Exile On Laurel Street

Well, it's been a few weeks since I last posted, and pretty much everything I figured that was going to happen, did. My boss laid me off from my courier route, not because of anything I'd said or done but because he'd lost so many of his other accounts he couldn't afford to pay me. However, he was able to pay me before we left town, and told me that if the economy improved he'd be more than happy to hire me back should I return to Reno. We're at my mother's house in Port Angeles, where the contents of our kitchen melded quite nicely with hers, and I've cooked a standing rib roast, kebab koobedeh and other delights for the family, to great fanfare and applause.

Honestly, it's been kind of surreal being back in Port Angeles. Some things haven't changed at all, while some things have changed beyond recognition. One thing that has changed around here is the absolute obsession with "Twilight". The teen-romance/vampire craptastrophe is set in Forks, an otherwise completely unremarkable little redneck lumber town about an hour west of here. As a result of this, hordes of teen and preteen girls (and their mothers) have begun to come to the Olympic Peninsula in the last few years to see the places and sights described by the book series. Naturally, local businesses have played along, and their are references to the book, its characters and its events all over the area.

It's fucking nauseating.

But it's home, and in a time and economy when jobs are scarce, you've got to do what you've got to do to keep your head above water, so I keep my revulsion to myself. After all, I might wind up employed at some place where I'll be neck-deep in "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob" crap. That said, I still have gigs to play in Nevada, and connections to make in Washington to augment the load. I'll be back in Carson City at the beginning of February for two weeks at the Station, followed by three weeks at John Ascuaga's Nugget in Sparks as well as the Station in March. Hopefully, I'll be able to get my tattoo from Ali at No Boys Allowed then, mostly because Joy desperately wants to be there to watch me squirm.

And things aren't so bad here. We have a comfortable bedroom upstairs, with just about everything we need for the time being. My little brother has video games up the ying-yang in the room next door. Only having one bathroom in the house is kind of a bitch, but we're adapting. We even manage to have wireless internet, though that's because our next door neighbor has an unsecured wireless network in her own house. Thank you, whoever you are. And I even have a jam night to go to on Sunday night, though it'll be a little odd going to a jam hosted by my homeroom teacher from the 6th grade!

I think we'll do just fine, though. So here's to change and to what it brings. I'm ready.

Bring it on, motherfucker.