We got an office!!!

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

I’ve dared to day dream of an office lately.

After 2 1/2 years plus of working out of my living room and running Artsy Geek via Skype and coffee shop meetings, I felt life was passing me by.

It wasn’t that I didn’t get out…I did.  But not as much as I wanted to.

It’s funny the strange packages answers to dreams come in.  I met with a potential client last week.  We instantly hit it off and she was telling me about how she needed to get an office space immediately.  I asked her what she was looking for in the office space.  When her words echoed my needs exactly, I ventured to mention my interest.

Not two days later she had found us an affordable office space with room to entertain clients and interns housed in one of the coolest art gallery / warehouse spaces I had ever visited on my Oakland Art Murmur wanderings.

Yesterday we sealed the deal. Warehouse 416 is the new home to both Artsy Geek and Sarahbek Images.

Should there be an earthquake, the landlord insists that we are safe despite the gorgeous brick exterior.
Sarah is chilling in our client area soon to be filled with tea and cookies.
An office with a balcony?? OK!
Outside our new home!
Someday soon I’ll have a desk area around here.
No shortage of inspiration working amongst this awesomeness!

The whole walk back to my home office, my head sang, “Let’s put a new coat of paint on this lonesome old office…”

Tom Waits Love Songs

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

I’ve been working on my mix tape of Tom Waits love songs this week.

I have the goal of finishing it by Valentine’s Day, which is a tall order given that I have been working on this mix for over three years.

I first mentioned it back in January 2008 as I bemoaned the lack of love in my life…

“Tom, I believe, is a man unlike the typical man, with a thorough respect and understanding of that incomprehensible mental state called love.” read the rest of the post

In the post I reference his song San Diego Serenade, but neglect to include it. It’s a great song.

This song is definitely making it onto the mix.

Do you have a favorite Tom Waits love song I should make sure to consider?

…never heard the melody, til I needed the song…

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

I’ve been home sick for five days straight.

This has given me plenty of time for mulling over my recent life decisions and resolutions, new plans and old promises.

I don’t know that I’ve gotten anywhere. If I am to believe my uplifting daily quotes, there is nowhere to go.

And I’d really like to believe that.

I’m making a mix tape of my favorite Tom Waits love songs. Tom, I believe, is a man unlike the typical man, with a thorough respect and understanding of that incomprehensible mental state called love. If only he were available for marriage, I dream.

These love songs, though! They used to be laced with wrenching memories of lost love. Now they echo within almost emptily, having lost a certain poignancy.

Maybe as a reaction to heartbreak, which I wrote about here, in the early years of this blog, I began a search for hilarity in the mundane. And I found it. You always find what you’re looking for, of course. And if you keep looking, you’ll find it again. I’ve found it again. And again and again.

I wonder, though, if I’d forgotten to keep an eye out, and a healthy respect for the heartbreak that is also so beautifully ubiquitous.

Or, rather, as a corollary, perhaps I’ve neglected the naively hopeful hope that is a necessary condition for true heartbreak.

Oooh, I’ve been heartbroken. In the two years of this blog, I was definitely heartbroken to learn that the domain name tupperwaresisters.com was against the rules. I was heartbroken to take my current job and not travel the world selling the EuroSteam. I was heartbroken late last year, but I won’t speak of that here.

When my sister got married this year, I couldn’t believe that she had shaken–or rejected–the healthy cynicism that is so becoming to a woman nowadays.

I wonder, sitting here today, gray as the skies are, if her skies might be blue.

It’s been a good year so far. It keeps getting better. It’s a year of finishing projects, and not beginning new ones. It’s a year for art museums and rekindling curiosities.

And, by god, it’s a year for falling in love.