So yeah, this week I went out to the Sarasota Island Park for a drink with a couple fo friends. We went and ate at the restaurant we went by last class. Saw people walking dogs and kids playing at the pit with the colored sculptures of animals. Decided to do my paper on it because why not take notes here instead of doing something I'm not familiar with. I had some grouper, my favorite kind fo fish to eat and just sat out looking at the ocean for about half n hour. Other than that, it was a quick trip.

So this week I went to a restaurant downtown that had Spanish Food called Tapas. They serve multiple different kind of small dishes with various meats and veggies. So that's pretty much it, next week I plan on going to the beach with a couple of friends.

This week I went out to the beach down the road to do some landscape painting for Ill Class. I saw a blue crab in the shallow water which was about the size of a baseball and watched it scuttle around for a while. It was windy out, probably because of the hurricane up north, other than that it was clear and sunny but a bit chilly.

Last week, for Illustration class, George Pratt sent us to go down to Myakka Rive State Park and paint a landscape. So I brought a small canvas and a disposable palette to make the cleanup easier. After being woken up at 8:00 in the morning thinking I had to get up at 11:30 to go, I got my drowsy ass out of bed and carpooled with other people to get there. The drive was 40 to 45 minutes. When we arrived, I met up with the teacher and went off to one of the trails to paint.

 First thing I saw when setting up other than the park being partially flooded, was that there were a few wild boar surrounding us. This being my first time I ever seen one up close, I questioned if it was a good idea to paint here. This place having one of the only benches in the park, I decided to stay until I saw a couple of alligators only a few feet away from us in the water gazing. I was nervous but stayed thinking that they would just wonder off which they did.

One hour in, and my black shirt was getting attracted to the heat and the humidity was keeping my energy low not to mention I had no breakfast  Me and the crew decided to go off to lunch at the cafeteria down the road where I had some Alligator bites that tasted like expensive greasy chicken.

In all though, it was a unique experience to be had, my painting turned out decent enough for me to be considered finish and I didn't get eaten by the ravenous wildlife surrounding me.  So I guess I would call the trip successful.

This week, I didn't do much for exploring the area around us because my transportation from my friends was not available due to some fixing up with the cars. I also didn't have much time to do some walking either outside of campus because of various projects involving digital and traditional illustration class. But tomorrow on Friday, I am going to Myakkah River State Park for Oil Painting, so that will hopefully turn out well.

This week I mostly stayed inside working on two project for my illustration classes, one that needed to be done o the computer and the other that needed to be done with cut paper. the one with cut paper involved me taking a picture of somebody outside, so I did one of my roommates on the beach posing. That's pretty much it, thankfully I'll do something more outdoors next week.

I didn't do too much this week. I pretty much stayed inside and work. I did go outside and work on a few landscape digital paintings on my Ipad. But that is pretty much it. I do plan on going out this weekend, so that should be fun.

This week I went to a italian restaurant nearby to get some nice home made pizza with a friend. It was around 9 to 10, it was dark out and a bit humid. There were some clouds out but nothing to big and threatening. While we ordered our pizza, it started pouring out and small rivers were flowing through the street, this happened so fast that I couldn't believe that the weather could do something this strange, I been here 3 years and that's the first time I seen it pour down that fast, usually it builds up with a drizzle and then a pour, but this happened our of nowhere. Fortunately it was slowing down a bit and we got out there and ran towards our rooms. Pizza was good, so it was worth it, definitely better than the chain restaurants like Domino's and Hungry Howie's.

The next day, I had to do some photos near the beach with a friend for some still lives for my illustration class. Me and my friend walked to the beach instead of driving and tried to walk under the shade, when we arrived at the destination, I was welcomed to a beautiful view that I could use to my advantage for the project. Along the way back, we were interrupted by a fellow local who asked if we were artists, we said "yes" and gave us this massive wooden palette, she said she did it all the time by giving away stuff, and she left while we thanked her. Strange and random, but hey, a free palette.

I wasn't in Sarasota last week so I couldn't write anything about that. This week when I got back here on campus Sunday night, I did take some pictures fo my "Life in Sarasota project" for Illustration. I live in the Bayou so I went out back towards the river and took some pictures of a friend of mine posing right in front of the river heading towards the forest. On Tuesday night I took a walk on one of the streets out of campus to search for a chinese restaurant someone told me about, but 20 minutes in, I realize I am going the opposite direction of where I am supposed to be going and just decided to go back home, tired and exhausted and eat a sandwich. I did see some interesting stuff on the misdirection walk like seeing some interesting stores and people along the way, it was pretty barren overall.

This week I pretty much went home to Virginia evacuate the Hurricane that was supposed to hit Florida. but because of this, the flight plan to get me back home was the next Sunday which made me miss my Thursday and Friday classes. So far, my home is doing fine and am taking care of it while my parents are away for a few days. So, that is pretty much what is happening.

Alright, changed this blog to Sarasota Economy because of changing classes.

Just going to post once to see if this works, so hello world and Art Network class.