dmit it — we've all felt it. Got a job? You've likely had at least a flash of the worktime blues.

Watching those bright Island days flutter by through the office window can be downright depressing — or so we've been told. Maybe you don't even have the luxury of a window near the cubicle, and only photos and screensavers remind you of life outside those walls.

Whatever your situation, all work and no play makes for glazed eyes, restlessness and dissatisfaction — especially when you're living on a beach-fringed island, where summer seems to last forever and some of the world's best recreation opportunities are right outside the door.

Of course, most of us have to work to make a living. The trick — or so our sources tell us — is to create a healthy balance by setting aside time to do things you enjoy. If that doesn't cut it, you may have to make more drastic changes to get things right.

Maurice "Kalani" Keali'inohomoku knows the drill almost too well. Only back since June from 10 months in Iraq, he now works two jobs, from 10 a.m. through 4 the next morning.

Part of him wants to spend his days at the beach, having barbecues and catching up with friends he hasn't seen since he was sent to Iraq with his Army unit. Instead, the 25-year-old from Wai'anae works around the clock.

"I want to keep the income coming," said Keali'inohomoku, who holds down a day job as an information technician — that means he spends lots of time at the computer, making sure everything is all set on the company's Web site — and works nights as a bar-back, hustling to wash glasses and keep the beer cold at a local club.

"I'd rather keep myself busy and preoccupied with work than sit around and do nothing," he said.

At the same time, Keali'inohomoku can't help but wish he had more free time.

"I haven't seen any of my friends. They all kinda wonder what happened to me," he said. That's why he took the bar job: He hopes that will give friends the chance to come and see him.

Keali'inohomoku makes the best of his busy week by riding his bike and catching a bus to and from work. "At least I get that time to relax and mellow out," he said.

NO TIME TO PLAY

Melissa Capiello moved to Waikiki last month from Charleston, S.C. Although she lives four blocks from the beach, she's been so busy taking care of business that she's only been down to the water three times.

The 22-year-old has been spending four days a week filling out job applications and going to job interviews, while the remaining weekdays were spent visiting her dog in quarantine or checking in on her husband — on duty on a submarine — at Pearl Harbor.

"I'm majorly stressed out," Capiello said, adding that it's been hard doing everything by herself after the move.

"I want time to go to the beach," she said, while preparing for an interview at a surf store. "I'm a certified scuba diver, but I don't get any time to do that, either."

Maybe Capiello should count her blessings: According to Maui resident Sky Harrison, O'ahu workers face mild hardships compared to those on Neighbor Islands, where outdoor temptations "are even worse."

"You have all these beautiful beaches, and beach volleyball and surfing to do, and you're sitting there in your office," said Harrison, who works as a geographic information system specialist for the U.S. Geological Survey.

And no matter how bad it is, you just have to suck it up and work.

"When I lived in California, it was more of the springtime blues," Harrison said. "But here, it's all year round."

The 32-year-old Harrison, originally from San Diego, has been snorkeling and playing beach volleyball when he can find the time.

He went on to describe a nice south swell that recently came to Maui: "When those south swells come up, you wanna be out there surfing during the day, and you're very tempted to call in sick, but — " he said, filling in the rest with a shrug and grin that implied, "you have no choice, you gotta do the job."

FINDING BALANCE

Some have found their own ways to beat the worktime blues.

Kristell Corpuz, 28, said she's OK with leaving personal time for her days off, when she makes time to barbecue at the beach and hang out with friends — doing "the normal 20-year-old stuff."

Corpuz works full time during the week as a community and crime prevention specialist at the state attorney general's office.

"I'm fine," she said. In fact, even working can feel like a break from an action-packed weekday schedule that often includes classroom time and homework, as she pursues a master's degree in diplomacy and military studies at Hawai'i Pacific University.

"My time is the weekend," she said with a convincing smile.

Neil Matsuura uses the old grin-and-bear-it approach. He wishes he had more free time to relax and take it easy from all the number-crunching he does to calculate retirement benefits for the state, but the 47-year-old said it's nothing he gets himself worked up over.

"At this point, I'm kinda used to it," Matsuura said.

It's been more than two years since his last vacation, but this year, Matsuura is taking a trip with his wife and in-laws, sans kids.

"We thought it was time," he said. "We just want to get away."

Matsuura hopes to be strolling through the Vegas lights by the end of August.

Mary Dickerson uses stress-relieving exercise and social gatherings to take the pressure off. That comes in handy, since she works a fast-paced, hectic job with a government agency that has her rotating offices each week and dealing with emergency situations. She even volunteers an hour of overtime about three times a week.

"It's stressful to constantly see people who are stressed," she said. "It kinda rubs off on you, but you try not to get too worked up, so you can still do your job."

Amidst the chaos, the 25-year-old said her summer's been "excellent so far," partly because she makes time to do yoga twice a week and hike, go to the beach or have barbecues on the weekends.

Dickerson started going to yoga class a few months ago with a friend and was hesitant at first. "It's not my personality at all," she said, but then she ended up loving the realm of the cobra and downward-facing dog.

Now "there'll be days at work that I wish I could do yoga," she said.

Her philosophy is to not take work-related stress home. "Sometimes it's impossible, and you can physically feel it building up in you," she said. "But I've always found that running or doing the yoga thing helps."

MAKING CHANGES

For others in Hawai'i, finding a balance between work and play means they must follow a different sort of path — one that leads them outside a set of office walls.

Matt Lampke moved to Hawai'i in 2001 to surf and worked as a paramedic before heading to the ocean. It was the Denver native's lifelong goal to be a Hawai'i lifeguard, and he finally reached it a year ago when he started working part time on the south shore.

"It still is definitely a job; you're watching the water the entire time you're in there," Lampke said.

But to be on the beach while doing a crucial job is something special: "It's something you can't get in an office."

The 34-year-old is no longer a "landlocked Mainlander," as he called it. He spends his off time surfing, running and paddling.

"I think this is it for me," said Lampke. "I'm gonna be here until I retire."

Stephen Gunter is another Mainlander who happily settled into Island living. The Florida native moved to Hawai'i in April and lasted only a week and a half working at a computer as an engineer.

"I was miserable," he said. "You look outside and you've got blue skies, a couple of clouds, sunshine and all that stuff. Who wants to be in an office?"

Being unable to feel the warmth of the sun did not suit the 32-year-old, who wants to spend his free time going to the beach, driving around the island and learning to surf.

Gunter now works for a surveying company and spends most of his days outside.

"Now I'm outside all day long, and it's perfect," he said before plugging back into his iPod. Wearing sunglasses, a backward baseball cap and T-shirt, he couldn't have seemed more satisfied with his decision.

Meanwhile, it isn't the great outdoors that drives local filmmaker Edgy Lee to sites all over the Islands. It's a desire to fill community needs. She's passed up lucrative opportunities to create films in New York City, Hollywood and San Francisco to work on establishing a film industry here.

One of Lee's biggest gambles was moving back to Hawai'i, which she called "probably one of the last places on the list that any thinking person may have chosen" to work as a filmmaker. But she felt compelled to portray Hawai'i's culture.

"I saw the need, a niche that was not being fulfilled," she said. That drive brought her back to the Islands, after 20 years in California, to create films that address issues such as native land rights, drug abuse and abuse of the elderly.

Her credits include 2001's "Waikiki — In the Wake of Dreams," 2003's "Ice — Hawaii's Crystal Meth Epidemic" and 2006's "It's Your Choice," about teens whose lives have been devastated by crystal meth.

"You cannot separate what you do for a living," said Lee, who gave a talk called "When Career and Life are in Sync" a few days ago at the YWCA. "I don't close the door and leave the office. It's always with me."

Her advice? Look at what old people consider important, and then set your priorities.

Reach Christine Terada at cterada@honoluluadvertiser.com .