I’ve been seeing someone new. I used to work with him at my first firm and he quit the week after I got there, but we’ve kept in touch. He’s an awesome designer, so I’ve learned a lot from him. We’re just having fun right now; I wouldn’t exactly call him my boyfriend just yet. He currently lives in Chino Hills, which is about an 45 minutes away from me but he’s going to be moving to Newport Beach next week so he’ll be closer. The drive to Chino Hills isn’t that bad though – it’s much easier than my drive to and from San Diego when I was with Joe, and a hell of a lot closer than Okinawa. Newport Beach is around the corner from me.

Anyway, I got a haircut and I also went red again. I sort of wish it was redder, but my stylist said I should go a little more conservative since I have to be a professional and the cut is already sort of dramatic. Conveniently, the salon is located next door to us in the same little plaza that my work is in. I also got some clip-in extensions in case I ever go anywhere nice and want to have long hair. Here are some pics:

view more photos of my hair in my album!

I look so different with long hair. I mean, my hair was long before, but I got 22″ extensions and they’re like movie-star perfect. I like my hair short though, its so much easier to maintain. Most days I can just wake up, scrunch, and go.

Work has been great; I’m building out the Cornzapoppin site, and it’s looking good so far. I’m excited to be wrapping that project up finally.

I’ll be hanging out with Agiri and Toya today, so hopefully Agiri or I will have some pictures to share later.

And took pictures at 2AM.

So I thought, “What better place to camwhore than 2AMfix!?!? Right!?!?! RIGHT!!!”

So basically, click (for huge ass pictures ;X)

Cornzapoppin is one of the clients at the firm i work at; they sell gourmet popcorn. I’m designing a website and some packaging ideas and identity branding for them. We needed product photos for the website, so they scheduled time with our photographer. I ended up art directing the entire frigging thing all day because they kept asking for me. so for the entire day I was pouring chocolate and caramel syrup from a bottle, strategically placing caramel morsels and other yummy props like strawberries and cherries on plates, and shaving chocolate. everything you see below was hand crafted by yours truly. I’m a big fan of presentation. I could be a gourmet chef! Goodbye webdesign, Hello Martha Stuart! I even went behind the camera and set the angles myself…

These are all raw; pretty much directly saved from the cr2 files that the photographer gave me after the shoot. i havent cropped anything yet or messed with the color. We took 308 photos in total. My feet hurt so much from standing all day.

Now before we get into this, let me just say that I just found out her dog died last night. She had two dogs, a small pomeranian named Wolfgang that would play with my shih tzu everytime I brought him over, and a really really big dalmation named Sebastian. Well everytime I brought Koko over, she’d have to put Sebastian outside because she said that he’s bitten smaller dogs before and didn’t trust him to play nice with Koko. Well Sebastian died last night and he spent his last day on Earth locked outside of the house. Well, she left the bedroom door open, which leads to her backyard so he would walk in and out. But still, I feel really horrible. He died of a stroke at 3AM.

So, back on subject here… we talked yesterday about my salary and benefits. Basically I would just be working for her on commission until the company builds a strong clientèle and she can afford to pay me fulltime. But all of her clients would goto me, and as far as I can tell she has been keeping herself pretty busy. So I would definitely still be getting a strong income coming my way until I sign on as a fulltime designer. And I would be working with other designers under me.

She is going to set her business plan to include $1000 a week for me. That’s $25 an hour, which is $50k a year. That doesnt include the %75 commission I would still get after a project closes, which would be like my project bonus (If I’d done the majority of the work).

I am really excited about this. I haven’t been working fulltime since I quit my job at myGenopedia, and have been dying for a steady income. I miss depending on a paycheck every two weeks.

Now, my other new venture (since it is plural in the entry title) is that I’m finally thinking of moving out. I’ve been looking into some really nice live/work lofts in Orange County. If you don’t know what a live/work loft is, it’s when half of the loft is like an office area, where I could meet clients and whatnot, and then the other half is my living area. Usually upstairs would be my living area.

Here are some pictures of the lofts I’m looking at, both in the Santiago Street Lofts in Santa Ana.

Edit://
I figured out the perfect solution. Pam is looking for a place to meet clients and whatnot. Since I’m looking for live/work lofts, maybe we can find one together and split the rent. Then she and her business partner could meet clients downstairs in the commercial area as long as they called me first. I’m pretty sure they’d be working primarily from home. This could work!

Well I added a new poll, so be sure to take it!