I Am Jacks Wasted Life

Oy. This has been a long week.

Let’s see. First there was Raven‘s party last Saturday. The preparations went down to the wire, and were so close to being disastrous that I was actually ordered to call people and cancel. As we progressed however, we simply delayed the start time an hour and re-invited those who nearly had their plans changed for the evening.

The party went really well I think. The costumes were again impressive. Unfortunately, I do not have the photographic evidence I was able to provide last year, due to a severe lack of a digital camera. However, there were some photos taken, so once those are developed and scanned they will be posted.

Then, we have to talk about my Parent’s House. Kaiser, Raven, & I worked tirelessly Monday night and practically all day on Tuesday trying to secure all valuables and jettison all garbage from the house. This was largely successful, however, we were not done late Tuesday evening. At this point, my parents called and said that there would be an escrow put in for the buyer, so that if anything remained in the house on Monday, November 1st, he would get $3000 to have it cleaned out. Satisfied that we had a few more days and a weekend to finish up we went home.

The next day: CHAOS!

Apparently, the realtor didn’t clear this idea with the buyer, and the buyer wanted to walk away from the deal altogether because he thought the house hadn’t been worked on at all. This was not only obviously not true, but very frustrating as well. I would swear that this guy is seriously just trying to bilk my folks. This is not the first time he’s “surprised” us. However, the solution was to push the closing back to Monday, and a crew is being hired to clean out the house. Basically, anything left in the house on Thursday morning was disposed of. Wednesday night I was able to get a big load of stuff to Goodwill, a load to our storage unit, and packed my car to the gills with everything else.

As I drove away at 3:43 AM it was a very odd feeling. It didn’t feel like goodbye. At least now my involvement in the whole fiasco should be over. Maybe I’ll stop by on my way home to see if all is well.

So, last night, I went home from work and slept. Now all I have to worry about this weekend is the election. Does it have to be such a nail-biter? Hey, check out Mosh. It’s amazing. I only hope that enough of today’s youth gets to see it and understand the power of its message. Come November 2nd, we will be heard.

It’s ok. I’ve given myself a timeout.

The Management of iam.jackswastedlife.org would like to apologize for the tone of the previous post. It was a bit heavy-handed and is not the sort of discourse that (I hope) you have come to expect from my humble little blog.

However, life has been getting to me a little bit lately. Something had to give. Steam had to be vented.

Just to recap: I am currently working full-time, attending my last (thank god) quarter of college full-time ( days), trying to clear out my parents house, and preparing our house (paint, move furniture, etc.) for Raven‘s birthday party.

Work has been a bit of a drag too. I started this contract over a year ago now, when the IT market was more than a little bleaker. The pay rate is the lowest I have been paid in eight years. There have been promises of a raise that has been delayed again and again. Currently, I’ve been given half what I was originally told. <grr>

So yes, GSeven is grumpy. However, he’s also amused to see that he’s the #1 search result on yahoo for Am I Wasted.com. Doesn’t seem like a URL one would forget…

Sorry surfers, no pictures of wasted people here. However, the kitty is up for adoption.

Those who live in glass houses…
Listen here fuckwad; you have absolutely no right to complain about me. EVER. If you lived to be 100, it would still not be possible for me to heap as much shit on you as you have on me.
First of all, you and our parents have known that they were going to move for upwards of 3 years. THREE YEARS that went by with little or no actual planning for this momentous occasion. Secondly, remember the month worth of garage sales? How many of those days were you there to help out? I don’t remember seeing you there more than once, and I was there nearly every day. Bearing in mind, I DON’T LIVE THERE! Which reminds me, the Computer Desk that I was trying to sell, the one you put a “Sold” sign on right away so you could have it and then decided you didn’t want it? I still want my $50.
I also find your description of our trip to Chicago this past weekend interesting. I mean, it was only a trip to celebrate our anniversary. I can see how you might forget about our anniversary, what with your hardly finding time to attend the wedding and all. Oh, and thanks for the wedding gift too. We’re really enjoying the NOTHING that you gave us.
Regardless, you have had almost 2 months to get the house taken care of. Weekend before last, you call me and want to plan. I say Sunday or Monday night because I don’t start classes until Tuesday. You say Monday night. (Postponement #1)
Monday night I call you and you’re at some bar in North Minneapolis. (Postponement #2) Tuesday night I have class, I call you again afterword, and you’re busy. (Postponement #3) Suddenly on Wednesday, the sky is falling. “You realize we’re screwed?” you say. I get a call from Dad saying that he hears “rumors” that I’m going to Chicago when we were supposed to be having a sale.
Funny, I don’t remember committing to that.
That night after class I call, and you’re off to Karaoke. It doesn’t matter though, because you’ve “made your decision.”
“I’m just getting a big ass dumpster and throwing it all away!”
Fine, take the easy, half-assed way out. It doesn’t bother me. Hell, I’m getting used to it by now. Take some potshots at me. You’re not fooling anyone. I know of no one who leads a more self-centered shallow existence. I hope you enjoy your time there in the kiddie-pool, while the rest of us adults enjoy the deep end.

Raven & I have been concert-going freaks lately.

Well, maybe not freaks, but freak-like, freakish, freak-a-fied… OK I’ll stop…

We started our rockin’ last week with the Vote for Change Tour. (StarTribune.com Review) It was amazing. It wasn’t just a concert, it was an unbelievable experience. And believe it or not, it was fairly low key politically. I mean, there was no secrecy about how the artists felt about miserable failure and his cronies, but the night was not one long rant about it. Instead, they were all very positive. They were there to empower, motivate, and inspire.

They sure got to me. For some reason the most powerful moment of the evening came when Neil Young came onstage with REM. He was sporting a “Canadians for Kerry” button. They did an incredible rendition of “Country Feedback” from Out of Time. I can’t explain it. It was just amazing.

Not long after that, Bruce came out and sang a duet with Michael of “Man on the Moon”. The whole night was filled with this energy of collaboration. Neil joined Bruce & the E-Street Band later, as did John Fogerty and Michael Stipe. For the finale, everyone was on the stage. Even the opening act, Bright Eyes, was there sharing the spotlight as they closed the night singing “People have the power”. It was well after Midnight but I still didn’t want it to end.

Ministry was ok. I liked the music and all, but I just can’t stand the Quest. And people were being dumb. I understand slam-dancing, but it has its place, in the middle of the floor. Not on the edges. Not where people are just trying to watch the show even thought the sight lines are god-awful. IN THE PIT! Raven claims that I have invented some separation of terms with slam-dancing versus moshing, but I don’t like to listen to her.

After all, she plays some game called Duck, Duck, Goose.

Chuck Palahniuk sent me to the hospital. Well, sort of anyways. Raven & I went to a book signing presented by Bound to be Read at the Riverview Theatre. We arrived with paperback copies of Diary & Fight Club, as well as our Fight Club DVD and My Brother’s. We settled into our seats and began to listen to his readings from one of his books, when all of a sudden I felt really nauseous. I thought I was going to throw up, but instead everything just started to get real far away…. …. As everything faded back in, I realized that Raven was frantically asking if I was OK. I was pretty sweaty, but otherwise I was only a little disoriented, and assumed I’d just passed out. Could it have been that simple? No, not so much…

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