So get this.... weirdest a** thing happened today.
My mom got a text with a typo saying "Avery got some flowers..." down at 9th street. My mom went down and picked them up and we were surprised that they were actually addressed to me. So we opened them up, got these beautiful flowers.. absolutely no hints as to who they're from.
I'm really flattered.... and confused. I posted a picture of them on facebook to say thank you to whoever sent them but haven't gotten any leads. I'm not going to get nosey about it. I've been thinking of the guys I've talked to over the past couple months and can't think of anyone that would do this.
Anyway that's been fun to wonder about today I suppose. Other than that I've just been practicing, had bomb Mexican food for lunch today and still sewing that iron maiden patch on. Super wired on this energy drink called Xs Energy drink..... Sick of practicing invention but too nervous for the recital to practice anything else.
Today's been a nice day of catching up with things. I feel sluggish because I did not leave the house today, I should probably work out.
Today was just the usual, though I was really proud of how much work I put into accounting tonight. Two and a half hours. The time was necessary though, that's the amount of time it took me to read the 5th chapter. It's all about factory inventories and calculating the costs based on volume of products, cost per unit, etc... I found it sort of interesting so I was able to finish the assignments somewhat easily. There's a good amount of formulas in this chapter that I'll have to remember, though, so it's good that I'm getting on that now.
I've been feeling much more comfortable in my two business classes now that I'm annotating the chapters. I figure if I annotate, I'll get a much better understanding then reading alone, even if I just read over the chapter once. Usually I'll read it over twice for good measures, like I've been putting off re-reading chapter 3 for three days.. I found that chapter really confusing.
Toast, guys. This tea is delicious and I had a good day.
But yeah, today was really productive! I got my guitar done early, 2 hours of really solid practice... I actually worked on arpeggios today for 10 minutes, I was impressed. I hate practicing arpeggios now, they're a pain because I never see them in any music I play but I figure if I learn them now they'll be very useful when I someday do find a purpose.
I remember seeing Jacob do some pretty cool solo stuff with them when he connected pairs of shapes. I don't really get it yet to be honest, I've been slacking on trying to improve my shapes on the guitar neck because I've been messing with songs and picking exercises primarily for the last month or so. I've wanted to get Phantom of the Opera done really bad but it's a difficult ass riff at the beginning to get just right.
The iron maiden logos make me laugh.
I don't take their lyrics and themes too seriously to be honest with you, I'm more into Iron Maiden for the quality of the music itself. The vocals are spot on, absolutely perfect. The fast pace of it all, the rush... I don't care what it's about, something about it speaks to me on a level I can't explain.
On that note. Freaking, Hollowed by Thy Name has been stuck in my head for 3 days, I'm debating if I should learn it. The riff is really good. I might as well, why the Hell not. I like playing their music, is a variety really necessarily if I know that learning there music will eventually help me achieve my ultimate purpose? My purpose is really to play music by Dream Theater but it's still WAY too hard for me. Iron maiden has similar demanding picking and speed but is much more consistent than Dream Theater. Iron Maiden follows pretty simple patterns for the most part.
I've been messing around a little more with pulls. Good lord my strings need to be changed.
There's this really sweet girl that I remember meeting back at Leah's ice skating party. She taught me how to ice skate. I can't actually remember her name, but I saw her at Central awhile back. I'd like to hang out with her sometime, she's always seemed pretty nice to me.
I'm also thinking about learning Electric Crown by Testament. Really good song, doesn't sound too difficult either.
So I have a secret crush on a complete stranger. He doesn't know me at all. He's philipeno. He's an engineering major (the friend told me this) and he's one of the cutest guys I've ever seen here. That's all I know. It's unfortunately a touchy situation because he's a friend with someone I recently met. This person that I met told me that he liked me, but I told him I didn't want a relationship. In actuality I just wasn't feeling the connection between us, though I liked him as a friend and all. That's the main reason I've debated talking to him is because it's out of respect for my new friend. That and oh, I'm scared shitless of guys that I'm attracted too and would much rather they talk to me first because from what I've found in the past, guys that I'm attracted to tend to be players... I don't know what it is but I would just rather have a guy approach me so I know his intentions aren't bad. If I talk to him first it seems eager and creepy.
Ha ha but he seriously has no idea who I am, I feel stupid even talking about it... We'll see if I actually ever meet him.
On a more important note! I did meet someone at the gym, her name is Sarah and she's beautiful. She's pursuing the same major as me so I'm looking forward to getting to know her, we'll see if she wants to kick it with me. She seems like she does her own thing for the most part, though she clearly has friends back home... But yeah, very pretty and tan. I'm very pretty and pale. It just sucks that we wouldn't be able to go to bars together until she turns 21 in March. Don't get me wrong though, she seems really intelligent and level headed too so it's not like I'm just looking for someone to party with.
Here's another person I met, her name's Reina and I met her via the exchanged student speaking partner program. I'm so happy I signed up for that, she's very sweet! Her english is much better than my Japanese so we're able to communicate better than I'd anticipated. She's a really sweet person, I just hope to God she doesn't misunderstand some of my dry sense of humor jokes and think I'm actually being serious. I have to be careful about that sometimes!
I got a message on Youtube from another kid here at Central that apparently was planning to give guitar lessons as well. I'm excited to meet this person because HELL-O! They play guitar too! That's exciting in itself. He said he hasn't been able to find any students either. Based on the lack of ability to generate funds in one way I'm turning to other sources-- the internet!
Here's my first guitar lesson video that I uploaded today. It's basic alternate picking and corresponding note exercise, just as I would initially teach my guitar student. I figure if I do one of these on a semi-regular basis, I can maybe gain some subscribers on youtube, become a partner and earn a small amount of income that way.
If that doesn't work, well, at least I tried and I can use it as a reference tool for my students if they forget what I'd taught them during a lesson. You might be wondering, why would students actually get lessons from you if they could just look online? Because in person you can ask me questions, I can elaborate things for you, and I can teach you way more tricks and exercises than I plan to upload to youtube.
You can support my channel on youtube by subbing to me. My url is www.youtube.com/ewilsonlife. The channel itself has a pretty random assortment of stuff that has gone from "kawaii" Japanese themed videos to... Iron Maiden covers. I'm weird.
But my life is fun, seriously I do enjoy things around here even if after a high stress class situation I can always seem to find stuff to bitch about to my mom. The main stress on the back burner is, again, my 21st birthday and what I'm going to be doing for that. I'm just hoping Jason and I spend the evening together on either Saturday or Sunday. That's all I really want, I've already gotten my gifts from my family, I've got more than enough money to survive here for awhile and I'm also set for clothes.
Jason and I had a really nice night together last night, that was pretty unexpected!
He's been really busy with studies like I have. I've already studied accounting today for an hour, sorta dredged through the first half of Chapter 3 today. We didn't talk about Chapter 2 at all a couple days ago so I'm wondering if he's going to do any review for that chapter. I don't really care either way, Chapter 2 is pretty straight forward, it talks about methods in costing (both direct costs and indirect costs of a product). Costing is basically the plan for how much a business anticipates spending on manufacturing a product (or many products) for the upcoming month. Product costs are the cost involved in making the product itself when overhead costs are the cost to run the company itself.
Overhead costs can include anything from the heating bill, the cost of the toilet paper in the bathrooms, the wage of the employees. Product costs include the cost of the raw materials and even the cost of employees that are putting the product together. I think back to my days cherry picking and the little punch cards that would say how many boxes of cherries that picker had completed. The Cost, then, of that box of cherries includes the amount it took to pick them.
I post a lot of pictures of cherries on this blog, haha.
A lot of this terminology is hard to keep track of but I'm very fortunate that I have this much life experience to understand a lot it. Working at Rite Aid has helped me understand merchandise costing, inventory, and hourly wages versus salaries. Working on the farm has helped me understand touch labor or direct labor because you really can't get much more direct then picking cherries off a tree and punching a card that says you did it.
First of all, I need to pick out a small piece of something showy that I can use in a video promoting Jacob's business. Apparently my two videos weren't the correct format that he was looking for so I need to do the following:
-Play 20 seconds (something fast)
-State my name, how long I've gotten lessons with A Sharp Guitar School, and why I like it.
Done.
I just have to find what I'm going to play. He told me to choose something that I'm comfortable with but I think instead I'm going to find something new, like maybe I'll find a piece of Phantom of the Opera and really shred on it over and over today until it sounds good enough for the video. Maybe not today but sometime this week this has to get done...
I'm probably just going to hang out with Katelynn again today. I hung out with Samantha for the last time before I leave yesterday. It was a really nice time, we walked around shops like Leyte. I'm planning on making some fried noodles tonight with tempura, yum!
And back to my project....
Project Year Timeline
Age 17, 2008-2009 Last year of being wrapped up in highschool, failed relationships and becoming a true metalhead.
Junior year I sort of found my first concrete group with Robert, Skyler, Logan and Tyler. I'd always liked Robert from when I'd met him in middle school, I remember the first thing I said to him (when I was about 12) is that he "looked like the guy in System of a Down." I think I meant Daron Malakian at the time. Anyway, Robert invited me to Logan's on halloween and I started spending time with them both in and outside of school. We all took Spanish together.
Junior year was my peak with soccer, I remember doing really well that year even if our season wasn't fantastic. Marty played me a lot more, but because of my aggression I really only got significant chunks of playing time against teams like Naches, Connell, etc... I started to get a little more control than I did my sophomore year, but my passing and dribbling skills were still crummy. Actually they always were. My only real skill in soccer was the human shield factor, and it served it's purpose on many occasions.
I don't miss that part of highschool at all.
One memory that I AM quite fond of is having Calligraphy with Skyler F. We sat next to eachother at this extremely crowded table of David P. (who I honestly sort of had a crush on that year even if he was a sophomore), Drake J., Zach K. and Dwight R. It was a pretty difficult art class but we had a lot of fun doing lettering projects. I'm pretty sure Skyler and I were the only ones at the table that passed the class, the rest of them would spend more time screwing around than actually working... I wasn't very good at calligraphy itself at the beginning and really had to work at it to get it down. Still, the class was two hours long and we had a blast ripping on eachother, talking about music and joking around.
I also joined the art club this year and went on a field trip to Seattle, another one of my fondest memories. I spent a lot of time with Sitthinee and learned about Thai culture.
I went to my only prom my Junior year with Robert, Amy, Samantha and Shawn. This was before me and Sam were really friends, but I think I was *trying* to be her friend so I invited them along. I remember singing System of a Down in the car with Robert like a f*cking nut and it makes me a little embarrassed but it makes smile at the same time.
Prom was really, really fun. We had an awesome time and that dress was HOT, HOT, HOT.
I had the craziest tennis season Junior year because of the problems I had with Nicki. This picture might actually be from sophomore year because it was taken at the courts across from Wolfies... What made Junior year interesting is that those beautiful new courts were built so we ALL got WAY more practice time than we did waiting in line for others when we only had two courts.
I said things to Nicki that I really would never think to say to anyone... it was horribly mean and out of character for me but she was being a two-faced bitch and threatened my 1st spot, I felt a need to damage her psychologically to better my chances to get ahead. To be honest we were very neck in neck in our playing skills, Nicki worked hard... which made me work harder. I got lessons, practiced with Lindy as much as I could, then was able to maintain my position. Not with the help of the coaches, they hated me that year. I had no support from them, which was frustrating, and I couldn't even celebrate my wins without feeling guilty about it. The whole season was an emotional mind f*ck; I hated it.
Somehow I was able to come back the next year and completely kick ass, but Junior year was a huge struggle in tennis because of all the drama. I did have a lot of support from friends though, at the time I'm pretty sure I was hanging out a lot with Lindy, who was also on the tennis team and more than happy to rip on Nicki with me.
It's sad when I look back on it, just to let the reader know, I DID apologize to Nicki. Though it wasn't all one sided (she admits to being out of line in her behaviors that CAUSED me to act like this), I still felt extremely bad a couple years later and said I was sorry at RadCon this last year. She's okay, neither of us ever became big tennis stars (hahaha) and none of it ever mattered so I don't know why we let ourselves get so wrapped up in sports...
I guess they were the most important thing at the time, everybody wants some sort of glory from beating others. Again, don't miss sports.
Overall:
Looks:
I wore a LOT of Metal t-shirts that year, I guess probably more to impress Robert and Skyler and them than anything, it's like I really wanted to prove that "Yes, I like this music too, I'm one of you guys."
I took that friendship pretty seriously, you guys have to understand that I never really had any close friends in my class of 2010 so finding a group that was only slightly younger than me and didn't know my past very well gave me a chance to have a clean slate and really be myself. I could never be myself around my own class because they were very mean and exclusive toward me; it's like nobody in my class really seemed to like me enough to want to spend time with me, I gave up. Wearing the metal t-shirts, again, was like quietly taking a stand against them.
Work:
Babysat for Carmin and Chad. This was before Tori.
Skills:
I mainly focused on sports, but I did learn calligraphy this year which I still remember the alphabet for today. Mrs. Mowery told us that we'd never forget and it's a skill we'll have the rest of our lives, it's true!
Love:
Chad reminds me of Hank Hill (I look back on him and I can REALLY see why him and Caitlin worked well together). He was so logical and didn't get half the crazy shit I probably talked about.
The main guy that I liked this year was Chad S., and I liked him for a pretty long time afterward because we ended up meeting up again late in my senior year (which didn't work a second time around, either. I'm not going to go into detail.) Anyway, i had Chad in my Junior honors English class. Chad was a year older but was taking the class because he didn't take English at CBC. This was so *like* him to just not do something because they didn't feel like it at the time; what I liked about Chad is that he really knew what he wanted.
He didn't want me. He might of... had I have been myself instead of acting like a stupid bimbo around him. Back then I'd never had much luck with guys because in highschool it seems like guys only go for stupid girls. So what does an intelligent girl do? She dumbs herself down!! Shouldn't have done this around Chad, he got annoyed quickly. He was really physically attracted to me, and I REALLY was toward him too, so initially our weird cat and mouse game that we were playing in English worked out. I bugged the shit out of him.
I remember going over to his house once, he basically lived on a farm. His family had all sorts of country decor and heads sticking out from the walls. We really had nothing in common but something about him really enticed me... Needless to say, it hurt pretty bad when he DIDN'T want to be together. At all. In fact he wanted to stay the Hell away from me after awhile because Caitlin D. (his ex girlfriend that played soccer with me) was giving him a ton of shit for showing any interest in me.
The time spent with Chad was actually DURING soccer season, which is when Caitlin was on the same team and probably had to hear me go on and on about how great Chad is. During Basketball season she told all the cheer girls that I was obsessed with him on the bus. Word got back to me and I wanted to kick Caitlin's ass, but ended up just confronting her about it... sort of, really all I said was that I was "disappointed" in her. I really should have said, "Look bitch, keep my name out of your mouth..." but at this point things were such a lost cause with Chad that I didn't care.
I probably did act obsessed. I was just really lonely at the time and didn't know how to handle myself I suppose.
I can't remember if this is before, during or after I liked Chad but I also liked Tyler D. during my Junior year when I was hanging out his friends (Robert, Logan, Skyler). At the time Tyler was an extremely closed book, I probably shouldn't have been as persistent with him... Actually a girl shouldn't EVER be persistent with a guy, I learned this lesson from guys like this. But when you never get pursued and everybody else has boyfriends, sometimes I just tried to do what I thought I had to do.
I was just so lonely in that aspect of my life after having serious boyfriends the previous year. I still must have had some faith in it my junior year at the beginning but after Tyler treated me like shit and Chad didn't work out I threw in the towel for anyone wanting a relationship with me. I stopped caring as much.
Me and Robert's favorite song to sing together, Holy Mountains by SOAD.
Music:
LOTS and LOTS of System of a Down. I REALLY got into them my Junior year with Robert and we used to sing in the car together when we'd hang out, it was so much fun. I wasn't THAT into Metallica at first, but my friends were listening to them all the time so I sort of had to get a taste for it. In time I ended up really into them too.
Confidence:
Pretty good, certainly better than Sophomore year. Getting some playing time in soccer kind of gave me an edge, which ended up being my major downfall in tennis when I got cocky. I didn't really know how to apply makeup back then so my eyes were oftentimes a smudgey mess but at least I knew how to properly spread foundation.
Some fun with me and Robert at the end of my Junior year.
That's it for now, I'm going to make a separate entry for 16, it's going to be a big one!
It's 12:22 AM, Thursday is usually the day of the week I stay up latest.
My evening shift was pretty lame, all the menial activities that I feel sum up to nothing. It's so boring to work day in and day out, and the manager's jobs are not much better. Actually most of their job is looking for stuff for us to do, at least it seems that way. Leslie runs around like she's super busy for eight hours straight and I see her constantly, but my other managers tend to disappear for long spans of time and I have no idea what they're up too. I don't really care.
I'm just happy that my shifts worked out for me the way that they did. I've never had to work with Jay, my manager, for an entire shift. I would absolutely hate to have him breathing down my neck, tensions are always higher when he's around and I am ultra professional. Well, I usually am. A guy said I sounded like an automated phone service today. That's the goal with corporate, "With us, it's personal" gets too personal when the cashiers make friends with every customer that comes in. I recognize some people, many customers enjoy seeing me because those that come in every day see mainly see Claudia. Claudia is Jay's ideal dedicated employee.
She takes her job so freaking seriously. She told me today that she found a $50 bill by the register on the ground by the candy and actually LOGGED it into the register. No comment.
Again, Noh mask. Just gotta get through this. Smile and nod.
There's a song called "Different World" that really spoke to me today.
Don't wanna be here
Somewhere I'd rather be But when I get there I'm afraid it's not for me
That's really it. I don't want to be at Rite Aid today, I'd rather be home playing because that's all I want to do lately.
Tell me what you can hear
and then tell me what you see
everybody has a different way to view the world
I would like you to know, when you see the simple things
To appreciate this life, it's not too late to learn
I need to appreciate the little things of what I'm experiencing here. I have to take things day by day and learn from them. I get frustrated with this job and these people but I will never work at Rite Aid again in my life. I am going to count out how many shifts I have left....
11
Eleven shifts, oh my God! That is so awesome, 11 more shifts cashiering. Ugh, never again. I swear if this guitar gig works out I'll always have a backup plan if I don't have a job. I will never cashier again.
But I still do try and appreciate the little things that I do at my boring day job. I try to be friendly and professional to the customers that come in. I oftentimes get flirted with which is pretty awkward. Like today this guy asked me if I wanted to go to a Kiss concert with him, it was bizarre.
I talked to Peter Z. for the first time in forever. Occasionally I like to catch up with him just to see what he's been up too. He recently moved to WSU so I'm very excited for him. He had a crazy ride with the rave scene but now he's totally straightened up and ready to go on with his life. I think it's awesome, he's going to do really well. I'm happy he never got sent to prison or anything. I always feel some weird nostalgic connection with him because he was my first childhood crush, ha ha.
I should probably get to bed so my day isn't completely destroyed tomorrow. Got all my minutes today, that's strange for a Thursday.
Oh! I'm excited because I'm hanging out with Tyler D. tomorrow for the last time before I leave. We're going to have a lot of fun, he says he's going go come pick me up after work and we're gonna swim at the apartment complex and play video games or something. Should be a good day.
I love my Dad, seriously, he sometimes pulls through for me when I really need it most. He gave me $100 to pay off the amplifier that Katelynn and Alan are selling to me, which is really nice because now I can pay that off and not have to worry about it. I barely ask for money from my parents anymore and they appreciate it. My Dad says I've been so "cool" lately, and that's why he gave me the money. Well thank you Dad I think you're cool for doing me this epic favor.
I played a lot of guitar today. Me and Jake got together and jammed for awhile. Fear of the Dark is getting SO close to being upload worthy if I'd just STOP. F'ING. UP. THE INTRO. It's so annoying because I'll come really close and it falls apart when I have to make a rapid string jump.
But today was chill. I did study accounting for an hour and a half so that was productive. Today was 33, that means tomorrow will mark 32 days until I move. Not that I'm counting for any particular reason.
I talked to Jason a bit today, not too much. He had a rock climbing thing going on this morning and I told him that I'm not the adventurous type at all. I hate most high adrenaline things like rock climbing, jumping out of planes, roller coasters, surfing, skiing, dirt biking,... All of these activities just seem very dangerous and I don't want to do them. I'm embarrassed to continue that list of things I wouldn't want to do anytime soon because I'm afraid I'll sound like a bigger rag than I already have.
My life is not that exciting.
I'm not afraid to admit that but I feel like I've been in contact with enough interesting characters that it's fun to keep track of everyone that I've met via this blog. Many people I'll forget I'm sure, like the customers that are regulars at Rite Aid that I often feel obligated to feel happy to see. Oh, hey redfaced alcoholic guy that guys beer or wine twice a day here. Oh hey annoying old man that talks about pulling my ponytail and only buys cigarettes and alcohol. They're all nice people at least. At Wal Mart it's so impersonal, at least my job is a little more interesting.
I don't like people that put on a big show at their checkstands like Claudia. Jay gave me a big lecture and compared me to Claudia multiple times and it frustrated me.
It's times like this that I put on my artificial Noh face smile. Above is a picture of a traditional Noh mask. Noh masks were used in traditional Japanese masked theater.
Noh smiles are slightly artificial and insincere, but because you're smiling and cooperating there's so reason for someone to be mad at you. I sometimes put on my Noh face with customers that are joking with me and I don't find them amusing in the slightest, when a boss lectures me on something stupid and out of my control, or when I am dealing with frustrating people. Noh smiles are a skill described in the Memoirs of a Geisha book that I partially read recently.
I'm happy my face isn't as creepy as those masks, though!
I'm writing to give my hands a break more than anything.
My left hand needs to relax because I've been working on Fear of the Dark for an hour and a half trying to get it to where it's recording ready. I really want to make that second video. I've just it down to just about right but there's still some problems in the intro, as well as coordinating so that the track isn't too loud for my recorder, the amp isn't too loud OR too quiet... recording on a computer is tricky without the proper equipment, but Jacob seemed pretty impressed by my video editting skills using Windows Movie Maker.
I had a nice day, met up with Jordan G. and we had coffee and discussed our updates on life. For us it's been years since we've been able to update on anything, even if she's been living in Benton City for awhile now. I guess I'd never checked in with her again because I was afraid our political views and personalities would differ so much now that we wouldn't be able to get along but I was wrong. We clicked very well and had a great discussion. She's had a lot of resolve in her life from the previous divorce situations that she's had growing up and now she's starting to get settled in with her boyfriend Logan. Logan's family has been very supportive of Jordan since early in highschool when she moved to La Grande.
Jacob came over and talked to us after me and Jordan had been talking for about an hour so she got to meet my drug of choice this summer. Literally guitar playing has become like a drug.
It's funny, I explained to Jordan that I had a depression problem through highschool and that I was medicated on a few things before I dropped anti-depressant drugs. She said that I was the "debby downer" in middle school, and I look back to 7th grade and I'm sure I was. I was miserable practically all the time because I felt ugly and outcasted. Lack of self esteem reflects and people take advantage of it.
I'm glad things have changed since then.
Susan Atkins. I still plan on making that Sims 2 video of my replica of Spahn and Barker Ranch but I haven't had a chance yet... mainly because of time constraints, seems like whenever I get done practicing I don't feel like doing much else or it's 11 PM and starting a project seems like too much work.
I'm in Week 18 now. Just completed Month 4 recently. Another paper for my wall. I did 77.13 hours in July, which is pretty good considering the the California trip and all. I could have gone that whole week without playing but I took comfort in it when visiting with Grandma created stress at times.
I studied accounting today for an hour, sort of just going over the journal entry process and how to do all that again, Assets = Liabilities + O.E. and all the accounts that go under each headings, the basic stuff that we nailed over and over again in Key's class. I'm also kind of getting into adjusting entries from unearned service revenue to earned. How I'm memorizing it is applying "real life" to everything, imagining all of the accounting circumstances with my little guitar business that I'm going to start, even if it's entirely fictional because I don't even know if I'll be able to do it. Still, though, it's making things make a lot more sense.
Just me and my sister tonight, everything's locked up and quiet so my sister can go to sleep. She's got work tomorrow morning at 3 AM. My parents randomly left on some trip somewhere again.
Today's been a pretty productive day, studied accounting for over an hour and reviewed the second chapter. I figure if I do this almost every day between now and when I leave I'll have covered the whole book and I'll actually be ahead for when I start 252. My Dad says I need to relax because it's summer but by the looks of my walls I've been relaxing all summer.
Still haven't checked my balance and don't want too, I know I've probably already gone over my spending limit. I'm due to pay Katelynn again August 9th, I'm going to pay her another $50.
Darn it, gonna bite my tounge and check it.
OMFG I overdrew my account!!
Wow. Turns out Rite Aid didn't pay be and I overdrew my account by $45. I just flipped out and my Mom came in and we called Rite aid to see what's up. Linda's going to look on the computer and see if she can figure out of if there was a screw up in the system. Hell yeah there was a screwup, nothing happened in my account on payday or any of the following days. Once I get that money into my account I'm going to but the $80 BACK into my savings and just live off the roughly $200 until my next payday on the 16th. Hopefully I can save a good $100.
I swear if I get a good guitar lesson gig I'll be able to make more money than the $291 I'm getting from Rite Aid every 2 weeks. I figure I'll charge $20 for each half hour lesson. I haven't decided if that's too expensive or not but I'm certainly going to put more effort into my lessons than Neilson did when HE was charging $20 a lesson as well. He's pretty much disappeared off that face of the earth.
Today I learned all the locations of the note F. This is a pretty big accomplishment even if it's one of about 18. This is the first whack I've taken at learning the notes on the guitar but I intend to get a good grasp on them before I leave the tri cities. Jacob will be helpful I'm sure, even if his regime on learning these notes is a little crazy. The way I look at it, the best way for me to do this is to learn one note a day on each day that I learn a new one, I will review the previous day's note. So tomorrow I'll do G#... the next day G, review G# and F, etc.
Dave Murray, lead guitar of Iron Maiden. I've learned a couple iron maiden songs.
I want to learn Children of the Damned, it has a beautiful opening verse but would be very challenging for me.
I watched a documentary about Iron Maiden last night. For rockstars they really did have the best road in their career because of their true originality for their time. They were one of the originators of this heavy metal feel that stands for something. Stands for a lifestyle. We're not satanists by any means, but those of us that listen to this music have some sort of inner struggle that is alleviated by this music. The band had no religious connection to their music. "Eddie," their character that is being possessed by the Devil, is their main focal point in their music, sort of his stories I suppose.. But again, it's not meant to turn kids into satanists, it's all just for fun. Their music showcases the guitar like few other bands I've listened to so I absolutely love Iron Maiden.
No word from Jason today. More than likely he wants me to text him first but I'm not going to give him the satisfaction. Not because I'm not interested, but because I have really nothing to say. Nothing I've been up to today has been interesting for anyone to hear about, so why am I writing?
I guess just boredom. Giving myself a break from my instrument, waiting for my boss to call me back, wondering what I'm going to do tomorrow. Probably the same thing. Study and play guitar, why the Hell not, it's too hot to drive or go anywhere. Maybe I'll hang out with Katelynn, it is Tuesday after all. I feel bad, she's always having to drive out here... I'll have to be the one that drives tomorrow. Maybe we could meet up with Chris Simmons or something. I do want to hear about his time over in Japan, but he's been trying to arrange the Japanese club kids to get together and I just saw them three days ago.
I don't know, maybe we haven't been apart long enough, but I really had nothing to say... Well I did, but nobody seemed interested in hearing what I'd been doing. I asked each one of them what they'd been up too this summer and none of them returned the favor. Nathaniel did ask me about Central though, by then I felt a little anxious to say anything. I couldn't think of anything else to say so I just sat at my seat at Mizu, wondering what I should pick up off the conveyor belt and adding prices in my head.
I got a half salmon roll, two $1.50 maki plates and a little salad made from cucumbers and an overpowering tasting marinade. I also bought a dessert ice cram dango thing. All together it was around $11. I left feeling very unsatisfied, however, and was happy to dig into snacks that my parents had brought home from grocery shopping that evening.
Maybe it's more of an appetizer place than a dinner place. Taylor was suggesting that we all go to Sheri's after the meal at Mizu. Ah ha! He admits he wasn't that satisfied as well and didn't want to spend $30 on the meal, what a shocker. I can't say I'll be going to Mizu again, I thought it was a big rip off. I was complaining to Jason via text which he didn't seem to care much about (my ranting about prices, how fun to listen too!) and I then got him to respond by sending him a picture of ice cream dango. :o)
There we go. おいしいそうです。
And it was.
I loved the design, it was very flattering for the eye, as most things from Japan are, but I didn't know what to expect from the taste. Alas! It was chewy and delicious, filled with vanilla ice cream. Taylor said I was acting weird and anti social. I guess I just felt a little awkward. I did see Stephanie S. and asked how Zeus is doing.
I don't know how she feels about me, she could really dislike me for all I know and be putting on a front because I was always sort of a flaky friend toward her. She sort of was to be too though, and I think she got a little frustrated with how strange I was about guys and how I had zero game, so we drifted away from eachother. She appears to be doing well though, she looked pretty and we had a friendly chat. Can't worry about what people think of me anyway.
I'm going to get offline, gonna play with guitar pro for awhile. I'd really just like to learn something easy and out of the ordinary but I can't think of anything. Guess I'll just get Fear of the Dark solid enough to upload a video playing tomorrow. Jacob wants me to talk about how long I've been playing into greater depth as well as gave me permission and *encouraged* to mention him as well. Gladly, I really wouldn't have been able to do this without him and give him full credit for what I've learned so far. I've followed what he's told me to do. Any way I can help him and his business out! I'd be so sad if he lost his place because of flaky students or something. He seems to be booked almost completely but he's also sort of intimidating and I could see how students would quit if they didn't practice.
No word from Eli today but I did get my math class finalized. I'm in Montgomery's 8:00 class. Maybe I won't study much math, accounting is my main focus right now and I'm just going to have to have a fresh start in precalc. I think I'll be okay, I click so well with Asians I could find a tutor in no time, haha!
Last summer I was really concerned that Guy Stevens was the reason that I got sick and couldn't eat anything or sleep. I thought it was because I was nervous around him and the anxiety caused appetite suppression
This year the same thing has been happening, and there's been a 180 degree turnaround of the amount of stress in my life since last summer. I can't eat very well nor can I sleep quite right, even in my own bed. I've been making myself sleep with motion sickness relief pills occasionally (just one, don't panic) just to keep my sleeping routine in tact. I'll try to go to bed at a decent time but the heat will keep me up and then it'll end up being 1 or 2 AM before I actually sleep. The heat actually struck late this year, here it is late July and we're just barely getting that uncomfortable heat outside.
Me and Trisha were sitting outside last night while she was smoking a cigarette and I actually got cold with a slight breeze after being in their very warm house. I haven't liked the temperature changes this summer because I've either been really cold or hot. The only place I can seem to get temperature control is at home. Katelynn's house is pretty close to perfect, too, temperature wise but when I wear skimpy clothes to beat the summer heat I have to sit with a blanket. It's all silly. Maybe next summer I'll venture north to get away from this heat.
I've been hanging out over at Trisha's and Dylan's house a lot, for a number of reasons. First of all, me and Trisha were immediately really good friends. Our personalities contrast in a perfect way so that we get along. She's much more of a Type B personality than I am. She's so graceful and good at things that I suck at like cooking and cleaning so I feel like I can learn a lot from her. She's nice, very cool, she never annoys me and she has a good sense of humor.
Dylan and I sometimes butt heads. Not about anything in particular but he does rip on my music taste at least once or twice each time we're together. I don't rip on his but I think it pisses him off that I'm a shred guitarist and don't do much else yet. I've only been playing for... what this is week 15 or something? I want to expand to other music as I get better but this takes time. They've both been playing for years.
I did however notice Dylan trying to play some thrashy sounding stuff when we were sitting in the basement. I'll sit at there house while I'm hanging out with them and play like I do at home just to get my hours in. I won't play with the volume or anything because I know they don't like the music that I like.
Last night, however, this poking fun of my playing got to the point that I actually cried. We were sitting upstairs; me, Trisha, Dylan and Dylan's friend.. crap I can't remember his name, ERIC! Their shaggy haired blonde friend Connor usually showed up out of the blue from time to time, too, but Dylan and Eric are very close.
I liked Eric alright at first, he's got a pretty good sense of humor and he's intelligent. However, anytime I'd say anything around him he'd always either talk over me or rip on me, so I'd sort of stop talking after awhile. He's clever, he could take something I was describing that I was passionate about and totally turn it on me and make it seem like the lamest thing in the world.
He really pushed my buttons at around 1 am. We'd been partying a bit and I was really exhausted, we were sitting upstairs watching this political humor show... not Colbert Report but the other one. I don't know, I could care less about most politics in this country and don't recognize any of the "guests" on these shows, nor do I watch the news. I was doing my last hour of guitar, all palm muted of course so nobody would get annoyed by it.
I like the music that I do because I don't relate to music about love. Somehow my brain relates more to music about pain, war, Hell and destruction. Even if my life hasn't been that bad I've been through so much war with my own depression, pain and injustice with the people that this music just suits me better. So of course if I'm going to learn how to play guitar I'm going to learn songs that I like. I'm not trying to prove anything to anyone. In fact I hate playing in front of people and still consider myself a NOVICE player even if some that have heard me have been impressed with my speed.
Eric picked up my practice sheet and started reading the titles out loud. "Wow, look at this. Alternate picking pattern 1... alternate picking pattern 2... chromatic scales.. Am I reading this handwriting right? Fear of the Dark, OHH that sounds scary.." I simply told him it was by Iron Maiden.
He goes on to tell me, "Look, it's cool that you're a female shredder, there's none on the "scene" right now... but I absolutely can't stand this music and I'll just be over here doing MY *insert some band here, I don't even know*." He went off on a five minute tangent from here ripping on what I do and started making fun of how serious I was about it and in this process I'm like "Stop...... stop... Please stop."
I told him that I didn't want to be on any sort of "scene." I didn't want to be in a band or anything, I just want to play. He told me, "OHH you're just playing so that you can upload a video on youtube or something and have a bunch of metalheads get blown away that you can play their favorite song. Favorite. Favorite. Favorite." I had no prior indication that I had a youtube channel but he did hit the nail on the head with that one, yet made it sound so lame that I felt like I was being vain and ridiculous for even wanting to do so.
By now he had taken my practice sheet and started writing things on it. I don't know what he wrote because I finally just started crying and said, "It's like my therapy, don't do that!" He crossed the line.
It would have been 10x worse if he would of had the nerve to write on my actual practice sheet. I would have probably ripped it away from him and left. It's a major depression curbing tool that I use that is sacred to me. I was really offended and humiliated that he would take something that I thought was so cool and personal to me, and turned it into something that made me feel like I was being lame in my methods to other guitarists.
I'm going to get going, I slept in until 1 today because nobody's been home and I've just been chilling out. I don't want to see anybody, really.
