September 2009

So I have been beating down the pavement for about 3 weeks solid. I had not been having much luck with looking on line for design jobs so I added walking around Berkeley and San Francisco looking for any job I can find at the moment since the money is pretty much gone. I finally found employment yesterday, I’m happy to say, with two part time jobs. I start Rasputin Music this Sunday and I starting Bed Bath and Beyond Tuesday. It has been pretty stressful trying to stay a float watching the money slowly deplete. But this waiting has finally come to an end.

Just in the nick of time I find something. I will continue to look for a design job I just needed something to pay the few bills I have and feed Lorlaie and my self in the mean time. So I’m relaxing on my last three days of vacation before the jobs start. I’ll be working in San Francisco at both jobs so I’ll be looking for a place in the city soon. Probably in the next month or so. I’ll be saving my pennies as much as I can as well so that I can afford a place. Right now the focus is on holding out until the first paycheck. I know that will feel like an eternity but soon I’ll be able to reflex on this time and know that I only built character. :0)

So things are really starting to look in the city by the bay. I join the ranks of the pretentious music store employees Sunday. I guess I shouldn’t say that now that there “my people”. lol And I’ll be one of thoughts busy little bees eager to help you out between rearranging products on shelves all day. lol my OCD will come in handy there! I was talking to a friend yesterday letting them know about my new found jobs. He has been there for my through this whole thing even the moves in Raleigh that ended badly and helped me through my personal journey for inner peace. He reminded me that I did this and that I have continued to fulfill my promise to my self. This makes me proud of my self and makes him proud of me to.

I’ll hopefully start networking more soon and eventually find a design job. In the mean time, would you like some help with thoughts towels… or maybe finding that CD of the song that’s been stuck in your head for the last two weeks? I’m happy about this even through I know this is not the exact end goal. But I  can see the bigger picture and it is a means to an end. For now its helping me stay in the city so I can accomplish the last leg of my goal, to find a design job and to survive in San Francisco.

I’ll also have money to start taking classes with my favorite professional dancers! I can’t wait its number 3 on my list of things to do when I have income. Number 1 is to buy some pumas so I have better shoes, I’m going to be on my feet a lot, number 2 is to find a permanent place to live in the city. Wow the sound of that word sounds alien. I haven’t had one of thoughts really since I started this journey 3 years ago in Columbia. I sometimes miss that little apartment in Cotton town. It was almost perfect… if it was just in an actual city. Loralie and I have come a long way since then. With ups and downs but nothing we can’t handle. Its nice to finally see all the craziness and struggle, and pay off. There were some good times mixed in there and I’m super thankful for them. The struggle just helped me appreciate them more and I have good memories to look back on.

God I miss my friends back east and family but I know that I’m on the right track. I have to keep pushing forward the pay off is just around the corner. So I’m just going to work these two jobs and work on my portfolio on the off times till I find what I’m really looking for.

My friend Kate from Raleigh came out to visit this past weekend. It was awesome! It took my mind off of the dreary state I find my self in these days while looking for a job and I got an excuse to go in to the city. I really love the city and I find when I just sit out in the East bay and I’m away from it for too long I start to get a little blue. The visit from Miss Kate was exactly what I needed!

Kate is awesome, she’s one of my favorite people from Raleigh and is a really go getter. She inspires me and I love spending time with her. She is in the process of looking around at different cities in the States to see were she wants to move next. She stopped off in San Francisco this past weekend to complete another world wind tour of another fabulous city.

We had a lot of fun and we got to meet up with a dear old friend of hers that she had lost touch with and has found again on facebook. Rachel is wonderful! She is in the area and she and I bonded on talking up the positives of living in the bay area. I think our job was done mostly for us with just the awesomeness of the area.

Kate flew in Friday evening and we caught up with each other over some awesome Indian food from Viceroy in down town Berkeley. We called it a night early after walking around a little bit then went back to my place and planned out our Saturday.

Saturday we got up super early, mostly because Kate was still on east coast time, and headed into the city after eating a little breakfast. First on the agenda was to find Miss Kate some coffee and me a Chai Latte. Then we walked around out side of the De Young museum while we finished out beverages then headed across the street to the SFMOMA to check out the Richard Avedon exhibit and the Ansel Adams exhibit. We checked out a few more making good time through the museum. It was awesome and I found my self inspired while hearing bits and pieces of my art history lectures replay in my head. Finally seeing these things up close was amazing! I can under stand fully now why my professors kept apologizing for us being in Columbia and only being able to see these art works on slides.

I hope to go there more often now that I’ll have money coming in. Its so inspiring… I didn’t want to leave!

When checked out the gift shop and I finally found my pop up map of San Francisco I’ve been looking for. Kate found some cool books she was looking for and we eventually headed out to find food and a bus to Japan town. We meat up with her friend Rachel there and walked around exploring the different shops and such while Rachel and Kate caught up after years of not seeing each other. We went to this awesome book store I love and hope to frequent more. We investigated the stacks and eventually stopped for Crapes and this really awesome crape shop just out side the book store. We checked out a stationary store near by then hopped a bus for lower haight. There is an awesome Urban art gallery Kate had been wanting to check out called Upper Playground.

After we checked out the gallery and the awesome exhibit they had there by The Date Farmers titled “Strange Fruit”. It was really interesting. They use found objects to make multi media art. This all reminded me of how much culture I’m really around now that I’m in San Francisco. I really need to get in the habit of being around it. But I have found inspiration just walking down the street here.

After we perused the stores associated with the gallery we decided to check out the “painted ladies” which are the most photographed real estate in San Francisco. There a row of Victorian homes. We took some pictures then started walking to the mission. This is were I think Kate fell in love with the city. She’s really big into urban art and latin american culture. She studied it in college. So we ate some awesome mexican food as you can only do in the mission, then walked around and looked at murals. We then decided to go drinking in the park. You know since you can get away with stuff like that here. :0) We stopped into a connivance store and bought some adult beverages. I noticed that they had IT’S- It ice cream so I bought one and told Kate about them. There this really awesome ice cram sandwiches that you can only get in the bay area. There fabulous and added to Kate’s San Francisco experience.

On the way to the park with our adult beverages we stumbled upon Five and Diamond … just one of my favorite stories ever that I’ve drooled over from the east coast for the past 3 years. This is my second visit to the store and I’m still as giddy as a kid in a candy store. I can’t wait to start making money so I can buy things in there. lol

So after we stop into five and diamond so I can drool a little, we head to the park with our adult beverages. We got there and it was quite, dark, and cold. But we set up camp on some steps first so we could try to see a view of the city. We hung out laughing, drinking , and talking. It was a lot of fun. We eventually moved down toward more light and the tennis courts were three guys were playing bike polo. It was pretty interesting.

It was such a fun day taking in the city, graffiti, the museum, and the gallery. I took tons of pictures along the way. It made me fall in love with the city even more being there and see stuff I had not thought to look for. Learning new things about this wonderful, crowded, dirty at times city. I realized that I will have to get out of Berkeley soon. Its just not the same as being in the city. There’s more life in the city.

We headed back to my place after we ran a gauntlet of sprinklers through he part to get to the public restrooms. The restrooms were dirty, out of Toilet paper, soap, and running short on cleanliness. I was glad to have brought my hand sanitizer with me.  We made it back to my place in Berkeley and hung out in my room while Kate and Rachel waited on a cab back to Oakland were Rachel lives.

Sunday I prepped for a job interview with a really kick ass company and went to an open call interview session. I was going to meet up with Kate and Rachel after in the mission but it took way longer than I thought it would. There were a few people there but I was there for an hour 1/2. When it was my turn through I had fun in the interview and was told that I had good answers to the questions and interviewed well. I was told before the end of the interview that they wanted a second interview and they wanted to look at me for management.

When I was done I called Kate and Rachel, they were headed back to Oakland so I meet them there. We went and hung out at Rachel’s place a cool set up of a punk rock wear-house converted to apartments, practice space, and venue. When it was closer to time for Kate’s flight I rode the BART with her into the city to the air port. We had dinner and hung out while we waited for her flight.

It was sow awesome to see her and to have her here. She was a much needed distraction and mini vacation from the job hunt. I miss her and hope she decides to move here. That would be supper rad!