Jake’s Life

Sandro and I finished moving on Sunday to our new place. It feels great to be out of the old one and here with each other. We made a last minute switch in new apartments from the 2BR to a 1BR down the street, and we’re so much happier with it. The apartment we moved into is less than two years old, everything is new, we’re on the 3rd floor (which makes it easier to be a day sleeper), and we find things everyday why we love the place even more.

On moving day Sandro’s parents decided that we have a moving truck and can get their new 63” TV from the store for them. By the time we got it to their place and to the floor it was to be on, we got their 52” TV for our new place!

Here’s Sandro on move-in day…we still have a few things on the shopping list…

Our bath tub, which I can actually fit in!

We have pretty high ceilings, so here’s something short to give you an idea how high they are.

Our fireplace.

Closet.

Kitty found an issue…the ledges are skinny…

It’s getting to freezing temperatures around here at night now, which means turtleneck time!

Busy lately…Sandro and I are moving into our own place at the end of the month! That’s about the most exciting piece of news I have at the time. We’re moving into a nice 2BR, 2BA on December 1st that’s not too far away from where I live now. It’s within a few blocks from both his work and school, and now that I have a take-home patrol car it won’t make much difference in gas price for me.

Speaking of my take-home patrol car, it’s so nice to be able to go straight from your driveway to the area you work in without always having to go to one place first. It’s also nice knowing that when you start your shift you won’t be sharing a car with someone else when you’re off, which saves a lot of time and affords a lot of little things that make it worthwhile: I have my iPod mounted on the console which is a huge thing for me. Music makes work go by so much quicker.

I’ve got some plans for it, mainly kitting up the lights a bit more with grille lights and getting a TA for the back deck (which it why I left a few bays on the console open to accommodate the control pack).

Here is the model of light bar I currently have on my car.

When I check my invoices and see this, it makes me feel good.

Sandro and I got on the waiting list for an apartment where I currently live. When we were walking to the office to give them deposit checks to hold it really kicked in that we are actually doing this. When we were looking at the model unit and planning where to put things, and writing the checks out, it really made me excited. We are a few months short of two years together now, and even with earlier…complications…this is going to be really good for us.

It’s not often that I go without a blog entry for this long, but the time has flown!

My full time job is working on piling a management position on me. We’re at seven times it’s been offered and turned down, so I have finally decided to give them the “I’ll think about it,” answer. I really am thinking about it, but not sure where I stand on it with where the current climate at work is.

My freelancing is going good. I’m still working on a few bigger projects, with a few others waiting in the wings right now. Dealing with clients has had its ups and downs, and partially reminds me why I stopped freelancing web design a few years ago. Overall it’s manageable and things are going good.

Sandro and I’s plans to move in are still moving along as well. We’re looking at places and have narrowed it down to a few places, one being the apartments I live in currently.

Sorry about not blogging in a while! Things have been definitely hectic. I had to fill some larger boots at work for a few weeks with my supervisor being gone, and picked up some overtime shifts in the process. The new 4/4 shifts are going great so far, but I am concerned over Sandro for my shift rotation on weekdays off. He insists he’ll be fine with it and we’re working out a system where he’ll still spend the night at my house during the week when I’m off. Mostly he’s happy that dinner will be made, his laundry will be done, and everything else will be taken care of while he’s at work and school.

Now that we’re on the topic of domestication, we’re officially looking for a place together. We’re both saving up and remotely checking apartments out. I’m on the lease here until next Summer so when we decide it’s time I’ll have to find someone to take the lease over, but if worse comes to worse he can cover the new place for a month or two while I do that.

In saving money I decided to get back into some freelance web design gigs. Within the last week I’ve set up three different gigs totaling $2500. One I am 95% percent done with and the only thing left to do is hand over the files, but I worked too quickly on it and am still waiting for the deposit check. The other begins in a few days, and the third client I am meeting with next weekend (my ex introduced us). Also, if any readers out there are interested in web design work definitely let me know and I’ll give you a good price. My largest contract, bid at $4000 by another freelance designer in the area, I signed her for $1500. I’m trying to keep the mind set of charging what the work is worth, not how much I think I can get for it. Oh, and if you hook me up with someone who needs a web site I’ll give you 10% of the total cost on it as a commission.

The other night Sandro and I went to see Eartha Kitt live at a jazz club in downtown. We got down there early to avoid the Saturday night pilgrimage to downtown and got parking. We stopped by Gameworks and played some video games, grabbed a beer at their bar, then walked to get our tickets. We had reservations and it was still another hour to go, so we went to the Westin and grabbed a drink at their bar before heading back over to the jazz club and stood in line. I was not a fan of hers and was going mainly for Sandro, but I have to say she put on a hell of a show. We sat at the first table in the very front center of the stage.

I’ll try to keep you guys updated more often! I have plenty of pics on my Blackberry that I still need to post too.

“I already knew one of your cars was totaled by a hit and run last night…who do you think was driving?!”

“I don’t give a fuck! Dat badge make you a tahget to me! We handle this next tahm ‘cuz I’m comin’ back! You see mah record from Cali?! I don’t have no pro’lim hittin’ one o’ y’all!”

“I miss laying next to you. I love falling asleep while you’re playing on your laptop and picking on me every other minute…”

“On the long arm of the law, we’re the middle finger.”

The cute Russian boy gets ready to wash my car at work.

 
The clean car.

Sandro and I were really excited about going to the annual Washington Beer Lover’s festival today, but once we got there they ran out of parking. There was also at least a two mile line of cars waiting to get in the other direction. We scrapped the idea and went to the Taphouse instead, then went to see The Happening. It wasn’t all that great.

Me. I know, not very spectacular. 

Things have been going lately, definitely a lot differently than I thought. I’m not going to go into it very much but the break up was reversed. I’m not going to post to the entire world the details I know, but thank you to those who have expressed concern over the situation and listened to what I’ve had to say about what’s going on inside.  

On a different, yet similar note, I’m almost completely broke. The large contract job for the RMS I was working on is waiting for some other things to happen, and in the meantime it’s at an almost complete standstill. I am looking ot pick up other remote web work, so if you happen to know of any “odd jobs” or site redesigns that are needed, pass my information along.  

Wow it’s been busy lately. Life has been good, but there hasn’t been much time for it to be anything else. Sandro is still doing the school and work thing so it’s hard to spend the amount of time that I want to with him, and not living together makes it even more difficult to see him. We’re okay though because he understands my schedule working nights, and I know where he’s coming from working and going to school (it’s only been six months or so since I was doing the same thing). Blogging has obviously been lacking lately, and I apologize for it, but once things slow down it will happen more

Work is busy. Busy busy busy. The new RMS that I’m working on is going great to say the least, and I’m looking forward to its deployment (and payment from it!). I started this job with equal pay to my last and a lot less responsibility when it comes to overall operations, and with the introduction of a new supervisor that changed a bit. I’m one of three people with the same rank, but I am the go-to guy. I don’t mind it, as with the more responsibility I have the more purpose I feel, so it works out in the long run.

Here’s some lil’ diddies for you guys.