Jason's Daily Notes

Oh man, I've dropped the ball and haven't blogged in almost a week.

I was in LA over the weekend - it was my mom's birthday. She, uncle Ben, and I went to the expensive fine dining restaurant Providence for a wonderful dinner on Friday night.

Saturday, I met Katie and her beach volleyball friends (including Kevin, and George from Greece) in Venice Beach, and we then went for a beer and burger at a nearby bar. I was happy to see her. I was also happy to see so many electric scooters (Birds and Limes) flying by everywhere. I then went home, then went out in WeHo with Samara. She drove me in her truck. We met Alex S then Will and I bumped into Max, whom I kissed briefly. We ended up at Flaming Saddles.

Sunday was brunch day at A&P's. I went for a run in the morning. I stopped by Super A and bought a bunch of ingredients, and  Priscilla helped me cook everything (she was my sous chef!). It was fun, but did take a while to cook. Michelle and Angela were there. (Kevin was staying at his friend's place; they were there in the morning to watch the World Cup final - France won!). Karen and Danny were there too, but Danny had to leave early. Chris D was also there but he left without eating. Jose was there with his little brother (who was also wearing USA swimming trunks). We then went to the pool and hung out and drank; good times! I left around 6pm, because Juan and Alex H were bugging me to come to WeHo. So I drove over and met them at Revolver. With them were Alex R and James T. Along with two other friends (forgot their names). Everyone was so happy to see me and telling me how good of a friend I am. Made me feel good but slightly uncomfortable. Got home around 10:30pm, stopping by Tommy's along the way.

Monday morning, my flight was at 8:20 so Uncle Ben and my mom drove me to BUR at 7am. It was a normal, non-eventful flight, landed 5 minutes early. I took a Lyft that got me to Emeryville at 10 sharp (but I decided to stop by Starbucks so I didn't actually walk in until 10:10). What a busy day. So much to do/figure out with Amazon. La-Z-Boy acquired Joybird. Filling in the daily/weekly spend metrics. I was exhausted by the end of the day, riding my GoBike to W Oakland. I put on some eps of The Americans (given the news of Trump meeting Putin today, it seemed oddly relevant). Sam came to hang out and chat - he got the job offer to Chicago and is now negotiating the salary of the offer. Alex hung for a bit too but slept early.

Today, I went for a run (I'm slightly behind on my goal of hitting 62km this month). Got to work around 9:45. Another busy day, weekly marketing meeting. I didn't even eat lunch. It's Prime Day but I'm too busy to be in a shopping mood. Thankfully I'm not letting the business make me stressy. I'm staying calm and keeping the perspective that work is work, I'll be fine regardless.

I donated to Ate Christina's birthday fundraiser for RAICES. I have missed several days of donating and will need to catch up.

DONE. Now, it's 6pm again and I'm still in the office with Jojo. Time to go home!

Today was an important day at work: We raised our prices, and we released our new product, the Ottoman. We went out to lunch, driving to the Emeryville Public Market (which is the place where, the more I think about it, I'm sure that I went on my random "creepy stalker" adventure with Joan back in 2008). David drove me, Johannes, and Oliver.

Oh man, I hope I don't get burned out from work. It' just a lot for me to be so on top of everything all the time. Thankfully, I'm enjoying the challenge. But what about when my energy dwindles? Perhaps this is why I'm challenging myself to be more self-disciplined with my monthly resolutions.

I'm staying late because I simply haven't gotten to all the work that needs to be done. Facebook ad tests, checking Amazon shipment notifications, and uploading new Pinterest promoted pins have taken up my last 3 hours. And I'm just about finished now (6:35pm).

Anyway, tomorrow evening I'll fly to LA and will be going to an expensive dinner on Friday with my mom and uncle. I called my mom; she's at Pechanga right now with Tita Irene and Tita Aida (and Uncle Ben who has just learned to enjoy playing bingo!). I'm happy that's she's happy. I really hope that she is healthy.

Donated to Asian Americans Advancing Justice (go Leslie!)

I'm not sure if I'll go out for dinner tonight or just eat what I have left in the fridge (i.e. burgers).

It's another warm day in Emeryville.

I was too sore and tired to go for a run this morning. However, I did walk to the UPS store and submit my Amazon return. I then rode a GoBike to Valencia/24th where I walked to the BART station. There was a Lime scooter available at West Oakland, so I rode that to the office.

Work is busy; I'm trying not to be so emotional and dramatic, especially when taking criticism. It's not the end of the world, in fact, it's no big deal. It's just work. There will always be more work. I have no reason to ever stress.

For lunch, I hopped on the Emery-Go-Round to the Public Market, where I had Indian food.

Donated to the Drug Policy Alliance today.

I'm flying to LA on Thursday after work. I just realized how close that is.

I need to go shopping for several things:

• Running shoes
• Button down shirt
• Underwear
• Color T-Shirts
• Contact lens solution
• Hand soap
• Hair gel/conditioner

Ugh, I'm so tired at work. It's 6:45pm on a Monday and I'm still here preparing the slides for tomorrow's monthly lookback. I should just go home.

I don't have time to fully blog. I'm sore today, likely from kickball and running so far this month.

Kickball was fun yesterday; we played Stormy Jack Daniels but lost. It was a close game. But we only had 8 people, the bare minimum. I'm bonding with my team, especially Jake, CJ, John, and Jorge. Emily joined us at The Edge and Toad Hall. It was a bit awkward in the evening, as I saw my "ex" Craig and ignored him. He sent me an angry text.

Saturday was cool; went to Ben's for a bbq. Henry was there, as was Victor (whom I met on Thursday at Midnight Sun) and Victor's husband Nolan. Becca came with her friend Trang. And we talked about sex and laughed. There were also two others: Tyler and Chaz (I think) who seemed like stylish, social gays who would go to Burning Man.

It's warm today, but I'm glad I wasn't in LA - the temperatures in SoCal were close to 110F.

Ok this is enough; time for me to go home. CIAO

I'm back on blogging after my little break - I went to Guerneville with Ben for the 4th of July.

We drove up to Petaluma Tuesday after work. I rented a small Scion via Turo. I picked up Ben in Castro, then we stopped by his apartment and an In-N-Out in Marin County on our way to Petaluma. We had just booked the hotel the day of. Tired, we went to bed almost immediately (while watching an old episode of The Office).

The next day (Wednesday) was a busy day. We got up early-ish, went for a run around Petaluma, then drove to Guerneville, arriving around 10:30am. It was too early to check in to our hotel/resort (Applewood), so we walked into town, bought breakfast (to-go because it was faster). Then we walked all the way (2+ miles) to Armstrong Redwood Park. We wandered into the park and hiked some trails. Found our cool little private spot atop a ridge where we chilled.

Walked all the way back to the resort, and we rested for a bit. My head was spinning a bit. But Juan and Alex were in town (along with Kevin and Max). So I simply had to see them. Ben stayed at the hotel and read a book by the pool. I put on my swimsuit and walked the 15 minutes to the R3 gay resort. It was packed, and Juan and Alex were drunk messes. I loved it.

We wandered through Guerneville (Alex was frantically looking for his phone, which I was confident that Kevin and Max were taking care of) and ended up getting pizza. It was fun; Ben came and joined us. We then walked to the Rainbow Cattle Ranch bar, where we had a drink to finish off the night. It was relatively crowded, but it's a small town so it's obvious that most people there had come up from San Francisco (Castro specifically).

Yesterday, Ben and I woke up and decided to work remotely, taking our time to come back to SF. We enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel (prepared by the wonderful Sandy), worked from our laptops a bit and then began the drive. Stopped in Sebastopol because I needed to take a work call. Then drove back to SF. It was a sunnier and warmer day than Wednesday; it was glorious driving over the Golden Gate.

I had another phone call at home, then I returned the car (just parking it on the street). Then I BARTed to Oakland, where I met CJ. We had drinks at Plank than went to watch Jurassic Park. It was nice, but I had the feeling that it might have been a date (?). However, by the end of the night we were clearly just friends. Walked back to 12th street BART and I went home. Even though it was Thursday, I put the trash bins out on the curb (our trash hadn't been taken out for 2 weeks and our apartment was stinking of salmon that Alex had cooked). Exhausted, it felt good to finally sleep.

Today, back to work. There was a lot to do (because I missed so much yesterday). And I went to lunch with Alex and Juan (who were driving on their way back to LA from Napa). We ate at Cheeseboard and they tried to convince me to stay with them in Lake Arrowhead. Maybe I will?

Donated to the Bay Area Rescue Mission, the After School All Stars program, and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. (Whew, I fell a couple days behind, but I'm catching up now!)

ok I'm the last one at the office - time to bike home and finish my leftovers.

I'm writing this at work before I go, because Ben and I decided to go to Guerneville! Looks like it'll just be the two of us. I'm renting a car tonight from Turo (my first time using it) and we are driving up together. We'll see if he gets some substances for us.

I may drive to work on Thursday with the car.

Called mom; it's her "official" birthday today. She's getting a bit annoyed living with Uncle Ben already.

I was able to run this morning, and rode the bikeshare to work.

Work is pretty busy, had our weekly Marketing Meeting. I've got a lot of calls to schedule (agency research). Lots of research to conduct too.

I donated to the Los Angeles Mission.

Gotta go on my lil vacation!

Day 2 of my month of blogging (and running, and bike sharing, and donating). It's already 11:20pm and I'm tempted to just go to sleep without blogging. But no! I won't be defeated.

Today was a productive day. I woke up early (6:45am) largely because I went to bed early the night before. It was foggy and chilly - and there was still some haze in the air from the fires burning to the north of the Bay Area. I went for a run (2.5km) and headed off to work. I was able to take a Fremont bound train (almost empty!) and got off BART at West Oakland, where I took the bike share. It was a pleasant bike ride, but the bike is heavier than an average bike, so I couldn't go as fast as the other bikers.

Work itself was hectic - it was our first day since Licia's sudden departure. We came to terms as a team and understood what needed to be done - we needed to collectively pick up the slack that she left. We spent an hour assembling swatch orders. I actually felt a renewed sense of commitment to the team. An sd I think the others felt similarly. We all went for lunch together at Monster Pho 2. The afternoon flew by. It was a productive day altogether.

CJ texted me, asking when I'd like to go to the movies with him. We scheduled Thursday. Maybe he's trying to forge a connection to be more than just friends? He did admit to "not knowing how to be single." We'll see.

Still not sure what will happen on the 4th (Wednesday). Ben started a group text, but it looks like Henry and the other guy don't want to go. So it may just be me and Ben?

This evening at home, I cooked a big pot of lentils (which I ate over hamburger buns), and I watched an episode of Westworld and an episode of Big Little Lies. Donated to UNESCO. Chatted briefly with Francesco when he arrived back with Evelyn.

It's a new month and I'm continuing with my "monthly resolutions." This month, I'm being ambitious and attempting several things at the same time. Let's see which, if any, stick:

1. Running 2km per day (up from 1km/day in June)
2. Responding to everyone who messages me on a dating app (even if I'm not interested)
3. Donating to charity every day
4. Blogging once per day
5. Biking instead of riding the Emery Go Round to work (I got a monthly pass from Ford GoBike)
6. Staying off Instagram (temporarily disabled my account)
• Also reducing my time on Facebook; removed the FB app from my phone