The Process

I'm still alive, but it was one more long, strange weekend.


Walkman starter, "Highways and Heartaches," by Joe Ely.  That should help wake me up, along with a large iced coffee, plus whatever medicines are working in me.


Friday went well at WITF; a good, smooth day, and I'm finally figuring a lot more out.  Turned out to be one hell of a day, and evening.


Got to see Alice again, and we are definitely something.  Well, she's something anyway!  Where the hell have we each been all our lives...I'm just happier than I've been in a long time.  Interesting what a relationship will do, isn't it?


The weekend veered off into weirdness.  I did the afternoon/evening shift for KYW, and while that was all well and good, I had no idea what was waiting for me after.


In the middle of all this, I am back home for Beltane.  The coven and friends gathered at my house, at the last minute for the weather.  Short, but very good ritual; went well, had a good time.  Of course, mindful I have to get up in the am.


I had to do the fast turnaround, which meant leave midnight Saturday and then be back there at like 10 am Sunday...easy, right.


WRONG.


The first part of the shift went pretty fast; the Phillies were playing in the evening, the Sixers are out of the playoffs, and the Flyers dropped their first game to the Bruins the night before.  The Union won, but KYW doesn't give a fuck about soccer, even though they send reporters to the home games.


"Cready Stomp," studio outtake by Pearl Jam...nice.  Perfect for what comes next:


About 2 pm, Rick, my boss calls.  Our far-flung weekender who works for ESPN is stuck in New York State with a broken down ride.  He will not make it.  I proceed to make the decision to stay, until midnight.


Double shift time...running on little sleep as it is, I figure, no big deal, right...yeah, right.  I keep going, the night drags on, and of course, the Phils and Mets go into extra innings!


14 innings.  1-1 game; at least it was interesting to some extent.  I felt so brain dead, normally I can find other things to do, multi-task, etc.  Not really.  


I didn't get out of there until 1 am, Monday.  15 hour shift.  Hey it's money, right?  As I was prepping to leave, I see my WITF boss, Tim Lambert for the second time.  He was here when I arrived, and he was back before I left.


Reason?  Heard during the game that Osama bin Laden had been killed in a firefight in Pakistan.  So he's in to do the news thing, and planned to go over to the all-night diner across the highway to get sound.


The fun of this world of radio of ours.


"Infinite Love," Nawang Khechog...very different segue, no?


I stagger over to the Sunoco station to get coffee for the ride home...gonna need it.  See some punk band rolling up for gas...can't even remember their name now, a lot of S's in the name.


Crash and burn.


Eight hours later, I'm awake.  Why, I don't know.  Monday, back to the Office, where I finally start to get to work again on "Silk Road Days."  This book is taking a long time to write; I've been rewriting, and adding scenes through the first part of it, because there's a lot missing, and I have a lot more development to do.


Oh, and the TrafficTalk gang called.  I was asked to help cut a phone promo on a new idea they have to deal with the service.  Still talking with people, still working on ideas, funding, etc.  


So now...I was up until 1:30 am, writing, and doing stuff.  The band is hopefully going to gather, at least two or three of us, but would you not know?


Darren, our fill-in drummer was to host Dan and myself; just now he calls...power's out.


Weird shit.  So waiting now to see if Dan's awake and what he'll do.


"Your Hands," John & Yoko...mostly Yoko...oh dear.  Her poetry is good, her voice is NOT.  Skip.


"I Can't Explain," studio version, the Who...now we're talking!


Back to Alice...can't stop thinking of her and talking of her.  I have been loathe to write much about her, or mention who she is online, because I don't want to jinx what we have here.  She's a professional stagehand, and knows all that behind the scenes stuff. She has an attitude, she's Pagan (slightly different than me, but who cares?), and rather uninhibited.


Think I finally found my match.  Damn.  It is a very strange situation, but I'm quite pleased, and very happy.  To have someone tell you they love you is really amazing...especially when you know they  mean it.


"Fortune Teller," Who Live at Leeds...ahhh...yes, there's a lot of Who on my Walkman.


So, I now look at things a little differently.  I have a reasonable amount of work right now, and while the new guy at ITF starts later this month, I at least have some extra hours.  All good, but I do wonder about further down the road.  Just gotta keep dealing with things as best I can.  Yet I sometimes wonder about my decisions at times.


See what we can do, I suppose...we all do.


Pittsburgh in a couple of days...hope to make it there in time to have lunch with an old friend and radio colleague, then putz about until I meet Riz for the Jim Jeffries show...and of course, work all weekend right after.  This is life; this is what we insane people do.


"Trees," Paul Weller...weird fucking song on his latest album...about sex changes, I think...or something...need to skip.  I love the Jam and Weller on his own, but oh God not now...


"The Secret Agent Ending," Philip Glass, "Glass Reflections" CD...gotta get going, now.