jeffrey + upstairsloft

Everday I tease myself with the idea of moving to NYC. For the last two years it’s been a dream. Then I got a job in San Francisco. And I do love it here, it’s just that; dude, it’s New York. I kinda laid off the dream for a bit but now I am back on it and I cannot get it out of my head. It’s just that it’s so doable.

On a real level, I can find a job, an apartment and move to the East after Kate and I get married. I’m not making any promises but I do know I will make even just a slight effort to get myself over there and let the chips fall as they may. Perhaps when I feel like it, I’ll start getting in contact with studios there. But it’s not a dream anymore, it’s a possibility.

To make the idea even more enticing, Jun plans on moving there at the end of summer, around the same time as my old neighbor and close friend from Milpitas. I’m sure Paul would follow too. I’d live it up in Brooklyn. Live in NYC for at least two years, and get go after my graduate degree without having to pay out-of-state. Ahhh. Now that’s dreaming.

Seriously? You’re going to stomp up and down the stairs a dozen times, checking on your laundry to see if it’s done washing. A few hours pass and Kate and I discover about 5 pairs of socks in the dryer, unclaimed and up this point, six hours later, still unclaimed. When we load the washer it’s set to small.

Our water bill and electric bill are pretty damn high. I can imagine the contribution this dude makes when he does a load of laundry to wash only 5 pairs of socks like they’re diamond-studded, yet unimportant enough for him to leave them unclaimed, like so many other occasions, for Kate and I to stuff them in a bag, so we can pop them back in the dryer after doing our two full loads of dirties. And to admit that there was a guy living in their living room for the past two months. Kate and I get the fucked up end of the stick and have to front a ridiculous gas and water bill for some clueless fool who loads nothing but 5 pairs of socks in the washer, and leaves them in the dryer.

You would think that a dude who is about to have his second masters would have enough common sense. It’s like an untrained dog (or bum) who defecates on a street lamp. People are so senseless, careless and stupid. It drives me mad.

Kate got herself a bike this past weekend. Meet Neutron Firenze. Yes, that is a Harry Potter reference because it is, after all, a Centurion.

It’s night like these where all the unexpected hassles, pressure of the studio and long hours are more than well worth it. I’ll break it down.

I woke up at 7:30 and slept in an extra 20 minutes to get up and get ready at 7:50, to leave the apartment by 7:05. Biked most of the way to work. A lot of headachy things to deal with at work. Somehow 9 hours later, after getting straight to work as soon as I stepped in, Kate met up with me at the studio (after her interview with Dwell magazine) so we can head out, to her surprise, to our date.

We fine-dined at Nopa on Hayes and Divisadero, had some great food and an awesome churro dessert with orange-cinnamon spiced dark chocolate dip. Like our last date at Pacific Catch in the Inner Sunset, we walked about 2 miles home. Now most people (especially at work) scratch their heads and wonder why the hell we walk, especially late at night. To us, it’s a great time to extend our chats from over the dinner table to a nice, chilly walk in San Francisco. We understand that as soon as we step foot in the apartment after a long, hectic day at work, we’ll lose ourselves to the tv, a dvd, in a book or on the computer. We’d get sucked in until we pry ourselves from distraction to a hopefully restful slumber. True indeed, I need to carry some sort of protection when we walk 2 miles late at night. God only knows a bad temper and a huge chip on my shoulder isn’t good enough protection should ever an attacker finally try to take us down. But that’s neither here or there.

The point is, I love nights like these. I love spending quality time with Kate, able to talk about things from our passion for design, food, traveling and plans with each other, with occasional gossip.

On the bus from the studio to Hayes Valley, Kate and I saw a crackhead taking a shit near a lamp post on Market and 6th street. No lie. We seriously saw his ass and the dispensing of the goods. Funny and sad as hell but so disgusting.

Groggy and exhausted, I walked my bike to the bust stop only to get off about 2 miles away from work (as opposed to the full 5-mile bike ride). There was some hold up in downtown where the 38-Geary express passes through. So the bus driver opens all the doors for passengers to get out since she found it pointless to drive through gridlocked traffic. I got off with my bike and found myself in a claustrophobic cluster of suits and hipsters, yelling through a bullhorn.

It turns out today is the 5th anniversary since George formally declared war. Right in front of the Federal Reserve Bank, there were troops in their riot getups, thwarting away protesters. Some classy looking suit wheat-pasted some “Stop War in Iraq” poster got taken down with a baton choked up against his neck (he was about 3 feet away from me). I snapped a few pics with my XA, and biked the rest of my way to work for a client presentation.

After work, I biked up Market to find myself, again, amidst another big-scale protest in front of San Francisco’s City Hall. A few naked people (well, they had shoes on) and some more bullhorn yelling and a shitload of media coverage. I parked there for about half an hour to be a part of the energy. Naked people. A lot of weed. A lot of cops in their riot gear. I love the energy of this city. Kate and I met up on Geary and Van Ness and made our way to Haight to walk around. She got the watch she was looking for and I finally copped a pair of shoes I had my eyes on since Christmas.

Nowadays, weekends are a hard-earned commodity, where your goal is to get piss-faced to the point you forget your name with your co-workers or your closest friends. I never understood this concept until I started working at a marketing and advertising agency. In my short career with Loomis Group, I have been given awesome opportunities to execute exactly what it is that I learned from working very closely with my instructors at Sac State. With that comes a lot of, well, balancing. Often times, that balancing act can take a lot from you. Then comes the need to unwind, recharge your batteries and prepare yourself for another action-packed episode of your Day in the Life.

The past two weeks have been quite crazy. The only thing is, I didn’t quite know this until today. I’ve been far too busy to realize how crazy things are. Then it’s Friday, outta nowhere, the middle of March, when you swore it felt like you were just watching Dick Clark’s countdown 2 weeks ago. I’m quite convinced that I earned every right to numb myself from all the work and exhaustion by treating myself and my friends to some (okay, a lot) of drinks. Twice this month I have taken care of the tab. But it’s okay. It reciprocates when your colleagues and closest friends experience their share of needing to numb themselves. Before I turn over to wake up at 8 on a Saturday to continue designing, I will say this. I work damn hard and I will do what I am please within reason. I am a responsible and busy adult and I earned the right to be selfish at times so excuse me if I have to put plans on a halt to proceed with my own.

colophon (kinda): 2 bottles of soju and 2 beers.

The thing I wish I had in design school, other than sleep, is my 6×8 Intuos3 tablet. I don’t design, let alone touch a computer without one. When I even do just an ounce of design on my Powerbook, whether it’s over the weekend or late weeknight *ahem, right now*), I pack my tablet with me from work. The mouse has been dead to me for almost half a year. I love it.

The Google San Francisco residents just moved into their new space this week. I believe their San Francisco commuters who do Google’s PR work the three floors across from my studio at Hills Plaza. I remember walking through the quad at around 4:45 and looked up to see what was going on and everybody had aleady left.

I came in to work at 6:30 today and I’m keeping an eye out for when the first Googler comes in.

Short hours, hella pay. Wow.

I’m happy though. Seriously. I’m just overworked and exhausted and struggling to balance work and the relationship with the future misses. I feel like Mariah Carey, just not as chubby or sexy. But yes, I am quite happy.

I finally scored my new ride this evening. I’ve been keeping tabs on those selling road bikes in the city for the past several months and I decided to make my move during glorious weather. The name doesn’t matter as the bike fits me well and its purpose is to cruise the streets of San Francisco; but it’s a 57cm Legran Seville roadbike, made in Taiwan with stem-mounted friction shifters. It’s quite old school but I prefer friction shifting to contemporary index shifting like I prefer driving stick from auto. Who cares about all that technical jargon. Here’s the new ride.

Being a tourist in the city you live in is awesome. People often get caught up in trying to be too cool for that touristy shit but when you’re in the mood to be a tourist in the city you live in, why not? Today was beautiful, quite warm and most importantly, it was San Francisco.

Jun and Paul came up Friday night to spend a weekend with their favorite people. We acquainted ourselves with the weekend by going out for some Korean food and a soju bar with one of a few close high school friends, Kim. Friday night was an awesome precursor to our chill yet busy weekend in the city.

On Saturday we got falafels in the Mission, ate at Dolores Park, had some Mitchell’s ice cream, walked around Chinatown, watched Semi-Pro and cooked a good ass midnight meal. Paul and Kate cooked pan-friend salmon, some spinach dish, and pesto cream linguini.

We didn’t have any plans for today but since it the pacific wasn’t foggy, too cold and I miss the bridge, we decided to head over to Crissy Field after a cheap dim sum brunch in mine and Kate’s hood. My car is only driven to move it from one parking spot to the other and to drive to milpitas so I decided to skip bussing it.

The Bridge was beautiful. I’ve never been so close to it while not being on it. We literally sat beaneath bridge, looking up its skirt, admiring the architecture, the history, the late noon chill and the chipped paint hidden from most tourists.

After Fort Point closed, driving down Lombard, yeah, on a whim, we figured we’ll continue until driving it until we hit that crooked street. We easily scored parking and just watched people board the Powell & Hyde cable cars and watched all the cars twisting down that famous winding road. We didn’t drive down crooked street since we were too lazy and impatient to purposely land ourselves in traffic, so we headed down Union Street for a little window shopping, where I scored a sunshine yellow hoodie. After all the walking, we easily digested our cheap dim sum brunch and headed towards Japantown for some okonomiyaki at Mikune Don.

This 2-day weekend felt like an extended weekend. It was relaxing and it’s probably what I’ll need to go into another hectic work week.

images taken with iPhone