Waterford... 14 miles... then, we ran out of gas... it seemed like a good idea until we hit the wall and had to be med-evac'd by Peter...

No words or legs left...nor needed

Priceless...

I know that it is time to update our website. Let me see if I can put a fire under Axel, since I will have the joy of teaching with him sooner than I could have ever hoped for.

Yes, we have been honored by being published in the Los Angeles Times West Mag, just yesterday. A book is coming and we made the cover of California Home + Design in March,in addition to being briefly mentioned in Architectural Record and more is coming our way... Shelter Magazine, even the Vatican Press... not for our sainthood...or so I hear. As long as we do not appear in the the back of milk cartons or in the Post Office as America's Most Wanted... we will be OK. The reality is that due to our hard-honest work, we are beginning to be recognized and started to show up along with the "big boys".

It isn't been all romantic, however, I know the sacrifices we have all endured. But as we move forward, we need to have faith that the dots will connect somehow...We have followed our intuition, curiosity and work ethic... and that is turning out to be priceless. I believe that it is our karma, because as we all know, we do our darnest with each project, each client and each other. We are not trapped by dogma- which is living with the results of other people's thinking. We don't let the noise of othes' opinion drown our inner voice and most importantly we have the courage to follow our hearts and intuition. Everything else falls into place.

So here we go on our journey together...

God Bless,

Ana

Memories really hunt us with their beauty or their horror. But occasionally a vision will recur at odd times, unbidden and you have no idea why. If that persists, you figure it is a memo from the subconscious. Yet that seldom decodes it, because the more heated the memory, the more mysterious its message.

The arrival of Spring always has brought blessings in my life, and it brings so many wonderful memories to all of us ar Esc Arc. Justin and I celebrated the coming of Spring with a "real run". He thinks we ran only 8 miles, but it was closer to 10. We started at the Tramway Station and took the fire road, crossed Hwy 111 and took the flood bank road until we got to Indian Ave. and trecked back home. Temp. late 80's. Blisters, silence and feeling every bone, while chatting about snakes, extreme sports and finally just putting one step in front of the other. The end was elegant, effortless and exhilarating.

Then, Marco made chicken soup for us, he is such a mother hen. We love him and I don't know what would I do without him. Thanks Marco for pampering us...But, darn it!!!! We deserve it.