Thunderbolt

My life could be divided into two parts, right now. The various chapters would make up Part I, life before Julie, and Part II, the continuing saga I live each day since finding my soul mate. I was never a ladies man. Apparently not much of a risk taker, either. Throughout my formative years, Matt seemed to fill that role of risk taker; I learned years later that he was much more of a ladies man than I was, too. Sometime during our senior year of high school, he confided in me that he'd lost his virginity years earlier. I was devastated. Not sure why. Jealousy, I guess. And ego. I'd always thought of myself as "cooler" than Matt. Isn't that shitty? My best friend and I was always one step away from him, pursuing membership into more popular cliques. Mind you, I was loyal to Matt. I would have defended him no matter what he did back then. Once, when he was in a stupor, Matt clocked this kid at one of my annual summer party's. No reason. He just f...

Received some great news today that I get to write an episode of the series I'm working on. Although the tone of the show is slapstick comedy, I feel up to the task. And, God, I need some levity and need to be able to write it. I mean, come on, Blazing Saddles and Arrested Development have brought me so much joy; I grew up watching the Abbott and Costello movies and worshiping the Marx Brothers; and Animal House and Dumb and Dumber rank high on my all time favorite movie lists. Some of it has to have rubbed off on me. No, I feel good about this. It also helps that the writing staff is very supportive and I will be able to bounce ideas off of them. Thinking back on all of those movies I watched as a kid stirs up memories of Matt. The two of us must have seen every movie at the old First Run Video store back in North Olmsted. That was, I believe, the very first video store in town. Maybe American Video opened around the same time, but I never heard of American Video until I w...

Finished the room today and I'm wiped out. I have that layer of grime and latex on me from being around paint all day. But I'm kind of wired (probably from the paint fumes) so I'm no where near ready to go to bed. The room looks great. We chose the right color. Last night I watched "The Quiet American" starring Michael Caine and Brenden Fraser. Man, what a fantastic movie. I love the way the story weaves one man's desperation to stay with his lover and in the process, gets sucked into something larger than himself. Truly one of the best pictures I've seen in a long time. I also spoke with Elliott last night. I'll tell you, it was a great conversation lasting over an hour. Since Matt died he and I have spoken every six weeks or so, the mood generally getting better. Both of us marveled that it's almost been a year since Matt left us. Elliott was the closest to him when he died. The two of them spoke almost nightly. They were best friend...

Fell asleep three times last night. Once while putting Jake to bed. Then Sophie woke up and wanted me to snuggle her...#2. Finally, I got up around midnight so I could wash and boil the nebulizer cups. While the water was starting to boil, I fell asleep on the couch. Wait, if you count actually crawling into bed to sleep for the rest of the night, that's actually four times. So, you can understand why I didn't have an opportunity to sit down and wait for our dial up to take 15 minutes to connect and our AOL service to take another 10 minutes to get me to the Blogger web page. So far, it's been mostly me and Jake together this weekend. Jules had to work today and Sophie wound up going over to B&K's to play with her cousins. When she came home, Jules got back from work and the two of them went to a birthday party for the girls down the street. So, Jake and I have been hanging out. He's passed out on the couch right now. Little guy really needs to take a...

The problem with technology is that it sometimes takes a dump on you. Case in point, we lost phone service on Thursday and there was no way to connect to the Internet. I know your jaw must be on the ground by now thinking "how could they NOT have DSL?" But, for some reason, affordable DSL has not reached our little neighborhood. And the fact that our phone company couldn't tell us when our land line would be back up and running was equally frustrating. Originally they gave us a five day window. FIVE DAYS?! No wonder they're losing business to cellular phone companies. Anyway, I did write on Thursday. Here is what I was going to post: Just spent the past hour and a half writing eight pages of material that is darker than anything I've ever written before. Not just horror movie dark, but uncomfortable in your own skin dark. Am I just trying to be provocative and cause a stir like SAW or HOSTEL? Or am I working out some sick issues I have floating around in ...

From: Scott Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 To: Steve Hey, I did my best to find some connection between Chris Penn and Wilson Pickett, but the task was fruitless (and I ran out of time). I'm sure that out there, somewhere, someone can find a movie in which one of Pickett's songs appeared in a Chris Penn movie. I was going to dedicate today's song entirely to Pickett, but I've always been a fan of Penn, even getting excited when he appeared on a recent episode of Everwood> So I thought it fitting to include a dedication to him in this week’s edition of the hump day song. I first became exposed to “Wicked” Pickett in the summer of ‘87, when I went on a soul music kick after discovering Otis Redding in Washington DC. I had bought some Atlantic cheap-o compilation and wore it out. From there, I bought similar tapes by Aretha, Sam & Dave and Wilson Pickett. Of those three, Pickett’s tape got the most use. The common thread of all four of these artists was the passion t...

I must be a glutton for pain, or a complete imbecile. My neighbor has said he will run a half marathon in June to raise money for CF and I told him I would train with him and run it with him. Am I nuts? But he’s dedicated. Seriously. You know how sometimes you talk about a task in passing or just to make some conversatrion, not thinking it will really lead to anything. Uh, yeah, not this guy. He called this afternoon wanting to know when we would begin running. Heh, heh. So, I guess I’ll look into a training schedule and into getting some new shoes. These ones I have aren’t doing the job. My feet hurt so much and they don’t offer enough arch support. Been thinking a lot about Matt lately. It’s coming up un the anniversary of his death. I should call Elliott and email his mom. I can’t believe it’s been a year. Miss him. I look at old photos of him and think, “where the hell are you, Brookens?” A year. Damn.