"He Has Grey Skin And Big Black Eyes..."
here is an email i sent to laura earlier in correspondence with her prior email requesting an update lifestyle. fits rather appropriately in here, i reckon, seeing as how it's been about 6 months since my last entry. some of the subject matter may be a little less detailed than i'm accustomed to posting in this journal, but as the details come to me i may post them in the future, and i may not. depends on how lazy i become and whether or not i remember later. in a nutshell, here's the last 6 months of my life:
my grandfather pulled through. had some somethingupal bipass surgery. he's all right now. took him a few months in recovery, but he was alright again by the end of august. my aunt gerry had 3 strokes this year and died a few weeks ago. went to the funeral, it sucked. that's life i suppose. went to the wake. mom got drunk and tried to plan another funeral by killing my cousin tommy for making some shitty comment about cancer, leukemia, speciffically. somehow that was worked into an argument between the two of them about the government. they almost threw mom out and made him shut up and not talk to anyone for the rest of the day.
i stayed at 411 for a year. started last july. got a med plan, built some strength there with my longevity and with the management staff. had some vacation time coming to me, but in june i left there and got another security job. 3 weeks before i would have gotten my vacation pay. but talking to 700 angry marylanders everyday became very stressful, and the security company people said "now or never" so i jumped on it. it's much more relaxing, but the downside was that i had to sacrifice my benefits. no biggie. i'm happier at this new company, and even if something were to go awry and i lose the job, the 411 people said i can come back any time i want.
my album has been in slow production (the dead-line was like a year and a half ago), but finally, there's only one song left to record. afterward i can worry about editting, sleeve design and mass production. then distribution. then i can breathe a sigh of relief and the long anticipated finished product. it's mostly gone so slow because my lead singer is totally not motivated. currently, it's just me and him on the project, and when we started there were four of us. i've had to do all the music by myself which also slowed us down, but i think it made him lose his faith. he knows i can play all the other parts for the music, but sometimes i think he doesn't want to believe i will do anything with what we wrote. so usually i just try to forget about him till i finish a song. then i play it back for him and he gets all excited and ready to record his vocals. so he does and then the song's finished and he waits around another 3 months for me to save the day all over again. like i said, slow. but at least it'll be finished soon, finally.
i met a girl, wonderful girl named melissa on valentines day. she's from portugal. she had the same musical taste, a virgin, non drinker, smoker or do any drugs, and a fitness nut college student. we hit it off and things went really well. somewhere in the wrinkle of time she went crazy and she tossed our relationship in a ditch on the roadside about 2 weeks ago and ran off with her personal trainer. no warning signs. no fight. nothing. everything was great one minute, all smiles and kisses, and the next think i know, "hey, wow. john basedow looks kinda sexy in all that spandex... don't wait up for me. i'll call you at half past never. see ya george." just like that. she tried to talk to me about it the other day, said i had it all wrong, that she didn't ditch me for some dude, didn't cheat on me and didn't lie to me. so i asked her what happened then, and she said "i can't tell you." yea, she made a believer out of me. i believe she's a liar!
travis and i are still in touch. he's currently living in front royal with his wife, flori and he's moving right up the corperate ladder at food lion. strange to think about it. i mean, it's a grocery store. i didn't think he'd persue a career out of it. but then he started recieving all these raises and promotions. now he's making damn near 15 dollars an hour and his wife works there too making like 9 or something like that. so with the combined income of $24/hr and living in a town as cheap as front royal he's made quite well for himself. he and his wife seem to be having some marital issues though. she wants to go back to romania to see her family next month, and he says that he can't keep up with the bills if she goes. and he said if she goes she'll miss out on their wedding anniversary, which she already did last year by doing the same thing. so he said if she did it again next year to not bother coming back, and that if she didn't make it back in a month this time around, that it's over. he said he doesn't care if she has a flight delay or whater, her ass better be back by the time she told him she'll be back. and mean while i'm dragging his ass out to a strip club to cheer him up. lol, that ought to ease that empty longing feeling he's gonna be having;)
school starts up again at the end of august. i'm taking an english course and a history course. no electives this semester, unfortunately. but i figure if i knock out all the academic shit out of the way first then it'll be more fun for me down the road when the electives are all i'll have to take.
my uncle rob came in from l.a. last week with his family. he was really eager to listen to what i had done so far with my album, so i made him a copy of the rough stuff. he had two new albums out, himself and he gave me a copy of each, and he said he had a third one which is supposed to come out... today! i'll have to go online and check out how to order a copy. it sounds pretty cool, his new stuff. very industrial, sort of kmfdm/frontline assembly type stuff. it's cool too because he recorded my little cousin jordan (she's like 6) saying shit like "he has grey skin and big black eyes" for some of his songs. really made them sound kinda creepy. if you're interested ot give it a listen, i think he has some audio clips on his website: http://www.typhonvortex.com/. haven't checked it out yet, myself but i will here in a little bit. also while he was in town he offered me a job. it's a prepaid legal business. kinda like car insurance you know, where you pay like so much per month and that way if you get into an accident you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for the damages. the way this works is kinda like that, where you pay like, i think it's somewhere around 25 a month and if you ever need a lawyer you don't have to pay x hundred dollars per hour to hire one. anyways it's some big thing in cally but over here on the east no one's ever heard of it, so he wants me to start a branch out here, where i'd be the executive at that branch, making something like 120,000 per year. that is of course, if it's a success. if not, well then that's me out. i figure it couldn't hurt to look into.
i'm planning a short trip in august to philly to go see liam. haven't requested any time off work or anything. i'm gonna try to fit it in around my work schedule and go on my days off. hopefully they'll al coincide. my schedule always changes, but there's hope. i need to get out of here a couple days. went to the beach with charlie and renee in march, but we only stayed 3 days and i did all the driving. and all the planning. and all the spending. wasn't much of a vacation for me, more of like i was a chapperone. well, i did it for charlie's birthday anyways. i wanna do something for myself, though. hopefully i'll have time.
my grandfather pulled through. had some somethingupal bipass surgery. he's all right now. took him a few months in recovery, but he was alright again by the end of august. my aunt gerry had 3 strokes this year and died a few weeks ago. went to the funeral, it sucked. that's life i suppose. went to the wake. mom got drunk and tried to plan another funeral by killing my cousin tommy for making some shitty comment about cancer, leukemia, speciffically. somehow that was worked into an argument between the two of them about the government. they almost threw mom out and made him shut up and not talk to anyone for the rest of the day.
i stayed at 411 for a year. started last july. got a med plan, built some strength there with my longevity and with the management staff. had some vacation time coming to me, but in june i left there and got another security job. 3 weeks before i would have gotten my vacation pay. but talking to 700 angry marylanders everyday became very stressful, and the security company people said "now or never" so i jumped on it. it's much more relaxing, but the downside was that i had to sacrifice my benefits. no biggie. i'm happier at this new company, and even if something were to go awry and i lose the job, the 411 people said i can come back any time i want.
my album has been in slow production (the dead-line was like a year and a half ago), but finally, there's only one song left to record. afterward i can worry about editting, sleeve design and mass production. then distribution. then i can breathe a sigh of relief and the long anticipated finished product. it's mostly gone so slow because my lead singer is totally not motivated. currently, it's just me and him on the project, and when we started there were four of us. i've had to do all the music by myself which also slowed us down, but i think it made him lose his faith. he knows i can play all the other parts for the music, but sometimes i think he doesn't want to believe i will do anything with what we wrote. so usually i just try to forget about him till i finish a song. then i play it back for him and he gets all excited and ready to record his vocals. so he does and then the song's finished and he waits around another 3 months for me to save the day all over again. like i said, slow. but at least it'll be finished soon, finally.
i met a girl, wonderful girl named melissa on valentines day. she's from portugal. she had the same musical taste, a virgin, non drinker, smoker or do any drugs, and a fitness nut college student. we hit it off and things went really well. somewhere in the wrinkle of time she went crazy and she tossed our relationship in a ditch on the roadside about 2 weeks ago and ran off with her personal trainer. no warning signs. no fight. nothing. everything was great one minute, all smiles and kisses, and the next think i know, "hey, wow. john basedow looks kinda sexy in all that spandex... don't wait up for me. i'll call you at half past never. see ya george." just like that. she tried to talk to me about it the other day, said i had it all wrong, that she didn't ditch me for some dude, didn't cheat on me and didn't lie to me. so i asked her what happened then, and she said "i can't tell you." yea, she made a believer out of me. i believe she's a liar!
travis and i are still in touch. he's currently living in front royal with his wife, flori and he's moving right up the corperate ladder at food lion. strange to think about it. i mean, it's a grocery store. i didn't think he'd persue a career out of it. but then he started recieving all these raises and promotions. now he's making damn near 15 dollars an hour and his wife works there too making like 9 or something like that. so with the combined income of $24/hr and living in a town as cheap as front royal he's made quite well for himself. he and his wife seem to be having some marital issues though. she wants to go back to romania to see her family next month, and he says that he can't keep up with the bills if she goes. and he said if she goes she'll miss out on their wedding anniversary, which she already did last year by doing the same thing. so he said if she did it again next year to not bother coming back, and that if she didn't make it back in a month this time around, that it's over. he said he doesn't care if she has a flight delay or whater, her ass better be back by the time she told him she'll be back. and mean while i'm dragging his ass out to a strip club to cheer him up. lol, that ought to ease that empty longing feeling he's gonna be having;)
school starts up again at the end of august. i'm taking an english course and a history course. no electives this semester, unfortunately. but i figure if i knock out all the academic shit out of the way first then it'll be more fun for me down the road when the electives are all i'll have to take.
my uncle rob came in from l.a. last week with his family. he was really eager to listen to what i had done so far with my album, so i made him a copy of the rough stuff. he had two new albums out, himself and he gave me a copy of each, and he said he had a third one which is supposed to come out... today! i'll have to go online and check out how to order a copy. it sounds pretty cool, his new stuff. very industrial, sort of kmfdm/frontline assembly type stuff. it's cool too because he recorded my little cousin jordan (she's like 6) saying shit like "he has grey skin and big black eyes" for some of his songs. really made them sound kinda creepy. if you're interested ot give it a listen, i think he has some audio clips on his website: http://www.typhonvortex.com/. haven't checked it out yet, myself but i will here in a little bit. also while he was in town he offered me a job. it's a prepaid legal business. kinda like car insurance you know, where you pay like so much per month and that way if you get into an accident you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for the damages. the way this works is kinda like that, where you pay like, i think it's somewhere around 25 a month and if you ever need a lawyer you don't have to pay x hundred dollars per hour to hire one. anyways it's some big thing in cally but over here on the east no one's ever heard of it, so he wants me to start a branch out here, where i'd be the executive at that branch, making something like 120,000 per year. that is of course, if it's a success. if not, well then that's me out. i figure it couldn't hurt to look into.
i'm planning a short trip in august to philly to go see liam. haven't requested any time off work or anything. i'm gonna try to fit it in around my work schedule and go on my days off. hopefully they'll al coincide. my schedule always changes, but there's hope. i need to get out of here a couple days. went to the beach with charlie and renee in march, but we only stayed 3 days and i did all the driving. and all the planning. and all the spending. wasn't much of a vacation for me, more of like i was a chapperone. well, i did it for charlie's birthday anyways. i wanna do something for myself, though. hopefully i'll have time.