I feel like a lot of my blog posts of late… or perhaps not of late at all because I haven't written in ages… have started out with an appology to my readers for being so slack in my postings. And well, this one is no different. Sometimes you need to write to get things off your mind, some times you write so you don't forget, some times you write to entertain, and… well, some times you don't write because you don't want to remember, you don't write because you'd rather forget and well, instead of entertaining... you're so busy keeping your head above water long enough to get air, who has time to write?
I can say that my absence in "internet blog land" has been two fold. First of all, I went through a nasty little unexpected relationship change with my partner of three years, which made anything I wrote, have an especially emo and bitter tone. Personally, I didn't want to hark on old things and nor really did I want to relive experiences more than I needed to, so I just didn't write. Namely, I just wanted to be able to pick up and move on with my life without skipping too much of a beat. Granted, I know one needs to allow oneself to heal and grieve… and I did, but I kinda wanted to hole myself up in a cave for a bit and share my emotions in person with close friends instead of proclaiming on the internet for everyone. Secondly, I got super super busy with work-work. And when I say work-work… I pretty much mean "freelance graphic design gigs". Whereas prior I was able to sit down of an evening a write a blog post, my evenings were suddenly dedicated to pushing out round after round of logo or poster revisions. On top of that, I was keeping myself busy with things to keep my mind off of a broken relationship, so pretty much any evening that wasn't dictated a "freelance night", I was out having much needed laughs with friends.
But then you know what? Time passed, I moved on. I put the past behind me, I closed the book which I had been busy writing till the pages had been torn out before I could get to them; and thusly, I decided to start a new story. I took a leap and called up a new friend I had met and before I knew it, I found myself driving down to Central Oregon to spend weekends with 'said person' or enjoying 'said persons' company when she came up to Portland to visit me. And then, embracing change in my life… I applied for a new job that a friend had told me about. One for a local high end handmade bike company that, if achieved, would mesh my talents of design, photography, writing, spending time on the internet and bikes! And needless to say, the application/interview process for that new job was very taxing and very very very labor intensive. Each round was like an episode of Project Runway, they give you an assignment… you squeeze it out under a tight dealing in the nick of time, some people are eliminated and then it's off to the next challenge. Then on top of that, add a few weekends spent snowboarding, weekends spent riding my bike, one amazing weekend down in Yosemite and many many weekends doing absolutely nothing but sleeping in, eating breakfast at 2pm and snuggling-up while the snow outside piled up by the window panes, and well…. long story short, that's what I've been up to.
So, to follow up:
My new girlfriend's name is Carina and we met Labor Day Weekend at a Brandi Carlile and Ray Lamontange show down in Bend, OR. The second week we were dating, I asked her if she'd like to go see another Brandi Carlile concert with me, six months away in May, And well, we'll pretty much be celebrating six months with Brandi playing the Portland Symphony Orchestra right around the corner. By the way, Carina is a wildlife biologist for the Forest Service. She spends her days counting birds, riding snow mobiles, and in the summer… having fire watch tower duty and helping fight forest fires. That's pretty hot huh? :)
As well, just last month I wrapped up operations at the graphic design job I've held since I moved to Portland, and then quickly set up shop with the fine folks at Vanilla Bicycles! AKA, I GOT THE JOB!!!! WOOO! Oh, and if you're not familiar with Vanilla… you should try googling them. There are a few good articles and photos on the web. If you do nothing else, at least look at this photo.) I'll be their Front End Manager and handling not only all the customer service, but also all of the graphic design work for bikes, kits, etc. and keeping up the blog. Needless to say, I'm pretty stoked.
Also of note… I've recently wrapped up design work on a some laser cut steel inlays, that will be set into a bridge that is currently being constructed in Roseberg Oregon at the National Cemetery there. I'm also finishing up work on a poster I'm designing for Interbike, which is the largest gathering of bike industry professionals in the US. And, a book I did illustrations for, was just published this month by Columbia University Press. I was pretty stoked about this project as it was for a good friend of mine, Nick Teich, and I'm excited to see it used as a textbook in Gender Studies classes across the nation. Let alone a good read for anyone who wants to know more information about Transgender topics. It's called Transgender 101… check it out.
So, needless to say…. sorry I haven't written in a while. My apologies.
And thanks as well for the kind notes I've received in my absence. Sometimes I need a swift kick in the pants. :)
