I’m moving into an apartment in Quincy, in a complex that my parents’ friends own. They’re giving me a great deal on a 3br or 2br apartment. I’ll probably be looking for some roommates after I get there. I fly out next Sunday (3/7) and arrive Monday morning, and I’m sending my car – along with all my tv, clothes, and whatever else I can fit in my tC – on Friday so that it’ll arrive by the time I get to Boston.

I’m gonna miss the friends and colleagues I’ve met here in soCal, and I hope I can come visit often… it’s definitely going to be a tough transition, but I’m still so excited to be coming back to Boston. I really feel like Massachusetts has always been my home – I grew up there, and I miss it every day. Everyone keeps asking me why I’d possibly want to move from sunny California to the frozen tundra that is New England, but I guess I just can’t stay away for too long.

Now I really hope I can get over this cold so I can work hard for my last week and a half at GoldenComm and wont have to take any days off…

I just want to know who the designer is that decided to use this font. Actually, I want to know who the Art Director is. Who approved this font?! PAPYRUS?! REALLY?

In case some of you are asking yourself why I’m freaking out over this horrible font choice, I’ll let you in on why this is such an atrocity to me. Ever hear of a cute little font called Comic Sans? Yeah. You’re probably recalling the number of times you used this font in school – I remember a classmate of mine using it on a Biology report once. Well at some point, someone petitioned to put a stop to the inappropriate usage of this font, and with good reason. People were using the font for everything, including some of the most serious topics. Papyrus is the new Comic Sans. No graphic designer likes to be told to use either of these fonts – and somehow it’s a request we get from many many clients and even people that we work with (like pm’s or sales people). I remember doing a website for a law firm a few years ago and I went with Century Schoolbook for the main font. I got an email back from the client asking me to use Papyrus because it was his wife’s favorite font. Now every time I see either Papyrus or Comic Sans anywhere, I die a little inside.

There’s something about me that I think most people who know me are aware of. There’s little that I wouldn’t do for someone I care about – Even the most casual of friends. And I come to care for people very easily; even if I’ve only known them for as little as a month. And there are a lot of people who take advantage of that quality in me without even realizing they’ve done it. I tell myself that I can’t blame them; but in reality, I should.

Anyway, I’ve been with my company for over a year now. That just seems crazy to me – it’s the longest I’ve ever held a job. I know I complain a lot about the way things are run there but I love my company and the people I work with (Well, most of them anyway).

I think my time in Orange County is coming to an end. I’m planning to move to San Francisco this year or the next. My parents want to move to Texas, and my older sister might be settling down in San Francisco, so it’s time for me to relocate too. I don’t like the idea of being too far away from family, but I think my parents and I need some time apart. San Francisco seems like a good choice for me. There are some very good opportunities up there for someone with my skill-set. And I have some friends that are up there too. I’m really bad at making new friends, honestly. I’m the kind of person that you have to get to know in order to appreciate my sarcasm and attitude, I think. I’ve got to admit that I can be off-putting to the casual observer.

I got a new 17-inch Macbook Pro, courtesy of my sister and her fiance (mostly her fiance). I’m so grateful that I have people in my family that are always there for me. I’m paying them back overtime, but still, it was very generous of them to help me out. I’ll take pictures soon.

Well, that’s my update for now. Hopefully Anisha will blog sometime soon, but I doubt it =P.

I launched a site yesterday (woohoo!). And one of my legacy projects is finally going to be finished tomorrow. Hopefully I can keep the momentum up. We need to get rid of a few projects that have been going on for way too long. My newer projects seem to be going rather smoothly, so hopefully I can get those out fast too. Two of my newer clients are Johnny Was, a designer apparel company, and Star Trac, a huge fitness equiment manufacturer. Both companies are pretty huge, so it’s a little exciting to have my name on their sites.

My new year’s resolution this year is to be happy and not go on living life in self imposed misery. I feel like I spend too much time dwelling on the things that go wrong, when actually I have a lot going on for me lately. I need to just roll with the punches, honestly. My other resolution is to find someone who’s on equal ground with me and not live vicariously through them. I need to find someone that can take care of me but isn’t afraid to let me take care of them. Someone that I don’t have to support emotionally or even monetarily with nothing in return – and vise versa. I need to find someone to be with and still be able to stay true to myself. In my past relationships I’ve completely immersed myself in my partner’s life – I practically move in with them… their friends become my friends, as do their hobbies, and then by the end of it all, I have nothing for myself. So hopefully that changes this year.

And Urban Watch & Co, the project I’ve been most proud of has finally launched. There’s still a few problems I need to address on the site though, so for now we’ll call it a soft-launch. This site will be really nice if you are looking for a great Christmas gift for a loved one; it’s located at www.urbanwatchco.com. I really owe a lot to Stela for helping me launch this damned thing… we really work well as a team, I think. I did all the frontend development and graphics, and she did all the backend development. This is the site that I really unloaded my entire arsenal of skills on… I learned a lot of javascript, and I also learned a lot about aspdotnetstorefront and xml packages. This is the second site that I’ve done from start to finish with Golden State… sadly my first site is still waiting to launch. I did manage to launch another website, Kaikea Entertainment, a couple months ago – it was the last site that I started and the first that I launched. Hopefully I can get Cornzapoppin and StockNod out in the next two weeks, and then I can start from a flesh slate. I already have some great clients lined up for 2009, some of which are:

• Johnny Was, a really big fashion design brand.
• Blue Fang Games, a company that makes video games for PC.
• Jamie Fontz, an all-american model.

And now for some non-work related stuff:

I watched Twilight tonight… I’m curious to see if the books are any better, so I bought the first two volumes. Quite honestly, I didn’t really enjoy the movie that much although the story had lots of potential. The dialogue was almost unbearable to sit through… they completely overdid the awkwardness and stuttering between words, in my opinion. I understand that both the main characters are awkward, especially with each other, and that each conversation is supposed to be really intense, but I wish they could get through one sentence without sounding like they forgot that there’s an entire range of emotions that don’t include angst and discomfort. For heaven’s sake, they didn’t even sound as if they really liked each other. So I’m going to start reading the books and see If I like it any better than the movie.

Which brings me to my next topic… I’ve been trying to make more time for my own hobbies lately, especially after my recent break up with Rick. I’m in need of some serious “me” time; I mean, I haven’t been single in almost three years. This means more reading, more anime, and more designing at my own leisure. Let’s see how long this lasts.

And all his work is coding, so I don’t know how much time that leaves me to do any graphics, so it’s just going to be boring and stressful as hell, because I freaking hate coding.

Granted, I do understand why he quit, and this is probably going to help me get my raise in the long-run. I just don’t need this stress right now. </end rant>

In any case, I’m back on the horse now. I didn’t expect to be, but I hung out with a friend/ex-coworker of mine last night… we had some drinks and well, one thing led to another. We went to see Role Models, which is a really funny movie, and then to a bar. We wound up at a Courtyard Marriott around 2:30 AM, and then got breakfast at IHOP around 6:30 AM. I got home around 8:00 this morning. I don’t know where we go from here, but I’m going to see him again later today.

On the work front, I have been really busy lately. I’m always busy, but things are really starting to get down to the wire. Last Thursday I stayed at work until 11:30 because some lady came that night and wanted a bunch of work done by the next morning. It was freaking brutal. And all my other projects seem to be launching at the same time, so it’s a lot of work. I’m gonna be glad once I push those sites out though; then I can start from a clean slate. I’m starting to get into javascript these days. I always knew it, but I just never used it a lot because my focus was really just graphics and html/css. But lately, I’ve just been tired of waiting for the developers to do things for me when I can do it faster with javascript… or to be more accurate: jQuery.

Anyway, I need to get up and run some errands – one being that I have to go pick up my belongings from Rick’s place today. Fun. Then I think I’ll go get a manicure.

Work is good, I’m on salary now, and my benefits kick in September 1st, so I’m pretty stoked about that. I’ve been getting a lot of projects lately – actually, i’m super busy at the moment.

It’s 9:00 AM right now and I should already be out the door but I’m still in bed, half dressed, and feeling too lazy to get up and take a shower. I’ll probably get in the office around 11:00, but it’s all good. I usually stay pretty late anyway. This company is wicked cool about hours, so that’s a huge relief. I’ve never been an early bird. I think the only time I ever come in on time or early is when I’m at Rick’s. He usually gets up at 7:30 so that means I pretty much have to get up too. Since he’s five minutes from my office, I get in around 8:30, which is pretty early compared to everyone else.

Anyway, I thought I’d leave you guys with some eyecandy – these are some of the designs I’ve been working on lately:

Now, I work but it’s a regular 9-5 job, I get a steady paycheck, I’m happy with what I’m doing, I have a whole team to back me up, and I get to come home every day and shut my brain off. I found someone local that I care about, and don’t have to wait till 3:00 in the morning just to talk to him over skype. These days at 3:00 AM, I’m usually in bed with my lover, and I don’t need to keep my voice down for fear of waking my family. My very healthy sexual appetite can be sated without the use of batteries. My sorrows can be drowned in his shoulder, and not in the bottle of Patron stashed away under my bed.

I no longer feel like a burden to my parents – I pull my weight, and I handle my own affairs. I help my family out when I can, and I actually have real conversations with them because I’m not locked in my room all day with nothing to share because I’m not having any real experiences.

I’m not babysitting a bunch of socially retarded kids on the net, and I’m not wasting my time making myspace layouts for hordes of ungrateful brats. My work means something now, and my clients are filtered before they get to me. I don’t go through long periods of time wondering if I’ll become busy again, and therefore I don’t have to take the first client that comes through the pipe.

I guess what this post comes down to is… I’m happy. I’m fulfilled. Sure, there are days I want to rip my own trachea out because my clients drive me nuts, and my boyfriend can seriously act like the biggest dickhead in Orange County, but if I had to choose between this life and the life I was leading four months ago… the decision would be so easy.

My life right now rules.