Feb 14, 2009

February 14, 2009

I'm at my parent's home as I decided to spend a few weeks with them before the impending move out to California. I am to fly out on Thursday for a face to face meeting, and if all is well, the previously discussed tentative start date for my new job is March 1st.

So... I am at my parent's house rummaging through my belongings to see what I will take, and what to leave behind.

Couple thoughts and findings:

I've kept my first cell phone from 2005 because it has pictures I took of an ex girlfriend, AND a tornado, both of which, I will probably never see again.

Both the ex girlfriend and the tornado came into my life quickly, f--ked s--t up, and left as quickly as they came.

Regardless, they were both probably some of the most exciting things to happen to me, and for that, I yearn to float in nostalgic ponderings about them on my visits to here.

I always leave the cell phone here, and every few months/years dig it back up.

Here's the tornado. I wish I would have been cool and posed in front of it. It was over a half mile away so there wasn't any immediate danger.



My Treasure Box

I have a large box with my treasures at my parents. I hope to have a home one day, and maybe then, I can be with my cherished belongings.

In the box, there are:

Art made by my friends,
Letters, cards, and notes from old friends,
Shirts from my road trips around the US,
Odd trinkets that are keys to unlocking some stored memories,
A small number of select Books that formed a significant amount of my perceptions about life.

I serendipitously found this one piece of artwork by my friend Ali while flipping through a book.

It is Good.



The Inspiration

In a folder with magazine clippings, old drawings, and random writings, I found this.

This is a scan of some magazine images from an old Amiga Arts magazine that started it all. I saw these when I was about 12 years old, around 1989.

I remember being in awe of these images, and I think that's where my interest in digital arts began.



A Sad, yet Entertaining Monkey

So I found some old spiral notebooks from 1995-97. I won't post the most embarrassing of the self pitying, brooding drivel, but here are some delightful little things that made me chuckle.

If you can't read it, this is a spiral notebook with Tennessee Tech printed on it, and I've added "Prison."



While looking through the notebook, apparently, I was very unhappy on November 2, 1997.

See, there are two figures of me in a most evocative, artistic expression of my woes.

One seems to be lying dead, while the second depiction of myself has my soul leaving the body, as if to say, "Im getting the f--k outta here."

All joking aside, I remember horrible episodes of severe anxiety and gloomy depression , where it actually felt like my soul wanted to leave my body. Maybe it was acid reflux, it sure did feel like it manifested itself physically.

Anyways, this makes me giggle. Pain... Is Funny.



Letter from Jail

I found an old letter written from jail from my drug dealer friend (Over a decade ago, we lost touch.) He was a nice fellow, except that he was a mass dealer of marijuana. He loved Bob Marley and frisbee golf, who would have guessed?

Anyways, I was to take care of his apartment during his 4 month incarceration, and one of the task that he spoke about in his letter besides finding God, was to cancel his AOL.

I remember I was unsuccessful...

Jimi: "My friend needs to cancel his account please."

CSR: "Why is your friend not calling?"

Jimi: "He's in jail. I have his account number and everything."

CSR: "How long is he in jail?"

Jimi: "Four months."

CSR: "Well, it looks like XXXXXX has been a long time customer so we would like to help him out. We will waive the monthly fee for four months, does that sound OK?"

This is a true story.

I think I stopped being his friend, not because he was a drug dealer, he was actually pretty discreet about that, so I never saw that part of his life, but one time...

He, a friend, and I went to play frisbee golf. During the short round of 18 holes, he sucked down 10 Natural Ice beers. I noticed this as he handed me the box when we got back in the car.

Jimi: "Ha."

Drunk Friend: "What's so funny?"

Jimi: "You threw down like 10 beers in less than 2 hours!"

Drunk Friend: "F--k you, you won't think it's funny when I hit you in your Face!"

It was an awkward ride home as he instructed the other friend to stop by a McDonalds and he got two Big Mac, and proceeded to get Thousand Island Special Sauce everywhere on the dash as he changed the air and radio with his dirty messy hands.

The friend was perturbed cause it was his brand new, NEW car.

I don't think I ever hung out with him again.

That is all. Going back to looking through my crap.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it's awesome that you're open about some of these things. For all of the "closeness" that the internet allows, humanity is severely lacking in most of it.

I have had some times of really bad depression which spawned artwork that I wince to think of. Haha.

Best of luck on the west coast. Sometime when you come back to alabammy we should get sauced.

jimiyo said...

Thanks man!

I'm very similar IRL, straightforward/blunt. I think people are too oddly secretive of things that are universally experienced.

I know everyone's pooped or peed themselves, I don't mind going there!

Aye, gettin sauced sounds like fun. :D

X said...

I'm with Nick...I really enjoy reading about your thoughts and feeling regarding your path through life. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something keeps me coming back to this blog to see what your next step is...aside from the your killer art, of course!

jimiyo said...

Thanks John. I appreciate it!

kat said...

you inspire me.

Jayna said...

it's cute that you are afraid of curse words.

And yea this was a nice little entry

jimiyo said...

kat: XD I should have big news Friday. I'm so nervous, I don't know really why cause it will be what will be. Just feels like waiting for a big answer to be revealed.

ha Jayna. i drop them like a sailor. my parents and relatives read this blog, and they are all fairly devout/religious Christians. i guess i censor a little bit for them. im horrible though, depending on who im talking to, i might as well be a rapper or Al Pacino.

Anonymous said...

Good luck in the meeting!
What area in California?

Norcal and Socal are two very different places/people..

jimiyo said...

Mark who? Headrick?

SoCal.

Anonymous said...

Mark from Teefury!

Cool..
Socal is nice..
big art scene now in Los Angeles
Lots of companies/art crowd in Orange county also but more surf/skate stuff..

Cali is nice because if you get sick of LA you can always take a roadtrip to SF or San Diego and even Las Vegas!
San Bernardino Mountains or Ventura for retreats
and then theirs ol Tijuana mexico border for some culture!..

Anonymous said...

Ha!
Like I would know anything about California.
I remember the tornado. We'll always have that.
You still gonna swing by East Texas on your way out West?

jimiyo said...

Mark and Mark!

HA!

Mark #1: I checked out the place. Where Im going to be living issssss TIIIIIIIGGGHT. Laguna Beach is 20 minutes from work. Many interesting stuff nearby as well. I like that Im not in IN LA.

Mark Headrick: What part of TX do you live in? I have to cross right through the middle. The Most HORRIBLE DRIVE EVER.

Ms. M said...

congrats about so cal. i wouldn't suggest living in irvine, though. living in irvine is for tools. love the aol/jail story. you are a great writer. you should consider adding that to your body of work if you haven't already. and congrats on today's woot. it's awesome.