jeffrey + upstairsloft

I will start a new tradition at home this Thanksgiving. I will ask my mum to make some of this. Bacon Explosion.

Game over. Me and Kate. Halloween. 2009.

I keep bitching about how it rains and I can’t ride my bike to and from work, wah wah wah. Well, if you hadn’t noticed, I’ve become quite addicted to biking. I’m consumed. I
m obsessed. It’s my release from the daily grind. It’s a work out. It gets me from point A and Point B with beautiful SF scenery in between. My drivetrain of choice requires a different train of thought… a heightened sense of road awareness. I also bitch about not feeling inspired. It’s about time I do something about that.

Why not substitute non-biking days with lugging around a camera or two. I always use to lug around my Nikon FE, or Lomo, or Olympus XA or even my digital SLR. I’ve been too involved with obsessing over bikes because until 10 minutes ago, it was my only release from the daily grind, the day-in and day-out stress, the mundane. I don’t paint. I can’t paint. I suck at drawing. But I’ll be damned if I met somebody who said I can’t shoot. Sooo… to sum up this silly rant of mine… life before Loomis Group was having a camera strapped to me at all times. I had my keys, wallet, chap stick, USB stick, a couple of altoids, my phone and my camera. Somewhere from starting my professional career after school, I lost a passenger.

On days I don’t bike (or days I do) I will have a camera. It’s time to quit bitching about not riding, not feeling inspired, and it’s time to start stirring things up a bit, like how things used to be. I feel I don’t get excited about many things anymore and I’m not happy about it. Time to get back into the arts. I need to get myself out of this rut.

The economy is in turmoil. It’s no secret to anybody. Before the holidays, this realization hit home when my dad was laid off just before the holidays. I also saw a handful of co-workers released from work. But this past Friday was a square punch to the face to remind me how screwed up this economy is. Clients are pulling out, cutting programs in half, leaving my company with no choice but to downsize. I saw more than a handful of people let go, 5 from the Creative department. It was an emotional Friday, an emotional weekend at that, with a three-day weekend for reflection. Heavy stuff.

But tomorrow, I anxiously await a new beginning as I have strong hopes that President-elect Obama will steer us in the direction we need to pursue. I fully understand that we need ample time to heal this country’s wounds but I am confident we will move forward.

As for now, it’s back to basics. I appreciate all that I have and that I can’t get all that I want. I recognize I have a lot; I have an awesome family, an awesome fiancee, a handful of great friends, a job and most importantly, healthy loved ones.

Another thing I love about San Francisco is its better half. We’ve been getting crazy, premature apocalyptic weather (seriously, it hit 70 degrees in January…). Day in and day out I ride through my normal route and today it was too gorgeous to pass up my weekend route.

Today was the perfect day to the ditch manic drivers, traffic lights, psychotic taxi cabs, MUNI buses and eager-to-jump-the-curb pedestrians. True. That’s city life when you pass through downtown to get to work. So I took the route Kate and I normally take for weekend joyrides. I absorbed San Francisco’s nature scenery, biking through the Presidio, Crissy Field, and all of that.

Fortunately for me, I pass through the Panhandle and Golden Gate Park on my way home, but it was just great to be able to switch up a completely different route this morning. I might as well enjoy this freakishly awesome weather. Thanks global warming.