jeffrey + upstairsloft

I have the social networking essentials and though I’m not big on it, I am finally finding it fun. And by essentials, I mean the typical myspace, facebook, flickr and enter twitter.

Today I played around with Twitter and had quite the addiction to it. I’d Twitter from my desk and my phone. When ever I had a spare moment to just say anything, I would. It’s awesome. I never spent too much time customizing my myspace, profiling what pics to include in my photo albums or updating every bit of information possible.

But Twitter, yes, Twitter, regardless of who’s on the other end, it’s like the digital equivalent of being in a crowd and just screaming random things just for the sake of being a spectacle to yourself. It’s thrilling. Well, not that thrilling. It’s fun. And sometimes, amidst all the stress, deadlines and pressure, a little fun is not a bad thing. Espeically when Twittering spreads like wildfire with my BFF, aka my senior art director, aka Lee. We got a good portion of the studio on Twitter just saying stupid things out loud and on Twitter. I know, it kinda defeats the purpose but the simplest things give me joy.

Anyhow, I plan on updating that “Links” portion of my website and advertising my myspace, facebook, friends’ links and quite importantly (because I am paying $25 a year), flickr.

Here’s that link for now:

>> Flickr/jeffrox7

It took nearly a month to realize that my blogs weren’t posting. I think it’s okay now. I think I also posted some new photographs since then.

I dedicate no time to myself. I don’t know how to feel about that right now. But after a good 2-day weekend of not thinking about work, and just letting some perspective reach me, I realized that I am getting better and more efficient with what I do for a living but I need to pull back and balance taking care of me. I don’t sit and just reflect anymore. I work, come home and think about work, wake up and think about work. I think about work, projects, where I can take them, if I missed anything, planning what to do next, how I interacted with the people in the studio, how I can be a better designer, if I behaved, etc…

I’m a bit scatterbrained right now and I’m sure what I am talking about is an explosion of a million and one thoughts but somehow, I just had to sit in front of the glowing screen and not design and just type.

So… this 10-minute blog entry will, in some way or another, benefit me down the line. I just had to open up this self-discussion through my little blog thingy to get myself to acknowledge that I need to just spend some time with Jeff the person, not Jeff the designer (but I have to distinguish the difference between the two before I take on that task). I’ve been studying to play this role for 6 years and been playing the role of designer for a year. That’s damn near a decade. I think it’s about time to just sit back and do a little soul-searching. I feel like I dirty sponge that absorbed anything and everything from the past 7 years that I just want to start fresh with a new, clean, zesty lemon sponge so I don’t smell stale.

Kate bakes the best cupcakes. End of story.

Kate and I just stepped foot back into the apartment about a half hour ago and the vacation, well, was the kind of vacation I need a vacation from. Don’t get me wrong. I had a blast with the future misses and I had a blast scoping out the vendors, meeting up with our wedding photographer and our awesome wedding coordinator, Evonne. We also celebrated out 7-year anniversary on Thursday, where we ate nothing but awesome food and chilled in North Shore and Haleiwa. In fact, the day after, we made a second trip out of Waikiki, back to the North Shore so we can show my brother and cousins what Kate and I think is a better Hawaiian experience. No offense to anybody who loves Waikiki, but San Francisco has its fair share of tourists, a Cheesecake Factory and stress.

In exactly 1 year, Kate and I will be married. The true countdown begins. We’re super excited and planning is at full throttle. Trips back home in the South Bay will be limited.

As for our welcoming committee (my family are still in Hawaii; Kate and I were the first to leave), we were greeted with the typical 38-Geary bus crowd and a very, fucked up water bill like I expected. Typically Kate and I split $40–50 for a bi-monthly water bill, but I think our upstairs neighbors are housing a pet orca and our bill skyrocketed to a whopping $216. Out of nowhere. That is 59,092 gallons of water consumed by 7 tenants (versus 15,000 from the previous 3 water cycles). Not the welcome back I wanted.

As for the “vacation”, the vacation only really happened yesterday. We lew out of Oahu to Maui and spent the whole day relaxing, had a family picnic at the beach and moved it to my aunt’s and uncle’s house. What a tease. We only had a solid day to spend in Maui. Oahu was, for me, stressful. I drove a lot, Waikiki is a nightmare, I didn’t boogie board as much as I wanted to and my cousin was the worse bridezilla I can ever imagine. No lie.

I have work tomorrow and no bike seat. I only hope there aren’t any big fires to put out at work so I can keep my head on straight and find the time to buy a replacement bike seat.

If work itself didn’t justify my dire need of a vacation, getting my bike saddle stolen in front of the theatres and my upstairs neighbors causing ruckus with all their moving. Of course, 3 hours before their lease is up, they start their moving process. These are the same people who fill up the trash, uncompressed, with recylcables, the day the trash was just emptied. Anyhow, all I hear is heavy footsteps and the sound of furniture scraping against wooden the floor. Of course this all has to happen the night before I depart, to only gracefully wish me off a well-deserved vacation. I hope to return to SF with new, more considerate neighbors, find $40 bucks on the street to save up for a new saddle and return to work with a healthy load on my plate.

Go watch Wall-E. Kate and I will be baking under the sun in O’ahu. Aloha beetches.