The Christmas rush is well underway. The last few days have been a whirlwind of events. The missing days from the blog are an indication of just how crazy things have been. Major life changes have occurred. I celebrated friends getting married and friends who are moving on. I made new friends and once again, reconnected with old ones. I’ve been in three states in three days. As I write this note, 10,000 feet in the air somewhere above the Pacific Ocean I am anxious and ready to go home for the holidays.

I know once I get there it will be a whole different rush. I am excited to see my family and friends. I have a very loveable and demanding Grandma waiting for me and lots of questions will be asked and answered. We have holiday cookies to bake and family dinners to make. I’ve been running on little sleep. I don’t expect that to change much once this plane touches down on Maui, but I do expect to enjoy every minute of it. I am always crushing on Maui, and I am in love with the idea that I will spend the last days of 2014 here:

My name in my sister’s phone is  “jen spoiled.” Do you think it’s because she thinks I’m not spoiled? Wrong. So I may have been treated with a little extra care growing up, but hey, that isn’t my fault. I am not only the baby of the family, but I am also a girl and if there is one person who spoiled me the most growing up, it was my Grandpa Takeji. I bring up my Grandpa today because today would have been his 93rd birthday.

Fully retired by the time I came along, Grandpa and G-Flo were my full-time babysitters. I enjoyed seven years of being “Grandpa’s girl.” He had two other granddaughters, but we definitely spent the most time together.  Ice cream? Of course. Chocolate Milk? Whenever I wanted. Driving up the mountain to see the horsies or to the fancy hotels just to people watch? A normal activity. He always spent time with me after dinner watching old shows on “Nick at Nite” like, “I Love Lucy” or “Betwitched.” I hated pre-school, so I got picked up early. When I started going to real school, my Grandpa picked me up everyday in his car, even though we lived less than five minutes away walking. He was always waiting at the fence, and I never waited for him. I was lucky. Fortunate to have so much attention given to ME. That’s why I am spoiled.

When my Grandpa passed away, I knew it was okay because it meant he didn’t have to suffer anymore. He had cancer and became very weak. I was young, but I understood he wasn’t getting better and things like that happen. My memories of him that I will never forget include the smell of his after shave and always having toothpicks and Ricola in his pocket. He made the pocket protector cool again and blamed G-Flo for distracting him every time he made a mistake.  He was tall and strong, and treated me the way every little girl wishes she was treated.  I was fortunate to get spoiled by Grandpa, but also learned to be independent after he left. When he was no longer around to tie my shoes, get me anything I wanted, or drop everything to help me, I was forced to learn to help myself.  I remember when I started doing “chores” after he wasn’t around anymore. I also started walking home from school (the horror), but everything was okay.

Many years later, I see how those first seven I had with him were very nurturing and grounds for me to be called spoiled. At a young age I lost something I was so reliant on.  I wish that he was around longer to see me grow up a little more–so that I could take my turn to do things for him. I may have continued to get special treatment in other ways, but that’s the job when you’re the baby of the family. I’m spoiled and now you know who started it.

Back in March, Jes and I found ourselves at home to celebrate G-Flo’s 87th Birthday. This year, more than ever, we have found our way home at the same time, for some time. This has all been thanks to Matsumoto Studio. Although we are in different places during the majority of the year, Matsumoto Studio, is the one thing that brings us together. Growing up five years apart, our age difference meant we were interested in different things. Now, that we are both older, we share so many similarities. We may have spent many years doing different things but at some point, they all collided.

Matsumoto Studio is just beginning. We are just at the shore getting our feet wet with the crashing waves waiting to jump in to the big ocean. Our similarities have become a strength for our sisterhood and now a small business. I am lucky to share something  with someone so close to me. We are sisters, so we have our moments, but it also means we have something special. We think similar things but differently enough to challenge, grow and push each other to be our best. That’s the best thing I could ask for in a partnership, better yet, a sisterhood.

One more week and I’ll be back here, on Maui.  Amazing that this place is what I call home. Maui made me. The more years I grow up, the more years I spend away from home, I  realize how Maui–the people, the community, the lifestyle–made me who I am.  Now I live in a place that could  not be more opposite than my hometown. The island of Maui has a population of 145,000 and New York City has one of 8.4 Million. Maui’s tallest building in sight is only eight floors high, while New York City’s is 104. With all these contrasts there is something that Maui has taught me that has been useful in New York–patience.

In a city where you share all your space with everyone, friend, neighbor, unwanted or wanted stranger, you also have to learn patience. When the lines to check out a the Trader Joe’s wraps around the store, or the subway platform is compacted with busy commuters trying to make it home, sometimes you have to learn to wait. When a subway car comes and it is packed with people, you let it go and the next will arrive a little more empty. In New York, many things come at an instant and many do not.  People bump you, but usually not on purpose. There simply is not enough space for everyone. Today I waited in a very annoyingly long Post Office line. Thankfully it moved pretty quickly, but the woman behind me thought otherwise. In this moment she could have practiced more patience. If I let all these little moments bother me, I would be fed up with New York. Instead, I have to think that it’s just how it is and I need to get used to that.

Maui is the rock (literally and figuratively) that keeps me grounded in this fast paced life. I think about home while being away from home and how each step of my journey on and off the rock, has made me who I am. Well, next week, I’ll be back on it. I really can’t wait to be there, so until then I’ll just have to practice my patience.

Post-WWII, post-December 7, 1941. My gorgeous Grandma at 18, somewhere off the shores of Honolulu.

I wish the title of this post reflected its modern-day definition, but it definitely does not. After feeling dead for a day, with a mysterious sickness, sleeping for 23 hours, and doing everything in my power to not get sick on the subway, I am slowly coming back to life. Getting sick always has the best timing ever. When I have much to do in life (laundry), work (Matsumoto Studio), and prepping with just one  week left before leaving New York for the holidays, I just had to also get sick. But whatever, it’s nothing that sleep, Gatorade, and club soda can’t heal.

Success is often defined by the money in a bank account, letters after your name (like PHD, which I’ll most likely never be), or maybe even who you know (Taylor Swift). While I don’t believe that money will make you eternally happy (although, it definitely helps along the way) I believe success will. However a person defines what makes them successful is up to him or her, and is the measure to figure out when success has been achieved. For me, right now,  I think it comes down to two words–SUCK LESS.

I want to suck less at whatever it was I was doing before. I believe in working hard and gaining skill. If I try my best to learn, I will. Doing new things will put me in new positions and opportunities for different things. I will be sucking less than I the me that didn’t know those skills before.  No one wants to work with or hang out with someone who sucks. So if you are sucking less, this also should not  be a problem. I think I am already sucking less than the me of a few years ago. Maybe even the me of a month ago. Sucking less will eventually bring success. I don’t expect to be a billionaire (but as Bruno Mars said, I want to be one, so freaking bad) or friends with billionaires , but I do expect to feel success in the accomplishments I make. I do feel accomplished. I have set goals and met them, but now there are more goals to set. More things to suck less at and be better at doing. Good thing I don’t plan on being an octopus because their job is to basically, well, to suck.

The long hours, late nights, and risks are all steps towards success. Success doesn’t happen over night, or over a few months. Maybe it will take me years to find success. There are days when I feel like I am killing it at life, like when I walk to the subway and there train is approaching the station withins seconds, and right there, that’s success. Everything went the way I wanted it to or better. I can’t always  control what will happen every step of the way, but I can definitely try my best, to suck less.