Latent

 It seems like a sleepless night, and thus a good time to catch up with OD.

I recently went to Portland. It didn’t go at all like I planned but I certainly enjoyed myself.

I originally was going to go up there early Saturday, but then I decided to go Friday so I could already be there for the Derby bout on Saturday. I ended up leaving at about 5 after some car troubles delayed me. I guess I didn’t fully put my car in park the last time I had used it, so the transmission was being weird, and that also somehow drained the battery. Plus I was almost completely out of oil. After taking care of all that the trip was fine. I got to Dave and Serina’s at 9:30-ish. I hadn’t seen them in close to a year, so it was cool getting to hang out with them. They had a baby in August, Theo(short for Theodin), he’s fussy but totally a cute kid. It’s nice knowing people who have kids, so that way when that very seldom paternal urge pops up, I can nip it in the bud by being around other people with their kids. And I don’t have to clean up the mess when they poop or throw up, bwahaha.

Saturday was the day of the bout. I wasn’t on the list so I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to help. I wasn’t. The Portland people basically ushered me out of the building once they found that out. Plus tickets were sold out, so my only option was to wait in the cold and try to find someone to buy tickets off of. After waiting in my car for a couple hours, I said screw it and went back to Dave and Serina’s. I was supposed to hang out with another friend but he was off in Salem for some reason, so I stayed at their place again.

Sunday kind of went according to plan. My goal was to hang out with Boh, the current object of my affection. She’s the younger sister of my friend Torrey. I was kinda ehhh at first, as I’m 23 and she’s 19, but I got over it. We were getting to know each other earlier in the year, and then I think when I moved to AZ that kind of killed it. I don’t expect anything, and I’m not too keen on long-distance relationships, but I would make an exception for her. She is cute, funny, ridiculously creative, and, well, weird. All of that appeals to me. It wasn’t awkward hanging out either, and we’re both pretty awkward when it comes to relationships. I can’t think of a single other girl on the planet that would be willing to listen to video game music with me in my car and think it’s cool, instead of me being some total weirdo. We’ll see what happens. If we did start dating, I would definitely move up there once my lease is up in October.

We all hung out Sunday, and went to Uwajimaya(a giant Asian grocery store with a Japanese bookstore and some other stuff) and got a bunch of stuff to make sushi and shrimp tempura and miso soup and whatnot, though we only ended up making sushi. Serina and Boh both don’t really have that many friends, so hopefully that’ll get them to hang out more than they have been. I didn’t really do anything besides hang out with people, but it was still a good weekend.

I got back yesterday at 8:30-ish. I played some Munchkin Quest with Scott, Tamara, and Skyler, and stayed up way too late messing with my new monitor. It’s really nice, but the picture doesn’t take up the whole monitor, and there’s no actual setting to fix it manually, just stupid buttons like Fun and Smart that take you to sub-menus. Yeah, that’s useful…Plus there was no sound for some reason, but I finally fixed that. And then I couldn’t sleep, so here I am. I’m supposed to get up at 6 and go to work at 7, and it’s 3:30…no way that’s happening. I’m going to call in, which from the sounds of it shouldn’t be a big deal. If it is…who cares. I’m going to use this day to fill out apps and look for a new job. Call center stuff, at least ass-kissing call center work, isn’t my cup of tea. We have to basically start off by apologizing to the customer, and even if it’s their fault, we apologize and replace the item or refund the shipping or whatever they want.

If I move to Portland, Dave said he’d do his best to help me get in at Stream, the call center they work at. They work for Microsoft, and Microsoft is a giant company with a retarded amount of money, so if it’s the customer’s fault, that’s pretty much what they tell them. That would be a lot better than having to relent to the customer’s every whim. Plus he started at 10.50 and he’s making 11.25 in less than a year, though he did get promoted to supervisor, but still, the extra money would be nice, and probably necessary for the higher cost of living in Portland. Portland mostly depends on my friends still living there, something happening with Boh, and me getting better on bass, as the music scene in Portland is undoubtedly way bigger and better than the one in Medford.

Lately I’ve been working a bunch and feeling stressed. A couple friends from Michigan are staying with us, and they’re not really that tidy, so that’s kind of stressful, I just haven’t been able to relax lately. I haven’t written any songs in a couple months, which is very unusual. I haven’t been overly productive, I’ve kind of dropped off in terms of working out and playing bass. I need to revive the latent ability and motivation hidden within me. It’s there, just as hope for a relationship and love and all that crap, which I thought had completely left me, still seems to exist. I’m only getting older, so I need to only be getting better.

Ugh…pulling an all-nighter will be tough, but it’s necessary. I was up until 2 or 3 every night in Portland, so this is the best way to reverse that quickly.