Almost time

Well, it's roughly one week until I move for the 20th time in my life. Here's a simple breakdown of where I've lived (and in what order):

1- Green Lake, WA (Seattle): East Green Lake Dr.
2- Lynwood, WA (Seattle): 67th Ave. West
3- Coeur d'Alene, ID: E. E. Sunnyside Rd.
4- Coeur d'Alene, ID: N. 7th Street
5- Coeur d'Alene, ID: N. 6th Street
6- Junction City, OR: Prairie Rd.
7- Corvallis, OR: 25th Street
9- Corvallis, OR: 26th Street
10- Eugene, OR: High Street
11- Coeur d'Alene, ID: E. Sunnyside Rd.
12- Coeur d'Alene, ID: 13th Street
13-Coeur d'Alene, ID: Wedgewood Loop
14- Coeur d'Alene, ID: E. Sunnyside Rd.
15- Junction City, OR: Hattie Ave.
16- Eugene, OR: 17th Street
17- Eugene, OR: Broadway Ave
18: Eugene, OR: Austin Way
19: Coeur d'Alene, ID: Hattie Ave
20: Coeur d'Alene, ID: E. Sunnyside Rd.

And starting July 13th, my new home will be here:

21: Portland, OR: Barnes Rd.



View Larger Map


Whew! At first I thought I had only lived in about 10 separate houses, but I'm blown away at the fact that I've lived in 20 different places! (Well, 16 actual houses, since I moved into my Grandparent's place in Cd'A a few times...). And the weird thing is I can name the address for almost every one of those residences!

It's bittersweet, to say the least. Moving away from Coeur d'Alene, that is. I've always considered this my home; no matter where I lived at the time, I told people, "I live in (BLANK), but I'm from Coeur d'Alene," -- even though I was born and raised in Seattle until I was nine. Nevertheless, I expected to spend my entire life in North Idaho: get married, pump out some Jakelings and coach Coeur d'Alene Little League until I was 90.

That all changed a few years ago when I started dating the woman I knew I would marry from Day 1. Hell, we joked about getting married all the way back in high school, so you could say I expected good things when I started dating one of my best friends. Thus, for the past three years I knew my life-long dream of a Coeur d'Alene existence was in jeopardy -- especially when I moved to Eugene, OR, to be with her.

But, Holly actually surprised me when she moved to Cd'A with me. I knew it wouldn't last, but she did give it a solid eight months before headed back to hippy land (i.e. Oregon). And so, once more, I'm moving to Oregon to be with her. This time, though, I know there's no coming back.

And I have no problem with that.

You see, I finally realized that I can have the greatest life ever as long as she's with me, and Coeur d'Alene is a place we can still come visit. In fact, after moving to Oregon early July, I'll be returning to North Idaho at least 4-5 times before January. So a life in Portland (the biggest city in a state I've boisterously denounced for years) looks to be the greatest accomplishment of my life. I'll be starting a family with my best friend (wedding is sometime in early 2010, more details on that later) and I'm actually looking forward to living in a big city again.

So, while Coeur d'Alene will always be where I'm from, Portland looks to reign on top from here. And I've never been more excited about anything in my life.

Broke my Blackberry

It only took seven months, but I finally broke the screen on my Blackberry Storm. We were playing volleyball during Todd’s bachelor party at Curly’s Saturday night, and guess who dives cross-court only to land on my phone-filled pocket.

I do take solace, however, in the fact that my team won both games and thus two rounds of beer were purchased for us by the losers.

Although I am left to wonder if recent comments made by myself were indeed the cause for said incident. Up until now I have been definitely considering switching to an iPhone, but now I may be scared to switch to any touch-screen device – I’m not exactly surefooted and I’m surprised my BB actually made it seven months!

Dogs love trucks part 2

Dogs love trucks

I'm pretty sure there are no greater dogs than a purebred golden retriever. Mally and Bruno (mut in back) rallied with Gene and I over to Todd's bachelor party tonight. Perhaps these dirty dogs in a pickup are foreshadowing tonight's shenanigans... Game on, baby

Blogging from my Blackberry

Woo hoo! I just learned how to post from my Blackberry Storm. I took this photo a while back of a duck that hangs around the Boardwalk.
Now - coupled with my phone - I can be a blogging machine!

The Passing of a Legend: Ode to Yota

It was with a heavy heart last week that I let my cherished chariot go. Yota, my 1982 Toyota Corolla Wagon, hadn’t been driven for nearly 2 years since we parted ways when I moved to the land of hippies in ‘07.

Once there, I felt dirty, like a cheating, jilted lover, when I settled into my newly purchased ‘99 Buick Regal from Eugene, Ore. But I never forgot Yota, with her custom rust-spots and broken door handle, even whilst sinking into my newer full-sized, all-leather sedan that boasted a never-broken heating and cooling system and an in-tact muffler.

So now, as I look to gain another new vehicle when I move to Oregon again (Jeep Cherokee, this time), I remember the old Toyota, my first car:

There was the time I put snow tires on it, yet still skidded off the road and into the fire hydrant below:

Aside from a broken fog lamp, dented bumper and broken blinker cover, she powered on.

The next summer, in a fit of stupidity, Ben and I decided to drive around the hills behind my grandparent’s property late at night, unknowingly getting the car high-centered on a mound of dirt (that was definitely not on any road). A 4-mile hike back home, Ben said just three words to me over and over: “I hate you.” At least he didn’t denounce our ride.

The next week, Yota’s clutch went out. Fearing the worst – a massive bill to fix an old car – I was amazed when my grandpa repaired the injured car for a mere $17 by himself. Alas, I rode again!

Then in the fall, as Elk season reared its ugly head, I was convinced to bring my automobile baby to hunting camp. She made a fine woodsy vehicle, crawling up Mt. Fernan with a fervor reminiscent of a pack mule. It was on the trip back, however, that Yota’s true colors could be seen:

She may have dawned the head of a dead elk that month, but she would fail when trying to mount that same peak in the winter for deer season – halfway up the snow-covered hill, we high-centered once more; escape was easy this time, as I cleared the snow/ice away and we drove backward down the icy hill.

In the late winter, her driver’s side door handle simply fell off. From that moment forward, I was required to climb through the passenger’s side door to enter my car. Once in place, the windshield would need to be scraped free of ice – from the inside, as the heater/defroster was broken.

That spring I moved, and Yota would find her final resting place next to the old barn:

Two years later, we say goodbye to the greatest Toyota that Jake Donahue ever drove. She rallied hard to get toward 267,000 miles, the most difficult under my foot, undoubtedly.
We will miss Yoda incredibly; rest in peace (or pieces), good buddy!

Poker Run Brochure

I'm designing a 4-panel brochure for my boss to give to the Sales department at the Coeur d'Alene Resort that will showcase our Poker Run. This is what I have so far, what do you think??

Hot Dog Haiku

Here's a little ditty I penned in my mind whilst devouring these amazing treats from Gittel's Grocery ("The Biggest Little Store in Town")

My mouth salivates
Three for a buck thirty-nine
Hot dogs are pure bliss

Rest In Piece

Before I chalk up "Ode to My Car" later today or tomorrow, here is a sneak peek at the car I just sold for $50, my old 11982 Toyota Corolla Wagon.

My Newest Endeavor: COLDPLAY

My amazing fiancée Holly surprised me a while back with awesome news: She bought us tickets to go see one of my favorite bands in Portland on July 10, Coldplay. As if that weren’t enough, she even pointed out that a local radio station in Portland was having a t-shirt design contest for Coldplay. (To see the full details of the contest, go to the 94.7 Alternative Portland radio page here).
Needless to say, I am stoked.
If there are two things I love in life, it’s Graphic Design and Coldplay. So, when the two go hand-in-hand, I’m like a kid in a candy store. What’s more, I’ve only been to two other concerts in my life.
That’s correct, just two concerts: I won tickets to The Killers in Spokane a few years ago and last summer I saw Jack Johnson with Holly’s family.
So, even though it’s one of my favorite bands, I’m just excited to see another concert. After The Killers, I hated music venues – I got kicked in the head so many times by crowd surfers only because my date drug us to the front row. But surfer boy Jack Johnson changed all that. I didn’t know how amazing The Gorge Amphitheater was until last summer.
Although we already have tickets to the concert, if I win this design contest we could watch from the side of the stage. Even though I’m somewhat of a concert rookie, I can’t imagine that the side of the stage is a bad place to observe from!

My New Website

I finally made some major headway on my new online portfolio. Above is a screenshot of the opening page I designed from a template found at Wix.com.
Right now, jakedonahue.com is simply another Blogspot blog housing my resume and newspaper designs. However, once I finish my new site it will take you there.
(To view the site before it goes live, click here).
Although I have recently started to learn Flash to build websites, my current computer cannot handle the application. So, until I upgrade my hardware to run my software, I’m stuck using an online Flash template service (alas, meet Wix). Needless to say, I can’t wait to build websites like this by myself. But this template will have to suffice for now.
Anyway, I’m still constructing much of the site: I haven’t uploaded my Resume or awards yet, much less any of my writing. But I would appreciate comments & suggestions while I work on it.
Here is another screenshot of the first page in my “Newspapers” Portfolio section:

Moving to Oregon

It’s official, I’m moving back to the Beaver State in roughly three weeks, July 7 or 8, to be exact. I even put in my notice at The Boardwalk Marina the other day, telling my boss that July 4th would be my last day. I wanted to take the 4th off, as I’ve had to work every Independence Day when living in Coeur d’Alene since 2003, but I couldn’t pass on the biggest tips of the season. At least I don’t close this year, so I’ll be able to watch one of the country’s greatest fireworks displays from somewhere other than work. And trust me, that’s huge!

Nevertheless, after seeing Holly for the past few days (the first time since proposing to her on April 1st), I cannot wait to get there. We’ve got an apartment ready to move in on July 14, and we’ll only be a few minutes from downtown Portland, and more importantly, PGE Park – home of Portland Beavers AAA baseball.

So, stay tuned, the next few weeks will be busy as I prepare to move back to Oregon (again…) and look for a job. Wish me luck!

iPhone vs Storm

Since Apple's Developer Conference has been on the news so much lately, it's hard to ignore how much better the iPhone is getting. I used to hate it. I hated the people that had it, I hated the stupid touch screen, and most of all I hated how I sucked at using it.

Thus, I got a Blackberry Storm. It had a steep learning curve, considering the only other Smart Phone I ever used was a Palm Treo (see right --> ). Needless to say, I was stoked. I loved my Storm. But I also hated it. I didn't know how much it would be like a computer -- a friggin' awesome computer, at that! But it started getting sketchy. Things would move slow, it would freeze up. I scoured the Blackberry Forums for answers, and it seemed the only way to fix my phone was by myself; Blackberry and Verizon kept saying, "just wait for the official update."

That got old. Meanwhile, RIM (Research In Motion, who makes Blackberry) was already working on the Storm 2, forgetting about me! So, as I was warming up to the possibility of an iPhone in my future, I changed my Storm to look like one.

Then Verizon released the official update that supposedly fixed all the bugs last month, so I was happy as a clam.

But back to Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference. When I first got the Storm, it was touted as the iPhone killer. Indeed, all the things it did that Apple's phone could not were great, but now the iPhone can copy & paste text and has a nicer camera than before. It didn't take long to fix what Blackberry denounced.

But the clincher? Seeing how every major journalist seemingly has an iPhone. I know we all bleed Apple when it comes to computers, but I never thought that phone would become so popular. And there is obviously a reason aside from being trendy.

I thought Verizon was the best and biggest network, but if AT&T's iPhone keeps updating itself and making cutsomers happy, I may just have to find a way to break my contract and switch to "More bars in more places."

New Resume (now I need a website)

I just finished creating a whole new resume following my Poynter internship. My old one was just a bit too graphic, I feel, even for a graphic designer. But since I'm capable of doing much more than design, I felt the need to focus less on design and more on making it distinguished. The logo at the top of the page resembles the same logo on my business card.

Now, I just need to build a website to host my online portfolio. Right now, www.jakedonahue.com is simply another Blogspot template housing images of pages I've created. I need to also incorporate my writing and photography skills. Currently, a company named Wix offers free online flash templates, so I'm dinking around with that until I either build my own in flash or come up with something else.

Eventually, I hope to have my biz card, resume and website all match. Wish me luck, but if you have any advice don't hesitate to drop me a line (my new address: jakedonahue119@gmail.com).

More Florida Pics