How's Your Family?

2008-05-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

It's weird how getting things out of your system open up perspective. On that note.

Psyco Bitches

I had been trying to bring some amorous relationships into my life, nothing serious just some fun. My interest in the occult let me to expect that if I put my energy and focus and will on making this happen it would be reflected to me. But, I had to remember to be myself, because you can’t let relationships change you; and magic is all about intention and knowledge of self and putting yourself in situations that reflect you. I had learned that lesson in my relationship with my ex-girlfriend and was drinking a lot to make up for it. I thought I just had to bring them to me but good women are hard to find, especially in a town like Creede with so many types. You had to have some kind of in to fit into certain groups and the group of longhairs like me was overpopulated. It definately gave me an idea of the opportunities for aging male hippies. Fishing, music, and art were the keyholes and at some point not so appealing.

So I decided to go up to Tommies to see Flumewater and see if I couldn’t find a touista to party with. I walked into Tommies and it was about half full and a good female to male ratio which had been unlikely in the few weeks before. There was one chick wearing cycling tights dancing around drunk as hell. She was a blond with a banging tan and a pretty nice body. She was dancing with a wasted local Dennis, who looks like he belongs on the local stock car circuit. I was liking my odds. I was a mountain and road biker and had worked in bike shops since I was 15. I talked her up and down, and danced drunken and awkwardly as is my nature. When the lights went low I asked her where she was staying and she replied that she was camping. I asked her if she wanted to stay with me and told her we’d have to walk a few blocks.

She complied and we started our two block journey back to the Halfway. Around halfway to the halfway she grabbed me and tried to kiss me, I almost fell over out of drunkenness and when I leaned in for the kiss she bit my lip. I told her we were a few blocks away and she started to complain that it was too far, and that she just wanted to go back and camp. I said alright, and leaned in for another goodnight kiss, when she bit my lip the second time, she asked me if I smoked cigarettes. I told her “yea”, and that sealed the deal, she walked herself home. At this point I'm wondering why I even give a shit about relationships, and whether cigarettes are bad for me. I went back to the Halfway House, told my story, and after some ribbing set out on my mountain bike to try to find her. I didn’t find her but I found Dennis walking some wasted chick home, and I asked them if they knew where she went, they didn’t but it turned out she was camping in their yard. I didn’t find her and that’s probably for the better.

Fish Fry

A couple of days later I went fishing with Jim down at Middle Creek. We both caught fish. I caught my first small brown trout. As we were beginning to pack up our stuff a forest ranger truck rolled up, and I began to get a little nervous because I didn’t have a fishing licence. Brent got out of the truck and began to question Jim. Jim had multiple warrants out for his arrest, on identity theft charges for one, because he gave a cop his brother’s ID when he was pulled over for drunken driving. The ranger took a look at Jim’s licence and asked for mine. I told him that I didn’t have one and he asked me if I had been fishing. I told him that I had thrown some line and he told me he’d have to write me a $68 ticket. He gave me the ticket and told me that I’d have to get new plates and a new drivers licence and plates if I were going to stay in Colorado. That was the most expensive fish I caught in Creede, a $68 9 inch brown.

Nice one!

Caught my first fish of the season today. 4in brookie. Been seeing Mary Catherine Jones as of late. She used to hang at the house a bit in the day, in the Kate Mange crowd.

diggin it, summer is coming!

-N

2008-04-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

What do you all think about these poems I wrote tonight.

Feeling you start to work your way inside

my mind and inner thoughts

Accessing the interior of my consciousness

Stepping around inside

Like a cave

Darkness

Light

The sunshine of fresh perspective

Differences overcome

In the eye of the beholders

Finding new things

Treasures from the other side

Moving forward

Plans made

Thoughts accepted

New patterns felt

Better lives with all in them

Relationships

The ultimate giver, learner

Forever

Love blossoms inside like a hidden jewel

Waiting for a time to make its purpose known

When it shows you the secrets it offers

The meaning is then whole

Or you lose perspective

And find yourself in a hole

Lonely and alone

Searching for who you are

Is hard at any time

Only through relationships

Can you combine

And use talents for sublime

Enjoyment is first priority

Life should not be lived

Unless with friends loved

Connections both useful and helpful

For life and the world

It’s our goal but how does it unfold

To help or to hurt is in the eye of the beholder

Beyond our grasp

Tis better to burn out than to fade away

And love is better lived than lost

Here’s to the chase

That will likely be haste

And the taste of excitement

Of happiness found

Is the use of "eye of the beholder" contradictory in these poems. And more importantly, doesn't the last paragraph of the second sound like a proper toast.

-Nuge

2008-04-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

4^th of July

The time had come, the busiest day of the year was here and we were ready…sort of. I had stayed up until three or later, three out of four of the days leading up to the fourth and worked exhausting server doubles, at a packed restaurant. I also got to take a few hours off here and there and would get off early on occasion. Jim and I went fishing during one of my breaks and he caught a beautiful brown trout and we both got numerous bites. We would have five servers, five cooks, and two bartenders for the fourth. When I got to work I was still feeling the drunk from the night before. Katie stumbled into work after crashing at another local ex-boyfriend’s house the previous night and Hadley looked hungover as hell. Clint had gotten wasted and had the day off so he was partying. We got to work around 9:30 and made some signs before the parade. We had bought some water balloons and right as we were fixing to fill them up Shane the Sheriff comes in the back door of the restaurant and tells us to throw them away. When questioned about why we had to throw ours away when everyone else had them he stammered, “because I don’t want you hittin’ any random people.

I got on the back of Clint’s truck in the blazing sun and wondered if I was going to make it today. Clint had a couple of beers in the car, so I chugged one and got back out on the float as we came around the corner there was a cop. He had some bottled water and the girls asked him for it because they were parched. He threw it up on the truck and we split it. We told him to come by for some pizza. As we came across Main Street there were thousands of people lining the sides waving flags and watching the parade. There were also volleys of water and water balloons from the tops of the surrounding buildings. We were going to get soaked. Katie had tied a bandanna around her for a shirt and was looking good, Hadley had a tank top on and a skirt. I was shirtless and had a red bandanna on. We yelled about Big Boobs, Jager Bombs, and Happy Hour and then we got soaked, as we came around Kip’s Grill, we got caught in a crossfire, I caught 2 balloons and returned fire scoring two hits. As we went by RJ’s on the way into town he soaked us with his garden hose. The girls went to shower before they came back to serve and were late getting back, I was still prepping as the doors opened. This was going to be nuts. We were full up from 12 until 8, busy as hell, and we had a new waitress Brenda who did great. I was working upstairs and on the deck, it was like running a full marathon. Everybody got served, a couple of tables got screwed up but all in all it was a good day. I made $90 in tips and did $622 in sales.

Hadley came in after she had gotten off right before the kitchen was set to close and started yelling at the kitchen staff when her food wasn’t coming out. She slapped my ass twice during work, and the second time I replied “fucking Hadley”. Daniel chewed her out she got her food and left. It took a while to finish everything up and Brooke got pissed that Katie got cut first but I talked to her and it was cool. The best part about the setup and the day is that everyone helped each other out. It was teamwork at its best. Jim had food flying out of the kitchen and all the servers helped each other out when they had the time and everyone did well that is until after the bars closed.

Night of the 4th

Late the night of the fourth Sam’s sister and her boyfriend who were in town got into a pushing match. He tried to kick down our door and Jim and Clint went apeshit on the guy. Jim chased him around the house, and he hid underneath the porch. He crawled in the doghouse. Eventually he came out, and Clint pursued him. Clint walked around the block and found him and kicked his ass. He took him down with a couple of shots to the head, and kicked him while he was down. I heard this second hand having gone to bed before any of this started. The dude came over the next morning and he looked pretty...no reall rough, you could see that he wasn’t walking very well, and his mouth was pretty fucked up and he kept stammering about some guy in South Fork that was a meth head. This guy was a real piece of work. He got his shit and left, like I said, you fuck with the house you get the fuck out.

Later we heard varying accounts but the most common was that the guy had run, yes run out of town 22 miles to South Fork that night. There were more stories from the night of the fourth. Some guy that lived in South Fork and came to Creede to party took a bunch of pills and drank a bunch and ended up passing out in the middle of the highway through town. After that a couple of locals that were hanging at the Halfway House earlier in the night found him, took his knife, and threw his shoes in the flume. After the local Sherriff Fred almost ran over him, he picked him up and took him to the hospital. The kid (I believe he was underage) ended up that night at the hospital in Del Norte. The dude who got f'd up at our house, apparently knew this kid.

Layover

Mac’s was closed the day after the 4^th for repair and recovery. We had run out of pizzas and a number of other items. The 5^th was a day of rest. In the afternoon Sarah, Alesia, Dani, Megan and I had gone to Kips and run into a vinyl connoisseur named Chelsea and her boyfriend Matt who Megan had told me previously about. They invited us out to their cabin up Bachelors Loop. We arrived at a rustic cabin in the woods. It was beautiful. We drank rum, smoked cigarettes, and did a J. Clint showed up with Wanda and the kids with a box of fireworks. After an hour or so of fireworks we went back to town. I took a shower and headed to Tommies to party. I was really drunk and danced for a while with Mel our other bartender. It was a good time and the Dewayn Brothers were a great bluegrass band. I talked to their guitar player for a while and they had played Galileos in Oklahoma City with my some of my friends’ band Tall Cotton. I went up to the bar for another drink after the band wrapped up and tripped and broke the BBQ sign at Tommies. Chelsea grabbed me, propped me up and stuck her thigh right into my crotch holding me up. I staggered outside and down the street to Mac’s and somehow got back home. Once I got home I pulled out the bong and as I did this I got the bright idea to go see if the theater chicks were partying at the bordello. No such luck, so I drove back home and crashed hard.

The next day of work was rough. We had to do a major cleaning of the restaurant and once again were prepping as we opened an hour and a half late. I felt bad but maintained. There was another band playing at Tommies that night so I went back to the Halfway for a nap and a shower.

2008-04-17T19:38:00.000-07:00

So its taken me 4 months to do another post. This can hardly be considered a regular blog and it feels really weird to write. That's probably a bad thing. I've been getting though the dui bit. I'm almost out of debt and probation is rolling along. Besides that I got promoted at work and have been bustin ass there. It sort of/really sucks to be working for a big corporation though, but at least I'm not super micromanaged, just super overworked. Its kind of ridiculous how corporate america is so cutthroat. I work at a small bike shop and the solution to anything is cutting hours. Half of my mechanic hours besides me got cut this week, which means I have to do triple the work, and work that I booked thinking I had more staff will be late. Which means I have to deal with all of the blowback. Needless to say its been exhausting and I should be making more money.

None the less life is good. Still see most people I know here with regularity. Still partying some and failing. But eventually the ship will be righted soon. Anywho, here's the next verse, some have been clamoring for a bit. Lets be better about this here thing. I miss you kids. This analogue kind of dovetails with where I'm at right now.

-Ninja

Pit’s Open

The last few weeks were pretty hectic. We completed all of the projects done to open the full kitchen a couple of days before the 4^th of July, the craziest week in Creede. Picking up a new menu took some time and we were happy to have a few days to warm up to it before all hell would break loose. We made a couple of mistakes due to computer malfunction and missed orders. Kate our beautiful blond waitress decided to quit a couple of days before the fourth after she heard a rumor that Laura blamed her for an order that disappeared. It’s a shame because Laura loves Kate and never blamed it on her, because the computers shut down and that’s what lost the order. Laura and Daniel were very concerned about it, and were very sorry to see Kate go. There was very little communication with her. Things at the restaurant were going very good, we established sections with a total of almost 20 tables, including three stories of stairs. I made totals of $50, $70, $91. Running food was like running a half marathon. At 8800 feet, it’s an exhilarating but exhausting process. In the morning we would do prep, Jim and Sam would throw pizzas. I would cut up lettuce for salads and do prep work and the girls would clean or we’d make ice tea. Whenever someone was hungry we would get breakfast sandwiches from The Old Firehouse down the street from Mac’s.

Katie was also a very good waitress, she wore the cutest little outfits and it was mostly about the clothes for Katie at work. And man did she work it. That girl made $130 to $230 in a night and did more sales than anyone. On occasion I’d see Katie jump behind the bar and bartend. She said she had bartended while she was in college living in Fort Collins, but it was a little much and Megan only cared for it as much as she liked checking out "brown Katie's" ass. In a moment of weakness one drunken night, when Katie was going to pass out at the house I had told her she could come down and crash with me. Katie said maybe another night as I remember it, but it was one of those cloudy drunken nights, but Katie and I always liked working together and in hindsight I'm glad that didn't happen. Katie had her own man issues. She had just broken up with her boyfriend of two years. They had been calling each other recently and it was turning into a seesaw affair, he really being a dick about everything at least that's what Katie said. Katie was a party girl as were most of the girls that lived and worked at Macs. Head games were certainly a strong current in Creede. Katie had been playing them with RJ, who was the bouncer at Mac's. RJ was a good enough fellow, he was big and burly and could kick a man's ass if he needed to, but like most burly men, he was a bear inside. He had been trying to hook up with Katie all summer, and to my knowledge, it might have happened. Kind of depends on who you ask.

After working with Hadley I began to realize she was trying to play mind games with me. Hadley was a good waitress and she made decent money, but there never really was a time I didn't see Hadley with a can of red bull in her hand and those hollow eyes. But she would try to intimidate me because her boyfriend Rory was a cop and knew the ins and outs of the police force. She would always tell me that the police were going to stop by the house sometime soon and bust people for underage drinking. We let the girls drink but kept it on the absolute down low, and none of their underage friends were allowed at the house. Hadley was under 21 and had partied at the Halfway House quite a bit in the past. Hadley liked to start rumors and cause controversy and there were plenty of rumors about Hadley. I had heard from Kirk, a bar patron that she had stripped naked and done some stripper performance in front of a crowd at a bonfire party. I heard others describe Hadley as a “black widow” she was certainly good at producing discord and causing drama, a real life Isis figure. If Hadley ever had power it would be a bad deal for everyone. She was 20 and was not allowed at the Halfway House.

Lovely Ladies

My nights had been fulfilling as well. I had met a whole cadre of new people to party with. I hung out frequently with some of the bartenders at Tommies. I had also met a team of musicians in local bands that played open mic nights and shows at bars. I had played in a band when I was in college. It was formed in the summer of ’01 when I lived in Bozeman, MT with a bunch of friends from Sewanee. We were called simply, “Tweeter”. We started playing open mic gigs at the local bar in Bozeman. We covered the classics. Then, when we went back to school in the fall, we formed an electric band with drums and played slow drawn out classic rock covers, we were called “No Credit, No Problem.” You might have heard of us. These guys Rayland and Rusty who wanted to start a band were pretty cool. Rayland was the son of Bucky Baxter, who had played guitar for Bob Dylan during the “Never Ending Tour” in the late 80's and early 90's. I had seen them play at an open mic gig and they were pretty good, and there were plenty of ladies who liked to dance. Rusty was about 40 from Florida, and looked like he belonged driving boats with his porn stash. But he was pretty funny, and I could stand hanging out with him. Ray worked at Kip's with a load of the hottest girls in town, but more were underage. Ray was kind of the town chick magnet. He meshed with every group of people, and his dad was a minor local celebrity (whether or not he deserved it) in these parts.

One night at open mic night I ran into Brad a local who had been over to the Halfway House and a nice looking blond named Tanya. Tanya and I danced to some Sublime, and as I went back for another drink she stuck her hand down the back of my pants and pulled me back on the dancefloor. She was from Chicago, and that’s just about all I know of her. Brad, Tonya, Malcolm (rastaman), and I drove a little out of town listened to some Beck and burned a blunt. I tried to get them to come back and party, but no one was partying at the house, so I just went to bed and they left. I didn’t really know what to think, Brad was married and Malcolm was in a relationship. I definitely had a chance but I wasn’t going to push anything. That’s how you get into messes.

The most elusive group in town had to be the theater people. They were labeled as gay by some in town, and definitely some were but I had not been able to crack their circle until Jacob started working at the restaurant. Jake was an actor for the theater. He was from Fort Worth and Daniel and Laura had told me he was gay. But, after work one night we were on the deck, and he started asking if there were any gay guys around because he hadn’t seen any and then...told us he was straight. It was pretty awkward. On his first night 2 days before the fourth the power went off for 2 hours at the restaurant. We were able to continue putting out food and everything ended up fine but it definitely made for an interesting night. People were partying at the bar and eating all over the restaurant in the dark. That night I ended up following Jake over to Tommies, and chatting with some theater chick friends. One was named Natalie of “Nattie” as most people called her because of her massive dreadlocks and a petit blond named Sappha from California. She was pretty smoking and we had begun talking about going fishing soon, but she also worked at the local gas station for extra money. She had a boyfriend in California but ended up flashing some folks on the deck that night. Unfortunately, I missed the action. We partied and smoked nuge for a few hours and called it a night. I learned after the fact from one of her friends that she had to keep her from doing something she'd regret that night. It was good to be single, but its really hard to think about starting anything serious after you've been with someone for 6 years and the theater kids naturally seemed pretty crazy.

2007-12-08T10:19:00.000-08:00

Sorry bout the wait, I've been dealing with a legal run in the past couple of weeks here in B-town. DUI's suck. Never make that mistake.

Blair

The next day was spent working at the bar talking to Clint. Clint filled me in on some background drama, which would manifest itself that night. Susan was the previous manager at OMI and was not well liked. She had back problems and had a horrible pain pill habit, and was in the process of trying to sue the restaurant for wrongful termination. Many workers in the restaurant hated Susan and yelled “fucking bitch” or there’s the biggest fucking bitch in Creede whenever they would see her. Everyone in the restaurant wanted to hurt Susan somehow, not phyisically though because that would be pretty hard considering Susan was quite large and mean as hell. Susan was a lesbian like half of all the other women in town. Her girlfriend was named Blair and she worked at one of the other restaurants in town. Blair came into OMI late night when we were partying. Blair was clearly drunk and swaying when she came in. Everyone in the bar knew that this was going to be trouble and some shit was about to go down. Blair had the hots for Megan who was also at the bar. After some whiskey and tequila Blair started commenting on her ass and how rock hard it was. She put her hands on the bar and started shaking it in everyone’s faces. Our eyes were as big as saucers. She then requested a spanking. Not only was Blair and exhibitionist, she was also into sado-masocism. She got Megan to spank her in front of the entire bar. This wasn’t one time, this was a good ten times with Megan rearing back and getting a running start on multiple occasions. Blair continued to request spankings and got Dave to take off his studded belt and have Megan hit her with that. Megan ate it up. After things cooled down a little bit, someone at the bar called Susan to come pick up Blair. Susan arrived to shouts of “biggest fucking bitch in the world” and picked up Blair. We shut down the bar, cruised back to the Halfway House and had a good laugh about how pissed Susan would be once she saw the blisters on Blair’s ass.

Around 30 minutes and a couple of shots later who walks into the house but Blair. Things were going to get nasty tonight. As soon a Blair stepped into the house, she said that it was fucking disgusting. Blair then proceeded to try and get Megan to fuck her. However, this would be complicated since Megan was in a relationship with Alesia. All three of them went around and around on how this would work. Blair demanding that Alesia take a shower, probably so that she could fuck Megan. Alesia went to the shower and Blair and Megan made out a little, in front of the house. We were still wide eyed at this point. Alesia came out and got pissed at Megan because she felt left out. They all went to Megan’s room and Blair stripped down and started getting on Megan. Alesia freaked out and pushed Megan, and Jim intervened while the rest of us listened in the living room. At this point we knew that we’d have to do something, and send Blair home. So Jim, Sam, Danielle and I took Blair outside and Alesia and Megan started yelling at each other. We took Blair outside and Danielle tried to talk some sense into Blair. Blair started screaming at Danielle calling her a fucking bitch and telling her not to touch her. Then Sam intervened to protect his girlfriend who Blair was pushing. As Sam approached Blair slapped him. Danielle snapped and took Blair to the ground. Danielle was not a woman to be fucked with, and she had her knee on Blair’s throat while Blair tried to kick Danielle. We restrained Danielle, and at this point were really nervous that we would be paid a visit by the police. Sam, Jim, and I talked Blair down and Danielle went inside. Blair agreed to go home and Jim and I drove her to Susan’s house. Once we got there Blair didn’t want to go inside and said that she didn’t live there. She was probably afraid of the beating Susan would give her. We tried to convince Blair to go home but she wouldn’t. That’s when Susan came out of the house, mind you this was around 4 in the morning. Susan said “what the fuck are you doing here” to Jim and Jim tried to calm her down. Susan pushed Jim back and grabbed Blair throwing her to the ground. Susan picked Blair up by the hair and pushed her face first into the car window and dragged her inside. Jim and I were sad about the whole situation and somewhat worried that this could come back on the restaurant. But it was good that we dodged trouble that night and shit didn’t get any crazier than it already was.

2007-11-20T09:44:00.000-08:00

Law

I soon learned that almost everyone that lived in the Halfway House had at least a police record, and many were in the process of some form of adjudication. Megan and Jim were on probation as was Clint. Clint was charged with destruction of federal property after being caught four-wheeling on a closed National Forest Road. Jim took a DUI for Clint one night, and was also involved in an identity theft case in which he presented his brother's ID on the DUI arrest. How one can “take a DUI” I’m not quite sure, but rationalization is the lynchpin of friendship I guess. Megan had done jail time for dealing pot and was currently on probation for DUI. Sam got a DUI the day before he moved to Creede. I myself had been arrested on three occasions. Needless to say we were a little freaked out about the possibility of a search warrant being served at the house. Although my house, my roommates, co-workers and I all had a mixed reputation with the law; we had a tie that bound us all together and that was our ability to party hard night after night, and the necessity of rules in the house. Because two underage girls lived in the house and we were paranoid at the prospect of police involvement; there were a series of conditions on who could be at the house and if you disrespected the house you would be shown the door. I wondered what sort of relationship I would have with the local law enforcement this summer.

Tommies

My first night partying with my roommates was spent barhopping between OMI and Tommies one of the other bars in town. After some Jager and a lot of beer, we went to Tommies. Tommies was a bar right around the corner from the OMI owned by a couple of Okies from Stillwater. I quickly became friends with the dudes that worked there. That night our bartender Megan got fucking wasted and couldn’t even walk she was so drunk. She went into the bathroom at the bar and locked herself in the toilet. After about 30 minutes we had to grab the keys to unlock the door as other people were banging on it trying to get in. Jim and I carried Megan two blocks back to the house. She stumbled the entire way at one point tripping and twisting her ankle. When we got her home the underagers were partying hard and drinking whiskey. Megan fell in the middle of the floor and demanded some whiskey. Alesia poured her a shot which she inhaled. Once we got inside where it was light we realized that Megan had sprained her ankle pretty bad and had a cut that was pouring blood or what would pass for blood with the amount of alcohol in her system. Jim cleaned her up and Alesia took her to bed. Those of us drinking had a good laugh and knew that this would set the stage for some crazy nights the rest of the summer.

...the next installments are where it gets really good!

2007-11-13T06:54:00.000-08:00

Creede

I drove 11 hours to Creede on 4 hours of sleep. The night before was spent dealing with my friend Clay who had gotten popped in the side of his head in a bar fight which resulted in two patrons throwing glass beer bottles at random through the bar on their way out. The town of Creede was as I remembered it, tiny with the most beautiful mountains I’d ever laid eyes on. I strolled into my friends’ bar and made myself at home sampling the western beverages that I remembered from my times in Bozeman. The bar was filled with an eclectic group of hippie types, working class folk, and bikers. My friends introduced me to the bartender whose name was Megan, as well as, many of the other local patrons. One could tell that Megan must have experienced some crazy things by the amount of respect others in the bar gave her. Whether the respect was warranted or not I would surely find out as Megan would be one of my roommates. Megan had a spirit about her that was hard to pinpoint, but she seemed to be dedicated to working relatively hard and partying much harder than most.

The bar was relatively busy that night with the highlight being a minor skirmish that resulted in a 325 pound old drunk getting dropped to the ground by the bouncer LJ who was at least a buck smaller than this obnoxiously drunk dude, who kept trying to befriend me all night but would then slip in these one liners as if he thought I didn't get the fact that he was trying to make fun of me (likely due to the length of my hair). It was as if I had brought the drama of the fight in Oklahoma City the night before with me to Creede. But the truth was that I had stepped into an environment in which drama was a given.

Home Improvement Projects at the Halfway House

My first night moving into the halfway house was uneventful except for the fact that Daniel had an old dusty amp which I needed to power my turntable. I found a choice Maranz amp for free, went home and hooked it up and it sounded great. I had a small collection of vinyl and a nice pair of 80’s Bose Interaudio speakers. I would be looking for vinyl for the next few weeks. I went to bed early, although I could hear Phil Collins “I Can Feel It in the Air of the Night” clearly through the wall from the stereo which was located on the upper floor of our brown double wide. The house I moved into was pretty filthy, downstairs had a peculiar smell; something of a combination of vomit and cleaning products and there were some suspect looking stains on the stairs. There were beer cans about and heaping ashtrays. I got to know more of my roommates throughout the next few days. Alesia a 19 year old local was a cook in the restaurant lived with Megan upstairs in the house. Megan, Alesia, and her younger sister Danni had stayed up until 4 that night partying and acting crazy, I could hear yelling at one point through my earplugs about how one of the girls loved cock and wasn’t into girls, I thought about getting up, but knew better. This would be a common theme, my lesbian roommates trying to hook up with girls in town. I needed sleep after partying with Daniel and Laura for the two days before I started work. I could only imagine how crazy the summer would be. I didn’t know what to expect coming to Colorado, I was keeping an open mind. I had partied quite a bit myself during my days, but had been very sober in New Zealand. I had learned to rely more on myself and to expect things to work out.

Mac’s Old Mine/OMI/Archibald’s Exchange

I started work the next day and worked in the kitchen the first day learning to roll dough and throw pizzas. This was certainly a change from the financial analysis I was doing in Austin albeit a welcome one. I had realized in my previous employment that sitting behind a computer for 8 hours a day was and is the most mind numbingly boring way to spend a day. The corporate/professional world could wait maybe forever for me. The next day I was pouring drinks and learning bar tending and by my second day serving I did $312 in sales and made $70. Daniel and Laura, my friends from college would be employing me as a manager at the bar and restaurant. I would be doing a little of everything, and had a lot, to learn. There were two really cute little waitresses Kate and Katie, one blond and one brunette. Katie was from Austin, Texas where I had been living before I had travelled to New Zealand and was 21. She was the one I had heard the night before defending her heterosexuality, in an estrogen permeated atmosphere. Kate was from Creed and was an under-ager. There were also two other waitresses Hadley who was dating a local law enforcement officer named Rory and Brooke who worked two jobs, supported her child and was into Malcolm one of the only two black dudes in town. Malcolm played in some local bands and ran Karaoke on Thursday at the restaurant. Two other bartenders worked at the bar both locals named Clint and Mel. Clint was a fourwheeling enthusiast with a souped up X-terra (this kind of says it all) and basically represented the entire local male contingency in the town, and Mel sang with the local bands. Jim and Sam were cooks at the restraunt and also lived in the Halfway House. Sam was also from Austin and was dating Dannielle from Monte Vista, CO a few hours from Creede. Sam and Danielle lived in the room next to mine and were rumored to have some loud sex on occasion, but it never was a problem for me. Jim was a 40 year old with the heart of an 18 year old that claimed to have had more experience with every sort of situation, hairstyle (including the perm mullet he sported), and hard drug we could encounter. Jim had lived in Creede for around 3 years and knew just about everybody in Creede. He literally walked into town on the Colorado Trail from Denver and never left.

more to come...

2007-11-04T20:14:00.002-08:00

AD replaces LT for biggest current badass in the NFL (with Randy Moss) close behind. Let me remind you how much I've talked up AD since his days in the crimson & creme. Let those Dickerson comments be vindicated and exceeded. Here's to 296 yards in a game!

2007-11-02T09:24:00.000-07:00

Ok so here's the first installment. It all starts a little slow as I got to meet people and is told in 3rd person. I thought about changing names but I might as well just let it fly. It gets funnier and crazier by the day

Mis-adventures at the Halfway House

A Creede Chronical

Once I decided to move I knew it would be a totally different experience. After quitting my job and going to New Zealand and ending a relationship I knew that new relationships would be very important. Creede, Colorado was to be my new home; I would be employed by some friends from college. I would be a shift manager at the long-standing miners bar in town. This after quitting my first “real” job fresh out of graduate school; financial analysis might have been a little to ambitious of an undertaking for a male in his mid 20’s. So I settled on managing a bar during the height of the tourist season. My restaurant experience amounts to having washed dishes at a banquet hall in Oklahoma City when I was 16. This would be a whole new ball-game. Not to say that I haven’t worked in the service industry before, I have been a bicycle mechanic more on than off in the last decade. Life is about cycles, and I was about to enter a new cycle in my life.

I knew that taking time off work as an American was as close to un-American in the post 9-11 landscape as could be. But the service industry is one of the few markets that has remained strong in America. Consumerism is king. So what better way to come back to America after traveling abroad and reintegrate myself to the US than by living in a tiny town of 500 which blossoms to about 10,000 during the peak of summer tourist season. Mind you I would be living in a place that is surrounded by the mountain ranges which separate the waters flowing east and west. This was going to be a totally new beginning and a summer I would likely never forget. I was girlfriendless for the first time in 6 years and on my own, I had saved a bit of money before traveling and would have to make a decision sometime about what I want to do next. But that could wait, for a summer that would prove one of the craziest of my life.

Halfway House

The house where I was to live in Creede was $175 a month and there lived 6 other service industry employees. I am no stranger to cheap accommodation after spending 2 months living with my ex-girlfriend in a camper van and numerous similar situations of living in 600 square feet or less in the past several years. My previous living experiences included massive flying roaches, filth, meth dealer neighbors, and numerous floods both sewage and otherwise. The frat house had to be the most disgusting, and so I knew I would be able to “handle it”. What I didn’t know was that I was to step into a new world. I would be living in the “Halfway House”. What I quickly learned is that at least half of my co-housemates were on probation and currently trying to steer clear of the law’s eye, while hiding out in one of the most notorious trailers in the town. Proof positive of this point was that one day before I was to move in a search warrant was served at the house; not for the current residents, but due to a previous resident who had hidden stolen property in the room directly next to the one in which I would live. This was going to be an adventure.

2007-10-31T18:03:00.001-07:00

All right kiddos. I'm back in action shoutin' @ you from Boulder, CO and gainfully/happily employed at Performance Bike after a summer working for Laura and Daniel's restaurant in Creede where I began work on a collection of short stories all based on events and goings on in Creede. As opposed to the morose of my previous blogging I am ready to rip your faces off with the great things that have been going on with me the last few months. I am liberated and feel like a freshly washed baby (with Old Spice deodorant of course). Get ready its coming!

The Century Of The Self - Part 4 of 4 - By Adam Curtis

2007-03-26T08:13:00.001-07:00


"This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy." - Adam Curtis

2007-03-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

The Bush Administration playing partisan politics after all these years of claiming politics should be bi-partisan? Nah, couldn't be, those guys are soooooo squeaky clean. Or maybe that's not soap, its grease.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Waxman_to_Rice_Answer_11_letters_0312.html

2007-03-09T07:29:00.000-08:00

Here we go again.

In reference to some discussion on Pat's post about prison labor. Then there's this.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/business/09tax.html?_r=2&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

sounds great...if you're in the know.

2007-02-23T08:52:00.000-08:00

For those of you that couldn't access that previous link here is the complete article.

Oily truth emerges in Iraq

Throughout nearly four years of the daily mayhem and carnage in Iraq, President Bush and his aides in the White House have scoffed at even the slightest suggestion that the U.S. military occupation has anything to do with oil.
The President presumably would have us all believe that if Iraq had the world's second-largest supply of bananas instead of petroleum, American troops would still be there.

Now comes new evidence of the big prize in Iraq that rarely gets mentioned at White House briefings.
A proposed new Iraqi oil and gas law began circulating last week among that country's top government leaders and was quickly leaked to various Internet sites - before it has even been presented to the Iraqi parliament.
Under the proposed law, Iraq's immense oil reserves would not simply be opened to foreign oil exploration, as many had expected. Amazingly, executives from those companies would actually be given seats on a new Federal Oil and Gas Council that would control all of Iraq's reserves.

In other words, Chevron, ExxonMobil, British Petroleum and the other Western oil giants could end up on the board of directors of the Iraqi Federal Oil and Gas Council, while Iraq's own national oil company would become just another competitor. The new law would grant the council virtually all power to develop policies and plans for undeveloped oil fields and to review and change all exploration and production contracts.
Since most of Iraq's 73 proven petroleum fields have yet to be developed, the new council would instantly become a world energy powerhouse.

"We're talking about trillions of dollars of oil that are at stake," said Raed Jarrar, an independent Iraqi journalist and blogger who obtained an Arabic copy of the draft law and posted an English-language translation on his Web site over the weekend.

Take, for example, the massive Majnoon field in southern Iraq near the Iranian border, which contains an estimated 20 billion barrels. Before Saddam Hussein was toppled by the U.S. invasion in 2003, he had granted a $4 billion contract to French oil giant TotalFinaElf to develop the field.

In the same way, the Iraqi dictator signed contracts with Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian and Spanish companies to develop 10 other big oil fields once international sanctions against his regime were lifted.
The big British and American companies had been shut out of Iraq, thanks to more than a decade of U.S. sanctions against Saddam. But if the new law passes, those companies will be the ones reviewing those very contracts and any others. Iraq's economic security and development will be thrown into question with this law," said Antonia Juhasz of Oil Change International, a petroleum industry watchdog group. "It's a radical departure not only from Iraq's existing structure but from how oil is managed in most of the world today."

Throughout the developing world, national oil companies control the bulk of oil production, though they often develop joint agreements with foreign commercial oil groups. But under the proposed law, the government-owned Iraqi National Oil Co. "will not get any preference over foreign companies," Juhasz said. The law must still be presented to the Iraqi parliament. Given the many political and religious divisions in the country, its passage is hardly guaranteed.

The main religious and ethnic groups are all pushing to control contracts and oil revenues for their regions, while the Bush administration is seeking more centralized control. While the politicians in Washington and Baghdad bicker to carve up the real prize, and just what share Big Oil will get, more Iraqi civilians and American soldiers die each each day - for freedom, we're told.

jgonzalez@nydailynews.com Originally published on February 21, 2007

2007-02-22T14:50:00.000-08:00

On a Lighter note

2007-02-22T14:45:00.001-08:00

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...then there's this. If this doesn't make you want to sell your car nothing will! I think my blood's boiling right now.

http://www.nydailynews.com/cgi-bin/email/send.cgi

2007-02-20T11:48:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

Sorry for the respite, I may soon be bidding adieu to this blog and will likely move to wordpress. However, here's one last note. A f'n great article on economics, offshoring, and the ongoing culture wars by Paul Craig Roberts. Excellent in my opinion, if you're game.

check it: http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts02192007.html

2007-01-08T11:29:00.000-08:00

In lieu of some previous comments on other various and sundry comments on previous blogs of choice. If this:

http://www.rawstory.com/showoutarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tomdispatch.com%2Findex.mhtml%3Fpid%3D155031

doesn't scare you, it might be time for a check up.

Hope everybody's recovered allright from the one nighter in Sewanee a couple of weeks ago. Peace on Earth, goodwill to men.

P.S. does anyone know of a good herbal anti-inflamitory, busted my knee up pretty good in a rough mtb accident last weekend.

2006-12-17T17:43:00.000-08:00

So,

It official I'll B arriving in Nashville on Friday Dec. 29th around 10:55pm. I'll most likely need someone to pick me up then, and it would be cool if I could score some hospitality (aka free lodging) somewhere. When is everyone planning on going to Sewanee? I think Frank has agreed to take me back to Nashvegas on the 1st. I'll need to be there around 1:20pm to catch my flight. Prepare the waters kids, this one's gonna be a floater! Comments>Concerns?

2006-12-11T17:42:00.000-08:00

Nashvillians,

What's up all? Just wanted to see if anyone will be in or going through Nashville on Friday night Dec. 29th as I'm planning to fly into Nashville and spend New Years with you cooks in Sewanee. Probably won't get in until 10 or 10:30. Please let me know if I can stay with/get a ride with one of you to Sewanee asap so I can order my tix. Frank has generously offered to take me to the airport on the 1st so no worries on that. In other news, I have reconnected with some old friends here and met some new ones the last few weeks which has been really good. Plenty of good philosophical discussions and there has been an unbelievable amount of syncronicity in my life the past few weeks. Has this been the case for anyone else? Feel free to elaborate if you can think of any. Although I don't know if this is a long term trend or not, I think it is stars oriented. Hope all is well wit you all. Good blogging lately. And, I'm looking forward to the resurgence of the Roblog, and hoping Frank gets going soon. Oh and I hope you like this wicked sunset I caught while camping early this fall, its title is Martian Landscape.

2006-11-29T19:15:00.000-08:00

Political Scatology

Pat's had some really hip posts this week which are exactly what I'm interested in. Props to Pat--http://prisonship.wordpress.com/2006/11/28/attention-nick-bishop/#comments
as well as http://prisonship.wordpress.com/2006/11/28/lets-eliminate-these-adjectives/ Ideas being tossed around is good but I'd like to continue a theme common to Ben and Rob's (This guy is seriously MIA) posts and expand on this a little.

Ultimately subjectively we all have certain concepts that we can't stand, in many cases concepts that the meaning of which is so amorphous that we can't really understand them or easilly confuse them, although without many of them (or the feelings and instincts behind them) we couldn't survive and maintain our own identities, or identify with expressive concepts, because ultimately all are theraputic (wrong word I know, its all in HOW you use them) in some sense. The same can be said with political attributes/concepts, although these seem to be a little more high stakes in that they to a large extent create the reality that we can/can't stand, and. Many of the words mentioned i've used, or haven't. And I'm sure as you all were checking those posts (and hopefully this one) you felt the same.

What excites me are the larger relationships that form these modes of speech that form the foundations of how we relate, or are led by the political systems and intricacies that dominate our consciences and vice versa. Lets remember that neither inductive logic nor deductive logic can ultimatly make sense of these distinctions, also ultimately we can't prove cause and effect through numbers alone either. I think we have a better shot of "scientifically" unlocking these connections through geographic analysis. What say you.

Free Market: That condition of society in which all economic transactions result from voluntary choice without coercion.

The State: That institution which interferes with the Free Market through the direct exervise of coercion or the granting of privelages (backed by coercion)

Tax: That form of coercion or interference with the Free Market in which the State collects tribute, allowing it to hire armed forces to practice coercion in defense of privelage, alnd also to engage in such wars, adventures, experiments, "reforms," etc., as it pleases, not at its own cost, but at the cost of "its" subjects.

Privilege: From the latin privi, private, and lege, law. An advantage granted by the State and protected by its powers of coercion. A law for private benefit.

Landlordism: That form of privilege or interference with the Free Market in which one State-supported group "owns" the land and thereby takes tribute (rent) from those who live, work, or produce on the land.

Tariff: That form of privilege or interference with the Free Market in which commodities produced outside the State are not allowed to compete equally with those produced inside the State.

Capitalism: That organization of society, incorporating elements of tax, usury, landlordism, tariff, which thus denies the Free Market while pretending to exemplify it.

Conservatism: That school of capitalist philosophy which claims allegiance to the Free Market while actually supporting usury, landlordism, tariff, and sometimes (frequently as of recent) taxation

Liberalism: That school of capitalist philosophy which attempts to correct the injustices of capitalism by adding new laws to the existing laws. Each time conservatives pass a law creating privilege, liberals pass another law modifying privilege, leading conservatives to pass a more subtle law recreating privilege, etc., until "everything not forbidden is compulsory" and "everything not compulsory is forvidded."

Socialism: The attempted abolition of all privilege by restoring power entirely to the coercive agent behind privelege, the State, thereby converting capitalist oligarchy ito Statist monopoly. Watewashing a wall by painting it black.

Anarchism: That organization of society in which the Free Market operates freely, without taxes, usury, landlordism, tarrifs, or other forms of coercion or privilege. Right anarchists predict that in the Free Market people would voluntarily choose to compete more often than cooperate. Left anarchists predict that in the Free Market people would voluntarily choose to cooperate more often than to compete.

Anyone who can place this scatology? Guesses? Thoughts?

2006-11-21T13:13:00.000-08:00

Check it, we need to airbrush the s.

Remember this one beej: Day1

Tough Truck!

Burger Nite!

2006-11-07T18:30:00.000-08:00

Siberian Hunter-n.-def.-One who wears winter camo (aka. black and white camo, not black white and grey, black and white) during the peak fall color season.

So we went camping again this weekend at Lost Maples about the only place in Texas where the leaves actually turn a delightful color other than burnt orange (for more on burnt orange search texas longhorns on the internet). The pictures probably won't do it justice, since most longhorm fans are ugly minus those sorority girls that are so thin they should be dead, and that pretty much speaks for itself, see Will's blog for more on that bit. So, anyway, we go camping and who do we see in the middle of the trail on the way walking to our primitive camp site. But the dude in full siberian camo. I'm talking coat, pants, hat, and don't forget the jack boots. Needless to say my friends and I laughed about that all weekend. We go to see fall colors, he goes to "blend in", unsuccessfully I might add. Maybe he was celebrating the beginning of hunting season, too bad the deer were probably better prepared than he was. Anyways this will continue to be a never ending joke as in the "I'll do anything for money type". We came up with a circular thought problem that begins with the sight of the Siberian Hunter, and ends with one of us showing up to a party at the other's house in full siberian hunter attire, sketchy mustache and all. I wish I could have found a picture which would do this justice.

Anyways, later in the night, after about a bottle of wine and probably 14 beers, I decided to press my ass to the grill (ass to flame style), it wasn't very hot at first, then I actually touched the grill we were using and burned a line in my ass, which hurt pretty bad that night and the next morning. Also my friend Scott out of courtesy to park staff put out our remaining hot coals by urinating on the park grill. Can't wait to taste some meat like that. Question to all, am I a 14 year old trapped in a 27 year old's body or a 48 year old trapped in a 27 year old's body?

2006-10-29T16:04:00.000-08:00

Has anyone ever noticed that diehard bluegrass fans can be some of the most pretentious people in the universe. Last weekend a bunch of my friends and I went to a bluegrass festival in Buda texas. With a name like that, you'd think that people in the town would be pretty chilled out. Think again, so it was like 20 bucks for a two night festival (no discount for one night, even though we only went saturday), plus 10 bucks for camping and it was held at pretty much a city park. SO we're hanging there and are watching some bands, which were pretty good, and we got hungry, so we think to ourselves lets set up the grill in front of the stage so we can cook while we watch. As the venue is outside in a city park, with abundant grills, we think to ourselves, "Shit we're in texas, home of BBQ, nobody will give a F*&$, if we set up shop here." So we start the grill, the fire burns down and we throw meat on. Then the band we're watching stops playing, and like four sets of people come up to us and are like, "what the fuck do you think you're doing?", "Are you using lighter fluid", "that is the most offensive, acrid, toxic etc. you fill in the blank smell I've ever smelled".

So this is the most nuisance I've ever caused in my life at a public event, (next to the time I mooned like 40 bussloads of kids at a fine arts festival in highschool, and the only people who didn't think it was funny was the professors). So we proceed to blow off all these people who are acting like they are about to die, and this drunk 40+ year old woman comes up and is like, "Damn, that smells awesome". And we're like, "No shit, we just had like 15 people come up to us and tell us to move it or put it out and shit". About this time "concert staff" (old women 40+) comes up and is like we've had several complaints, and you can't grill here, you should have checked the wind etc. before you set up your grill. You're going to move that etc. And we're finally like damn I guess we'll have to move it. So Whitney and I grab the legs of the grill (the only part that won't burn us), and the bitch is like, "Oh is there anything that we can do to help you" and I'm like, "yea, next time don't make us move our grill!" which I guess she pretty much ignored. And we moved the grill in the fucking dark, to a picnic table that had 0 fucking light after being at one where we could see everything. And as we're walking away, i overhear some people say "we're not going to let them come in and RUIN our community" after we paid 30 bucks+ to get yelled at all night.

Which brings me to a question, is there a large contingency of fans of bluegrass music that just plain suck (or is it somewhat derived from the quality of the music)? And is there somewhat of a paradox with these people in the sense that the songs (and community built around them) seem to be universal in the sense that they deal with a large spectrum of topics, and "encourage community" both of musicians and fans of bluegrass music. AKA there are varietys of bluegrass that deal with dark subjects and those that deal with "sunny themes" like babies and Jesus and what not. But when it comes down to differences in the community the people who pride themselves the most on the "sunny disposition stuff" exhibit more hate towards other elements, aka people chastizing us for "RUINING their community etc." I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

2006-10-17T18:32:00.001-07:00

Grandma's Undies

Randomness is my friend.
Chaos is my friend.
Families fall apart.
Times become hard...but not hard enough
to quit...yet
Yes, still there is more.

Cambell's soup is its icon.
Inside all...through all...behind all.
Can you find it?
NO, YOU WILL FIND IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

?FlaME!

Man I am not as random as I used to be. Need to hook up with some of you soon. I should be coming to Nashville at some point, we're doing a project in Nolensville, and would be fun to visit. Although none you all particularly live there anymore, but if that happens maybe come for a visit, if you're close. Sorry about not blogging more, I've been travelling with work weekly, and it really fucks up my schedule because, I feel like I need to make up for being gone here and Austin and forget about you all. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blogs and blog comments. Do you all know about will's blog? If not...do yourself a favor http://martiwa0.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/. I think it is great.

So one of my good friends from high-school moved here to Austin. I'm pretty excited because we haven't hung out in a while, but always had CRRRRRRRAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZYYYYYYYY times in high-school on the stain. Hope it works out well for me. Last time we hung out we ended up at the strip club in Fort Meyers, which was my first time in one of those places. As I remember it was Fantasies (on the Beach). I'm sure you can imagine what kind of place this was. But, honestly, this was about the coolest strip club I've ever been to. The girls were super skanky and danced to only rock as I remember it, and primarily Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, and Sublime. And they would like stop mid-dance and just kind of sit down and talk to you, like no one was in the place. Real classy place folks. This place was known as "panty fleas" by the locals, mind you. Anyways, we're getting together for drinks this weekend which should be totally rediculous. Good times. Anyways, hopefully more good stories to follow. My stories always go nowhere I know.

Randomness yall,

-N

2006-10-02T17:15:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,

I'm headed to D.C. this weekend for the impact fee roundtable. I will have several hours to kill, and wanted to pick your brains about Muesems/Galleries not to miss there. I'm pissed because I have to miss Helena this weekend to do work stuff, but as you all know the delta never changes or does it change every year. I'm sure D.C. will also have a 5th season feel to it. My goal is to find a seedy bar to watch OU/Texas on Saturday, and get piss faced while trying not to get robbed, . Those of you that know, this has been a traditionally unlucky weekend coming up in terms of me getting robbed. Note to self, no buying stuff off the street this weekend!

-Nron

2006-09-19T18:43:00.000-07:00

So following up on this weekend. Friday night after getting really vayned and drinking several beers, I snuck into the Austin City Limits Festival. On Saturday I went on a death march of a mountain bike ride, in which I thought I would pass out from heat exhaustion and got two flats. I was literally screaming at the television on Saturday afternoon, as OU lost to Oregon with like a minute left on about the poorest officiating I've ever seen, any game, any year. Although I did meet some cool Texas fans who own the glass piece store next to the bar, which was cool.. They gave me a coozie, two in fact to ease my suffering from the loss (the girl who blows glass is also a Texas rollergirl, who had great stories about breaking bones in the rollerderby, cool as shit) I'm kind of becoming a regular for late afternoon football at this bar Freddies down the street from my house. It is a typical Texas bar, with outdoor seating, a mixture of greasy food, vegetarian, and weird tex-mex fusion, and washers of course.

Saturday night I did the same thing, which meant, wait until it gets dark, there is no security around, and jump two consecutive fences, next to the port o' johns and run into the throng of people. Saw Van Morrison (which was lame as fuck), then Willie the next night (apparently he got busted in Louisiana the next day with a bunch of pot and shrooms) which was really good. I had tickets for Sunday which was definately the day to see. Caught a bit of Damien Marley, which was all right, then Ween (f'n'a dude), Son Volt (big f'n'a dude), Flaming Lips (f'n'a dude), and Tom Petty which was also quite good, although at this point my back hurt so bad I thought I was going to pass out.

So the weekend was good. It felt really good to do something risky for the first time in a while. I pretty much hate my job and feel like its killing me (boredom wise). Basically what I do is fly to whatever city has hired our firm, ask them how they finance capital improvements, and request data. Then I take the data and have to divide the total programmed budget (by class, like for water, wastewater projects) by the expected growth in households to get an average cost per household to provide X level of service. Mind you that they basically tell me put this in a spreadsheet and figure it out (with no instruction on how to proceed). So needless to say I sit at the computer all day and feel my brain leaking out my ass into a puddle on the floor. Also, I was initially hired as an intern, and told that in three months I would be promoted. Then almost a month ago they told me I was getting promoted. While that was great news, my pay hasn't increased and I remain, as my boss put it when I started, the poorest paid professional in Austin. Hopefully this will not continue for that much longer (read that however you want). I feel you Pat.

So long term I'm keeping my carreer choices wide open. Whitney and I still want to travel soon, and we're still thinking South America, but its going to take a little longer to make that happen. Maybe winter? Long term jobwise I see myself in the public or non-profit sector (at least temporarilly). I've realized I like much more to work with the public than sit in front of a computer all day, which means I could land in devpt. review (if I'm going to stick with planning). But, eventually, I want to basically start a commune. There will probably be some money making activities, but more than anything a place to relax, and work very little, and play a lot (music, extreme sports, art, crafts, tourism, and natural building). Maybe even a school. I've never really felt like I had a lot of artistic drive but can see myself getting back into trade oriented work (working this job has made bike repair sound so much more fun for some reason)

Another thing I've learned in this job is that I don't want to travel for work, and I don't want to spend my life like the people I work with. As Bob Seger said about LA in the 80's. You know a lot of type A personalities. I never want to take work home, and I certainly want to talk about work as little as possible, which from what I can tell is the total opposite of the people I work with, and I don't want to be one of those guys eating TGI Fridays at the Dallas airport on a tuesday night. Anyway at the risk of boring you all to death I'm finished, there you go Pat. The job's allright I just think my true strengths are in public planning, becuase ultimately it is all about fucking with their heads, and that's what I love doing...problem solving. Although I'm not totally sure I'd be happy doing that for the rest of my life either.

It's funny, I think I've pretty much figured out the psycological aspects of the bum/yuppie cycle. You know, you make some money and feel good about yourself for a while, then you realize how much you hate what you do, so you decide to quit and be a bum for a while, then get pissed because you can't afford to do the things you want, so you decide to be a yuppie again.

I think ultimately the commune is the way out. Honestly its all about self actualization, which I guess really isn't that far from art. I just hope I can make these communes appear sophisticated enough (marketing wise) that I could also pitch them for upper incomes as well to roll some money in and get bigger, that's where I see the public planning skills come in. There's got to be a middle path.

Seriously though, its good to have this platform. I would be in a pretty horrible place if it weren't for some intellectual stimulation right now, because the mechanics of this shit is burning me out and you mfers keep me sharp. Oh and I've come to some conclusions about the whole Skexies arguement from Rob's blog. I think I do believe in essance, but not of the DC variety; more of the Princess Bride variety, as in they hook dude up to machine and it nearly kills him. I think I can identify more with getting fucked over by something mechanical because the obvious allusions to the System. Also, if you haven't watched it in a while you should give it another look, because I watched it last night and was having some errie revelations about the similarities of the plot and geopolitical events surrounding Gulf War I (probably GW II as well and maybe III after todays UN love fest). Don't you love it when Bush addresses the Iranian people, I just bet they love it. Totally didn't catch the conspiracy aspect of that film until the second time around. Anyways, hope you get your fill. I'll try to spice things up soon, I just haven't had a lot of energy to go on head trips lately, this job is stealing my soul.

-Nron

2006-09-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

So,
Labor day weekend went well in OK City. And then I came home to my bedroom which had been soaked in raw sewage over the weekend. So apparently after we left the toilet roostertailed sewage all over the bathroom and bedroom. Must be reaping some nasty karmic bist right now. Obviously my life must be too clean right now. Needless to say we rearranged the house instead of listening to UT get the shit kicked out of them by OSU on the radio last weekend.

Got the privelage of listening to these f'n Horns fans say HOOK EM like 10 times at dinner the other saturday night. If they would have said hook em one more time, and I would have had a couple more beers, shit could have gotten really nasty. By nasty I mean I could have started acting like a horns fan, but to the point that they just might have picked up that I was making fun of them by acting really obnoxious saying, Go Horns (like I was retarded, hitting my chest and all). Damn I really should have done that. Well, there's always next time! I'll have to remember that one.

Got a new road bike frame while I was home, which was a good purchase. Rode it last weekend and it ripped. I need to fix up my mountian bike next. It needs a lot of work. This weekend should be fun. Remach of last year's Holliday Bowl OU v. UO this weekend, should be a good one #15 v. #18. Go Sooners! Pat, you best check it out if you can get tickets. Seriously, Adrian Peterson is the next E.D., and I don't mean erectile disfunxion. Miss you guys n' gals.

-Nron