The Wright Stuff

Today was a pretty neat day. Forgive the third grade description but I'm exhausted and neat pretty much sums it up. I'm still looking for jobs and I want to find something that I enjoy. Same story, different verse. I'm looking at colleges around town but I've always liked writing and have a Journalism degree to show for it. Ever since high school I've told people that I want to write a humor column a la Dave Barry. If you've never read his stuff, please check him out. He's semi-retired but his voice is terrific and most anyone can relate to what he's written about. Another writer I really enjoy reading is ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine's Wright Thompson. He wrote the piece, Saints Are The Soul of America's City, that everyone linked to on Facebook a couple of months ago. I read a story he wrote about Myron Rolle, the Florida State football player that is also a Rhodes Scholar. At the end of the story, there was an email address for Thompson and I figured what the heck.

I shot him a note asking for some advice on how someone in my situation might course correct onto a bearing toward writing. Not 20 minutes later, he'd emailed me back with a contact and some words of encouragement. That is total class and it could not come at a better time. Even if things don't ultimately plan out, just having that kind of input is enough to restore a great deal of confidence that's been lacking as of late. I'm doing my best to live out the adage that I should take something I enjoy and find a way to make money doing it. Again, nothing is certain at all, but I can at least see a bit of land on the horizon.

Another neat thing happened today. People always tell me that I have a great voice. When I worked for Tim Fletcher at KTBS in Shreveport, he told me I had a voice made for TV and a face made for radio. He also said that in a lecture with a hundred of my peers. He did other not so nice things to me too on camera too. By on camera I mean to be put on the local sports broadcast and not on the tabloids. I've digressed quite a bit. When I lived in Shreveport, I'd call radio stations and other on air talent trying to find out how to get a foot in the door for some sort of voice over work. Never heard one word from anyone and that was always a little frustrating. I'm not necessarily looking for a career but just something cool to try my hand at. I did a google search and randomly came across a guy's website who was a professional voice over artist. I sent him an email explaining how I'd tried and tried to get someone to talk to me to no avail and if he had any advice. He replied this afternoon saying he'd love to talk to me but didn't have my phone number. Send it to him and he'll call me this week and we can chat. Good grief my faith in humanity was restored just a little bit today.

Again, not one single thing could come from this but still it's nice to have these opportunities. I'm not giving up. I'm going to find something I enjoy. Even if it has to be two, three, or four separate things. Kristen and I are excited and are really looking forward to our future. Kudos to optimism.

Mr. Mom

Did you ever see the Michael Keaton classic from the early 80's? Easily one of my favorite movies although nothing will ever, ever beat Real Genius but that's a completely different post. In fact, I could write for days on the quotability and timelessness of that slice of Val Kilmer genius. I bring up Mr. Mom because of the plot line involving the wife going back to work while the husband stays at home. That parallels my situation for the time being while Kristen's working and I'm looking for a job. I am doing my best convincing myself not to grow a beard a la Keaton and by that I mean Kristen is forbidding me to do so. Understandable I suppose but one way or another, I will work a neck beard into my life at some point. If I can't have a super sweet stache (alliterations are awesome), I at least want a neck beard.

I started delivering resume's last week. It's hard looking for a job when you don't know anyone in town and you have to start fresh. Especially when you have such a diverse background as I do. That's a classy way of saying I took a bunch of crappy jobs that did nothing to pave a career. Ever since I left Louisiana Tech, I've been trying to get back on a college campus. Fortunately there are several in the area and hopefully I can catch on with one of them. That is a career that I am genuinely interested in. I think its pretty cliche to say now, but money isn't important to me as long as I'm doing something I enjoy. I've learned that the hard way unfortunately but that's what fresh starts are for.

My dogs are crazy and a little bit special. The snow came down in blankets last night and I figured out that O.D. and Peewee really like to play fetch with snowballs. Peewee would run after them but couldn't seem to find them once they disintegrated on the ground. O.D. would just catch and eat them and get them all over his muzzle. Dude looked like a cross between Santa Clause and Timmy from South Park. You have to know O.D. to really appreciate that.

You Wouldn't Last A Day On The Creek

Do not ever cross James Van Der Beek. Goose Creek might not quite make it to Dawson's Creek standards but it comes close. Actually I have no idea. I've never seen Dawson's Creek. I know a dude who taped every episode and loved the show like a child. He did the same thing with Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Friends. I guess that's cool in a complete antithesis of manly sort of way. I'd certainly never choose to do that sort of thing but to each his own. But I digress.

We now live in Goose Creek, South Carolina. We're about 15 miles north of Charleston. We live in the middle between Charleston and the town that Kristen works in. That way the commute isn't so bad. The verdict is still out on what we think of the town. We live in a great neighborhood that's really a large community made up of several neighborhoods. There's a golf course, several ponds and twenty miles of walking/running trails to explore. That's terrific but truthfully, that's about all there is to this little town. That and potholes. Man, South Carolina roads are worse than Louisiana's and that's a hard thing to admit. Seriously it's an epidemic of Fat Monica from Friends size proportions (I watched the show but never taped it. Get over it). There's another town a few miles away called Summerville that has much more charm for lack of a better word. Lots of old homes and small wooden churches but with a bit more to the actual town. The commute would be the same and again, Charleston is right down the road.

Whenever Kristen and I start feeling stressed or homesick, we drive downtown. I really can't explain it but for some reason it just calms us down and really makes us feel like we belong here. There's an ambiance surrounding it and you can see the history on every block. Kind of a cross between the French Quarter in New Orleans and 19th Century London. I guess you have to see it to understand it. They have all sorts of shops too including a cupcake store that sells nothing but cupcakes. These cupcakes have icing that is six inches high. There are also lots of stores...mostly for snotty people to feel self important. They're fun to go in and look at though. There's a Lacoste store but I just look in the windows and then get mine off of ebay for 1/8 the cost. Most importantly though, downtown has a Mellow Mushroom. That's my favorite pizza/calzone and I almost cried when I found out about it. Okay, I did cry. I cried hard and long with tears of pride and joy and other non hetero sounding words. I love pizza served by hippies man. Something about it just feels groovy. Kristen was impressed...