Week 7-10 @ GA: Better Late than Never

Well, it was bound to happen... I only made it 7 weeks blogging consistently. So here is the past 4 weeks in warp speed.

Week 7 @ GA, my mom came to visit and provided a nice break from 100% GA life and we got to do a lot of stuff that I hadn't been able to since being here. Probably the best part was our day trip to San Diego. We were only there for about 6 hours, but we were able to hit the highlights and have a great time. We walked around Old Town, the Gaslamp Quarter, Seaport Village, and got to see the USS Midway.

My mom's last night in LA we drove up the PCH to Malibu and had a nice dinner with an ocean view. The drive up the PCH was incredible - you don't get views like that many other places in the country.

Week 8-10 @ GA: We had just completed our online portfolios and started working on our client projects. I was put in a group to work on a company based out of San Francisco called GeriJoy. It's is a software that provides companionship for seniors via a virtual pet. It's a really unique product that has generated a lot of buzz in the medical/tech world so it was a really interesting to work on. The ask was to redesign the website to increase conversion and I believe what we delivered was pretty solid and the client seemed pretty happy during the presentation this past Thursday.


Week 9 @ GA: Last week started with my 26th birthday and looking back at my 25th birthday I would've never guessed that I would be living in California for it. I enjoyed a nice, relaxing day at the beach and in class the next day we celebrated with donuts (yum :)) and they were all super sweet enough to get me a StubHub gift card to see an LA Galaxy game :) Overall, pretty great birthday. 

Week 10 @ GA: This past week was really great. We finished up our client project and had our presentation on Thursday followed by a class dinner and arcade games at Santa Monica Pier. And yesterday was our last day, which was of course celebrated with champagne, speeches, gifts, and some pretty awesome dance moves. 






I absolutely can't believe that these 10 weeks went by so quickly, but somehow I feel like I have grown so much. This experience was incredible and I'm so happy to have taken the opportunity to change my path. And now it's officially time to buckle down and find a job. I had a phone interview with a digital agency in St. Louis last week and I have an interview in San Diego next week. I have no idea where I'll end up in few short weeks, but it's sure to be another adventure.

For anyone that's interested, my online portfolio can be found at uxshannon.com. (Note: It still needs some polishing.)

Week 6 @ GA: Living Amongst the Spiders

Now that I am safely freed from the hells of a spider-infested hole, I can recount my story.

As you may recall, I arrived in LA with food-poisoning and I was really just seeking the solace of the bed that I was going to be paying an exorbitant amount of money for. I was greeted by the girl I was renting from (let's call her Mary) and given a quick tour of the place and she left me to the room to take a nap. And I was immediately overcome with the horror that surrounded me... SPIDERS. Everywhere. 

During the quick tour, she had found a spider in my closet and proceeded to trap it in a cup and take it outside. She said, "The house seems to have a few spiders. I hope this doesn't freak you out!" In my food-poisoned delirium, I brushed this statement off. I later realized that this should've been my cue to run for the hills.

While uncomfortably laying on my new bed (I hadn't put my own sheets on it yet so it felt yucky), I began to sweat. For those of you that know me well, you know that I don't sweat unless I am exercising or it's over 90 degrees. I looked around for vents in my room and then meandered out into the hall to find the thermostat, but my search proved fruitless and I began to panic. I wanted to blame my hot flashes on the food poisoning, but Nala was panting like I had walked her straight into hell so I knew it wasn't just me.

My panic turned into salty beads of water rushing over my face in a full-on "ugly cry" sort of way. I hadn't handed over my check yet, but I felt robbed. It had taken me weeks to finally find an "affordable" place to stay that would take Nala and it was a hell hole.

Once I composed myself, I addressed a few things with Mary she agreed to buy a window AC unit so that Nala didn't have a heat stroke and I felt a lot better. However, over the next few weeks I began to fully realize Mary's crazy.

I am the kind of roommate that likes to keep to myself, come and go as I please, and keep the common areas clean. Mary is the opposite kind of roommate. She is hyper, slovenly, and barely strings together 3 jobs to pay her bills. This sort of personality only makes me retreat even more, but apparently this was unacceptable. I received an email one morning stating that I was making her uncomfortable and that the house would not be a good option for me for the duration of my LA stay. Once I stopped laughing at the ridiculousness, I was truly relieved that I wouldn't have a hard time breaking the news to her that I was looking for other places. 

During the 5 weeks that I spent there, the number of issues that arose was unfathomable. there wasn't a time that I couldn't count at least 4 giant daddy long legs repelling from the ceiling of my room. The toilet started rushing a river of water out the bottom of it and Mary tried to blame the 3rd roommate and I of flushing a tampon down it and wanted us to pay for the repair. (The plumber found tree roots in the pipes...) The dryer burnt one of my shirts. The dishwasher started overflowing bubbles. And a week after I left, there was an attempted burglar.

I am so grateful to finally be comfortable in my new apartment. Nala is too :)

Week 4 @ GA: Driving in LA F*&$ing Sucks

I have officially been in LA for 1 month! And what have I learned you ask? 

Driving in LA really really sucks. Here are some letters that I would like to write... (Warning: This post may sound like complaining, but it's just fact-stating.)


Dear LA Drivers, 
The bar on the left side of your steering wheel moves up and down. Some flip it up to signal that they are turning right. Some flip it down to signal that they are turning left. Others, do both just to make their fellow drivers aware of their next move. This is called common courtesy. DO it.

Dear California Dept. of Transportation,
What is the speed limit of the road I am driving on? Pick a road. Any road. What is the speed limit??

Dear Santa Monica Parking Police,
Is it not bad enough that you don't allow the girl with out-of-town plates to have a beach parking lot pass to park within walking distance of her course? But then when said girl finds a free residential street to park on 2 miles from her destination, forcing her to bike the rest of the journey, is giving her a parking ticket because it was a street cleaning day really necessary? Also, should said parking ticket be $64?? No. Have a heart. Clean around her tiny Prius.

Dear Inventor of Tandem Parking Spaces,
How is this ever a good idea? No, seriously. What is this? How many marital fights do you cause on a daily basis because a husband or wife has blocked their significant other in and they have to get to work? Dumb.

Dear LA Parking Sign Creators,

Wtf? For real? I'll read your signs. I'll even try to decipher them, but I will never feel comfortable parking near your signs until the day that the curb turns green next to my car to tell me I'm approved to park there. I require system feedback. In the meantime, I'll be running out to my car every hour making sure that I don't have a ticket.

Dear Dual Exit Creator for Carpool Lanes and Regular Lanes,

Let me tell you a story. A girl is driving on a highway she is unfamiliar with and it's nighttime. Her map is telling her to exit in 1 mile and she sees a sign for a left exit so she gets in the left lane. (Not the carpool lane, but the far left lane for single drivers. Oh and thank you LA Highway department for reminding me of my singleness even while I'm driving...) A quarter of a mile later she sees a sign for a right exit and she proceeds to confusingly cross all lanes to get to the right lane. And then one last time she sees a left exit sign and has to zoom all the way across the highway screaming expletives to make it to the left exit. Suddenly, she realizes that she is in the carpool only lane and that this carpool lane exit lasts a good mile or so. Her heart is pumping, but thankfully it was dark outside and that no cop would be able to tell if she had a passenger in her car or not. Even though she may have survived this tale unscathed, ticketless, and all-the-wiser for her next journey the idea of dual exits is crazy confusing. Be normal and stick to 1 exit lane. K thanks.

Ok, so this may have been complaining...

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!! This is what I'll be doing :)