So I turned 23 last Thursday… everyone has been asking me how my birthday was and everything, and I found myself struggling to find a good answer because I’ve just had so much going on this month that I feel like I haven’t had a second to breath. Let me fill you in, bullet style…

Over the last three weeks I’ve:

Did I mention I was in school full time? I mean, I know plenty of kids who just simply do school and either ride their loans or their parents money to get by.

I also was recently offered a new job working for a company called Coastal Electric. This job would pretty much take the place of my current one, and the only catch there is that it’s located about 25 minutes out of Savannah, but the pay is amazing (around $18 an hour) and it’s right up my alley (just doing PC Maintenance, pretty much the same thing I was doing at Genesis without the responsibility of being the manager).

So my new job at Savannah Blues is freaking awesome. Savannah Blues is (you guessed it) a blues bar that I’ve been a patron of for I imagine 3 or so years now. It’s just a nice, chill bar that always has live music. The clientell is really cool and my bosses are amazing. The pay is pretty great (cash-money every night) but the only drawback is the hours… I generally go into work at 9:00pm and get home around 3:30am (on weeknights, on weekends its more like 4:45am). So right now I’m working that job about 4 nights a week. They also said they will train me to be a bartender, which is really awesome. Bartending is quite the moneymaker, but its also hard to get into the business… mainly because of the experience loop (you have to have experience to start somewhere, but you can’t start without any experience). Basically they will just kind of show me how things work as I’m bar-backing, how tabs work, how to make various drinks, work the register, proper etiquette, etc. You can make a killing bartending, so this is a pretty good opportunity.
Cail and I are currently in the market for a new PA system for Case of the Mundays. We’ve got our rehearsal space now, and we’re going to practice solid for a good month or so before we started booking gigs. I’m really excited about it, I mean I’ve been wanting to have a band of good friends who are all into the same music for practically my whole life, and it’s finally happening. So I’ll definitely keep you guys up to date on that.

I mentioned a while back an audition that I had done for a pop star. Well that’s kind of been on the table for the last 8 months, I pretty much had to decide between that and getting back into school, but the opportunity has been presented to me again. Aaron (our drummer) has been playing drums for Katelyn for almost 3 years now, and she is really starting to kind of take off. She recently recorded 4 new songs (produced by Rascal Flatts). Basically, they are trying to push her out of her old market (kind of Disney, little kid pop) to a new, more mature one (country, soul, rhythm)… her new stuff I can actually say is quite impressive (really lets her voice shine) and I’m pretty excited for her. I’d say it’s kind of a combination of Leanne Rimes and Alicia Keys. So anyways, it looks like I might be playing guitar for her- as soon as the 24th of this month in Orlando, FL. I’ll keep you guys posted on that as well.

Whew, so yeah like I said, I’ve been busy. It’s funny though because I look back at what I was doing a year ago, and I had no job, no school, and was just fucking up, but I was more stressed out then than I am now. It’s kind of funny how things work too, because it seems like the more I work and try to be constructive, the more windows that open. I’m amazed that I haven’t just lost my mind yet with everything I’ve got going on. But I have two theories: one is that it just hasn’t caught out with me just yet and is bound to happen, two, is that because of the fact that I was at the bottom of the barrel with my life, constructive stress just doesn’t really have an effect on me- I’m just thankful and excited for everything that I’ve got going on, and when it ever starts messing with my head, I just think of what I was doing a year ago.

For my birthday, my parents got me a really cool gift. My dad is friends with this guy who does professional dog training (he’s very much like the dog whisperer, in fact, his brother trains police dogs for $30,000 a pop). Anyways, he has a program in which he will train your dog to be a hardcore obedient loyal pet. Zelda is an incredibly smart dog, I taught her to sit, shake, and beg in just three weeks. However, my time has been really occupied over the last 6 or 7 months and her obedience is starting to slack a little (not as responsive to some commands, doesn’t walk as well on a leash as she used to etc). This guy came in for the first lesson on Sunday, and already Zelda is walking on a leash like a pro. His concept is that of leash training (where you give “corrections” by jerking the leash). It’s only been three days, and already Zelda is pretty much walking perfectly (and will sit whenever you stop walking). This Sunday’s lesson is “come” and “stay”. Basically Zelda will learn to stay in place when I tell her to (I can leave the room and come back and she should still be sitting there) and will also come on command without her hesitating (by choice). The training starts off with a form of “red light, green light” game. Anyways, the guy is incredible, and I’m learning a lot from him. I look forward to making some videos and showing Zelda off (she really is a fast learner).

Anyways, time to get some homework done, gotta clock out in an hour, go home, walk Zelda, practice Katelyn’s songs, then be at work by 9:00.

Until next time,

“I’m in repair, the life that we share, I know that I’ll be lost in
But we’re always in repair.” - Our Lady Peace : In Repair

<</J.\W/>>

Before:	After:

Haircut
So I finally did it… I cut all of my hair off. I think I accomplished what I was going for… I really wanted to look in the mirror and see a new me. Sometimes I think everyone just needs a change, and to be honest with you, it helped push me into feeling like the new person I’ve turned into over the last year. I feel great…

I’m Sick
except for the fact that I’ve been sick as a dog for the last few days. About 10 days ago I woke up with a really sore and congested throat. I felt kinda crappy for a couple of days but then it went away. Well over the last 3 or 4 days it’s relapsed and it’s back with vengeance. I finally went to the doctor today and apparently it’s a respiratory infection that’s been going around (everywhere it seems) for the last few weeks. He gave me 3 prescriptions and said I’ll be better in a couple of days. Despite the horrid pain in my throat, the nasty congestion, and the general feeling of being disconnected from the world (I feel like I’m just floating around), I have to admit that the cough syrup he gave me makes me feel like a million bucks.

Rehearsal Space
So for the past two months we’ve been working about once a week for the guy who owns the meat-packing plant where we plan on setting up our rehearsal space. We have an arrangement with him to sort of work for our first few months rent. Anyways, looks like this weekend we’re finally going to get the drywall and sound-proof insulation up in our room, which means that we’ll probably be moving our equipment in next week, so that’s exciting. I estimate we’ll be practicing at least twice a week for a solid month before we really start gigging.

While on that subject, Here are some pics of Aaron and I (and our friend Casey) playing at Savannah Blues a few weeks ago:

So pretty much I’ve been busy as hell.
I guess I forgot to mention that I’ve been super busy with school and work this semester as well. I don’t think I’ve ever been this busy in my life, but I’m pretty sure that’s a good thing. When I get stressed out I try and think about what I would have been doing about this time last year. Anyways, this semester I’m taking Technical Writing, Databases, Information Security, and Creative Writing (poetry).

Poetry
I guess it’s kind of weird that I’m taking poetry alongside all of those techie classes, but my hopes are that it will help me with my music writing, and help cure the writer’s block I’ve had for the last six months or so. I have to admit the class itself is amazing, I actually find myself looking forward to it each week. It’s a lot of work, but I’ve got a great professor and the class is amazing. We have to write eight poems this semester (on top of our poetry research and peer critiques- which is basically where you write critiques for the 12 other students in the class every time a 2nd draft is turned in.

Anyways, for our first assignment, we had to have the subject matter about someone who made a significant impact on our lives. I’m not going to say exactly who this is about, but I’ll leave you with what I turned in for my 2nd draft:

“I Watched You”
-Jeff Wichman

I watched you;
in the 40-watt haze of that pale room
Toy with death and giggle.
Prepare your resolve,
water tainted translucent
with evils you stilled
into a murky resolution.
Fill the glossy black lines
along that instrument of destruction.
Disguise trembles of frustration
as you fumbled around for a vein,
followed the red-dotted line
tapped into your life
pulled and pushed
to displace the apathy
of your dull existence.

Hair clutched your forehead,
to beaded drops of anticipation
As you reclined among the raspy duet
of groaning hinges,
I sensed in you
…………. the whir in your head
……….. the pulsating thud
……… the ghostly murmurs
……. the tingle in your face
…… the bitter bite
…. the closed eyes ignoring
.. the trickle of composure
left running,
evading
certain infiltration.

“Damn.” your quivering voice announced
between the half-grin of cracked lips,
shattering the silence that desperately
clung to the tension in the air
and darkly rested on smoke-stained drapes
that never permitted the time of day.
I watched you so quickly Lose
to your favorite game
never quitting
before it was over.

Until next time,

“Hate us because you’ll never get that far.” - Better Than Ezra : At the Stars

<</J.\W/>>