stress relief part deux....
more things i want but can't afford....
self-watering plant IV!!!!! ummmm sign me up. i am sooooo bad with watering plants but THIS is absolutely brilliant!!!! too bad it costs 159.50GBP. UGH.....if i had this i would totally have more plants....i want goddamnit, i want.
and from the very same designers, this lamp/sweeper. yea that's right. it looks all nice and fancy and pretty sitting there as a lamp but it also have a second purpose of being a sweeper!! i mean that's pretty damned cool. there is no price because i think it's not yet for sale but if the plant IV is like $300US then i bet this thing is like a grand. again, UGH....
and how about this gem. a vintage chair re-upholstered with soft rubber. i think it looks pretty neat. but my god it's pricey....though it did take a lot of work. but still. sigh....
all of this because i stumbled upon 3 new blogs today. grrreaaaaaaaat! haha i now have a list of about 10 design books i need to get for my collection. UGH this is bad jen. this is bad. but i treat the books like cds. just get one or two at a time. then it's manageable....
i am so fucking stressed out right now that the only way to keep my sanity is look at nice design blogs and oggle at the amazing products i want but can't afford....
like this amazing bed....
after recently researching the costs of bedframes and mattresses, i wouldn't be surprised if the frame alone cost like $5k or something.....
or this awesome desk that would look so good with a new G5 intel mac. i mean shit it's gorgeous in that sleek, minimalist way. also very functional! it might not look it, but it is. you gotta see the website to really tell (linked off the photo).
or these designer rugs that are like $1500 each!!!
and aren't these glasses just fucking rad? i'm ALL about glass or ceramic stemware that doesn't look traditional.
they actually aren't THAT expensive relatively speaking. 27.50GBP each which in the realm of designer wine type glasses isn't that bad. but still, it's one of those things that like it's cool as a gift but buying it for yourself you're like, ouch.....especially if you got a set of 6. approx $325!!! actually that's like how much i paid for the handblown glasses i got for mel for her wedding. so yea. it's actually "reasonable" at that price level.
and this shirt i have had my eye on for ages but it's printed on AA and i can't justify a $40 AA screenprinted shirt. i just can't. not when i work for AA and know how much a blank white tee costs. $15 or 20 threadless shirts i can manage. but $40, no...
sigh. i see things like this all the time and i want them so badly. i want the modernist home damnit!!! but i can't afford it....and well, i don't even live alone. sigh....
blah anyway, back to work...i'm slowly losing my mind i think. i take on too much. i'm working on my second cd package in like a month's time and trying to make this logo for this girl's cosmetic line and also redo my print portfolio. i have this awesome magazine idea but no fucking time to do it!!! ugh. and on top of that i took on the task of the coachella flag which is just annoying to deal with. and i'm the money collecter for james because he's not around and sai is leaving town so i gotta collect money for her since we have to exchange money anyway. and our friend jill out in texas wants to go to coachella and i'm the middleman for her to get a ticket from james and from ryan. and like all these things are fun (well except the facilitation of goods and services haha) but ther are only so many hours in the goddamn day. i lose sight of that a lot it seems. and so here i am, wired on red bull because i got like 4 hrs of sleep last night and still haven't finished the first draft of the cd package. but i *had* to do these cds because i have to get as many as i can for my portfolio. and at least this latest one is a band i've heard of. a band i saw at coachella 2 yrs ago....with bunny ears....
ok, back to work. ugh.
beck was AWESOME. it as like seeing him and his band play in your backyard or something. it was small and intimate. very impromptu sounding. they just sorta jammed most of the night. it was cool. not as cool as puppets mind you, but cool in that "i saw beck at a small venue" sort of way. so now i can check that off the list of things to do before i die. still on that list "see robbie williams perform a full concert." yes, yes ya'll.
meanwhile on the parking tip. they did away with waiting lists years ago apparently. motherfuckers. so i can't use that as my argument. blah. whatever. i'm going to just pay the ticket. apparently they might have a spot available the end of the month and it's first come first served so i think i might try and get it. that would be nice. a parking spot. sigh....
the weekend is here and i can finally sleep in!!!!
HOLY SHIT. i just got tickets to see beck at the echo tonight. another dream come true. haha not on the caliber of reading fest. but hell. all those years of missed secret last minute shows. and finally i get to go to one!! i got the email and i must have checked my email at the right second because bam, i got it, clicked "buy tix" and bought two and before i knew it, it was sold out....but i got 2 tickets. $15 each. hell yes. the show is at 8pm tonight. HELL YES. early show. in and out before 10. just the way i like it for my old old age. hahaha
ok so i was gonna catch up and write about my whirlwind weekend in SF but i have to get to more pressing issues at hand. park la fucking brea parking.
so we all know that parking is bad. yes. and we all know that my rent is cheap so i have to make due with no proper parking. yes. but if i could have a parking spot i'd gladly pay for it. yes yes. ok well here's what's going on....
so last week i got a parking ticket. a PLB parking ticket. it was only $30 which is probably the cheapest parking ticket i've ever got in my life. *knock on wood* i barely get parking tickets. nevertheless, a ticket is a ticket. reason for my ticket? i double parked where we all double park and ran into my house to pee and put my heavy crap down. while i was in the house, a security guy must have come by and given me a ticket. now i've been doing this for years and NEVER have i gotten a ticket. why all of a sudden? i have no idea. but i got the fucking ticket. so i read the back of the ticket and it says:
the following citation examples constitute invalid grounds for appealing a citation:
- parked only a few minutes
- referring to the rules as ridiculous
- inclement weather
- late for work, class or meeting
- lot or garage being full
- drive occasionally and should not have to park in assigned parking
- another supervisor/employee/staff member advised me to park there
- other improperly parked vehicles do not constitute an excuse for improper parking
- no one told me the permit expired
- no one told me where or how to park on the premises
ok so i couldn't really claim the "i was just in there for a few minutes" clause since that's against the rules too. so i was wondering if there was anything i could do about this because well, it's fucking ridiculous.
so then i got to thinking about how i did apply for a parking spot some 4 yrs ago when i first moved in and i was on the waiting list. well where the fuck is my goddamn spot? so then i thought that could be a good basis for my appeal. if you fuckers hadn't skipped my name on the list i wouldn't be getting this fucking ticket. but i had to find out if i had been skipped over.
so i called the parking office on friday. got brent davis' voicemail. so i left a message for him to call me back. monday rolled around, no returned call. so i called a few times. always got voicemail. so finally i left another message. i figured maybe he forgot cuz it was friday. still no returned called. tuesday i called a few times. voicemail again and again. so i left another message. then i called the main office. the woman said that brent was in the office and that she would give him my name and number. today i called again and again. STILL VOICEMAIL. so i called the main office and BITCHED them out. i got another woman who insisted that brent was at lunch as well as the others in the office and he would call me back. apparently i can walk in there from 8am to 6pm and talk to ANYONE yet i can ONLY talk to brent on the phone. wtf? so i waited an hour. still no call from brent. i call him again. voicemail. so i call the main line back angry as hell but trying to remain calm. fuck this runaround bullshit. the woman listens to me and speaks with brent. apparently he's been in meetings since monday. suuuuuuuure. whatever. she takes my info and says he will call me this afternoon. it's not 6:30. he ain't callin.
sooooo i think i might have to wake my ass up early and march down to the office and raise some hell. at this point i almost forgot what i'm fighting for to be honest. i'm so pissed off and how rude this man and his office are. UGH. so yea. that's my beef. this ain't going down without a fight. when i got an unfair parking ticket from the city i had to face two mail-in appeals before i finally got my money back for the ticket. so i'm going to at least give this one a shot.
i'd also like to bring to their attention the fact that we have no loading zones or 30 min parking spots like they do inside the PLB gate. we should have at least one or two spots for that so we can drop shit off. because it's ridiculous. yea yea other housing places don't have that but this is park la brea. we have our own goddamn parking tickets. i mean it's a slightly different ballgame....
anyhow, phhhhhhhhhhewwwwwwww i blew some steam off.
san fran was awesome. it was super short and very whirlwind. too whirlwind. my parents got to meet alex and they liked him. we went to dim sum with mel and matt who also got to meet him. i hung out with jason, kyla, and eric here and there. saw joe for like an hour. and that was about it. i barely got to do anything! partially because i had to go with alex to his poetry event which i was sort of rolling my eyes at but in the end it was really good. some of these kids are talented. good poets. some are awful. but oh well.
i don't have any photos because my camera is broken and i've given up on using it. i'll have to get a new one before coachella!!
the parking saga will continue tomorrow. i'll have to update when i have more to say on that matter....
i have to say i just got a little teary-eyed (figuratively) over reading festival. i got the email about it today. tickets are going on sale next monday and the line-up will be announced. just thinking back to my trip there with stacey last year and how amazingly fun it was, i got a little sad. will coachella live up to the madness? probably not. will it be awesome? probably yes. but it will never be reading....
sigh. even if went back to reading, it really wouldn't be the same anyway. it was one of those once in a lifetime moments where i fulfilled a childhood dream. going back would be cool but it wouldn't be as important and therefore probably not as amazing.
this weekend was all about making some hardcore progress in all the workd i have to do. first up, the coachella flag design is DONE!
i feel good having completed the first part of the project. lawrence helped me with the design and now i have to figure out how to get the design onto the fabric. i'm enlisting dave for help. if all else fails, piecemeal iron-transfers will be the way to go...
i also finally finished my helvetica shirt design. but i won't post it yet til it's 100% nailed down because i'm working with dave to get it sold out there. hopefully through his t-shirt line. we shall see. it's simple and straightforward but also very design nerdy i would say.
still working on the cd for the band, theSTART (local LA band), that i have been working on for awhile now. they are slow to respond so i can only work as fast as they do. which is fine by me since it's ultimately their cd. i think it will look neat. the only real work i've done so far is the massive photoshopping effort with the centerfold spread, doing the "logo" for the band name, and the title of the cd and then figuring out where best to place it on the cover image. the package is image heavy so there won't be a hell of a lot more work for me to do other than cropping and placing the images on the template. there's still the matter of the label and traycard but yea, we're getting there. slowly....
i also found out i have the opportunity to possibly do the cd package for the next gram rabbit release. they are also a local LA band but i know who they are by name because i saw them at coachella 2 years ago. they gave the audience bunny ears to wear! apparently the band would be funding it on their own and don't have much of a budget but i'll think of it as a pro bono piece with benefits and then it won't seem so bad. i really just need to get more cd packages under my belt to beef up my portfolio. that's the real deal.
speaking of which, with the completion of the massive website redesign comes the beginning of the book overhaul. i am going to meet with the bookbinding woman tomorrow to look at binding options. i already know what sort of bind i want but i have to refresh my memory on what she can do and cost. i already compiled all the work i want to go into the book and formatted 85% of it. so now i just have to start laying it out. and i think it will be fairly simple considering it's not brain surgery. i'm going to use the similar style that i used on my last book. asymmetrical layout with some bleed. the pages will be removable so i can add new work as need be and presumably remove older, less important work. so that's good. i'm really excited about this. this is a book that can last me a long while with it's expandable capabilities.
so yea, i did a lot of work this weekend and didn't do much fun stuff to be honest. friday night was fun celebrating early for sami's bday and getting my brows waxed and then a pedi with the girls was good times. but aside from that it was mostly just work, work, work. but being that i'm FINALLY going home this weekend i knew i had to work extra since friday - sunday will be shot. alex is coming with me to SF because he has a work event and i want to see my parents and friends. it's been far too long (since july for mel's wedding). my parents and alex will get to meet which i hope won't be too awkward.
so that's that. back to the daily grind.
alright. we've made it to march. quite sad really. feb is always the forgotten month. the one that flies by entirely too fast. ah well. so here i am in march. stressed as all hell. i have a ton of work to do professionally and personally and i'm stressed to the max. i wanted to go home this weekend but i can't because i have too much to do. but now alex might have to go to san fran next weekend so if he does, i guess i'll go with him since he'll have a free flight and hotel. that would be nice. we shall see.
yesterday jessica, jen, stacey, dan, and i went to cheer on amanda for the marathon. it was the biggest comedy of errors in awhile i swear. first us girls have never taken the metro in LA and we get on it and take it to where we think will be closest to mile 13 where we said we'd meet amanda with her snacks only to find that when we got off we were a good 4 to 5 miles east of where we needed to me. we were on the right street, just too many miles away. so we started walking til we found a bus. the bus took us most of the way there. luckily dan was already there looking out for amanda. once she passed him at mile 13 he ran with her til they made it to where we finally were standing, at about mile 14. thank god for dan or we would have missed her!! it was good to see her and she was looking great. not too tired yet. of course it was only halfway through. but still. it was hot as hell outside yesterday which was awful for anyone running. we did our fair share of running though as well. which i wasn't expecting and wore completely inappropriate shoes. my slip on tigers that i never wear socks with and thusly i gave myself slight blisters. lovely....
after mile 14 we walked back past mile 13 where dan's car was parked. we got in the car and proceeded to make our way down to mile 25. well we had to go all the way around the course which was a mess and in the end we thought we would get there with plenty of time to spare. NOPE. we parked and started running to mile 25. then we got a call from christine and erin who saw amanda run by then at mile 25 about 5 minutes before we could get there. we had missed her! so sad. so then we stopped running and attempted to cut over to the finish line which was just past mile 26. we got there only to find massive crowds AND fenced off areas basically meaning even if we beat her we would never have seen her. GAH!!!
so after all that we ended up walking back to our car and driving to get some lunch. by this time it was about 2pm. we decided to hit up the taco truck i love on 3rd and normandie but once we got there it was closed! wtf?!?! they ran out of food?!?!?! oh man we couldn't catch a break. so we went to el cholo because it was somewhat near where our car was initially park by the metro. not to mention it's an old SC staple. so we went there and had our lunch and margueritas. then we headed back to out car. then back to jessica's. then jen took me back to my place. all in all i think i got home at like 4:30 or 5pm. so much later than i had ever anticipated!!! oh well....
so here i am. monday afternoon. working hard and stressed to the max. lovely.
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