This is a journal that me and my best friend joe made when we went cross country. I believe the year was 2006, the month August. My journey started in Richmond, VA. My band I Live With Zombies was supposed to go on a 30 day tour to the west coast and back. Our bass player Jason told us he couldn't do it with a week and a half left before we left. His inability to go on tour was due to a medical; condition, so you can't blame him. We tried to figure out what to do last minute, but in the end everybody wasn't on the same page, so the tour got cancelled.
I had asked my friend Joe, who was living in Cortland, NY, if he could fill in for bass. He agreed to it, but I had told him that I had to run it by the guys before he did anything drastic. When I had got back to Joe to tell him that the tour wasn't going to happen, he told me he had already quit his job and was ready to leave. My landlord in Richmond had sold the house we were renting at, and I was already moving in with my girlfriend temporarily, and I had recently quit my job to go on tour, so we decided to go cross country in my van.
The journal is written on a notepad that we got from our friend Lauren in Nunda, NY. Notes written in the margin on the front page,"send me a post card" (note from Lauren) "for Chuck and Joe's love notes" (also Lauren) ""we respers", denis johnson" (I think a book recommendation from Lauren) "I live with creatures whose existance has nothing to do with mine" (don't know)
8/14/06
(Joe) Left about noon. Palmyra (my mother) cleaned out the van, off to see Will (my father). Local ? friendly company. Burgers and dogs, pulled over outside Camillus. No probs for most part. Worked our karma, met at Laurens, we're getting drunk. (I left Richmond to meet Joe in NY and see my parents. We got pulled over on the way from Camillus (dads house) to hit the thruway to Laurne's house. Luckily I had taken it easy on the beers, and I was fairly sober when we got pulled. We helped some guy get into his car who had locked his keys inside, or lost his keys, I can't remember. It was on one of those thruway stops. The guy was on his way to see his son or something, he offered us money, cigarettes, and food, we declined. It was Joe's idea to help the guys to build our trip karma.) (Me) Drove to NY, hung out at home, saw Justy, Mitch, Scrote, Thad. Went fishing, sat on the Little York Tresel, Joe tipped the boat, went tubing, ate dogs, slept, went to Mitches and watched GG. said goodbye, went to dad's, cillen in Nunda, reading poetry and drinking highlife and Vodka. Ready to get on the road with many supplies, couple of ham steaks, mac salad. (Folks gave us lot's of food for the road)...
Inspiration and Motivation
Sometimes my life can be much less than inspiring. Weeks can feel like months, months can seem like years, and the days can feel like epic expeditions into vast frontiers of absolute nothingness. Sometimes life seems like it has no worth, and I feel like I'm just sitting around waiting for a strong gust of wind to take me someplace far away where my life could have more purpose and potential. I know that sounds awfully negative, but I think these feeling are normal from time to time. I believe these down slopes of life are necessary to become re-inspired.
On the other hand I have made many good memories over the years. I've always done pretty much what I've wanted to do in my life, save some exceptions. I've spent a lot of time traveling and playing music, and all the time in between I've spent working and saving money to make these ridiculous adventures possible.
Some of those adventures I have documented in journals. Unfortunately most are not, but the memories are still ingrained somewhere deep inside my brain. Documenting those memories has always been one of my ambitions. More for my own sake, to make it easier to look back and remember all the good and bad times I have had over the years.
I love to write, and I love to tell stories. Not really sure I'm good at either, but nonetheless both activities give me pleasure. I've been wanting to start a personal zine for years. I have started writing material on many different occasions, but I always get side tracked with another project and end up starting again from scratch. As for story telling, I tend to drag out stories, and my audience looses interest. I've been accused of telling "old man stories" where I include details that aren't very pertinent. I also tend to tell stories that aren't very interesting, sometimes I just a string together a group of events with no climax, but I don't realize it until it gets to the end. But once and a while I tell a good one that's fit well for the situation.
My goal with this blog is to tell the good stories, and the bad ones, but write them in such a way where I don't feel I'm wasting anybody's time. So there is my inspiration and motivation for this particular project, I don't think I tied it together all that well, but it's all there. Maybe I'll edit over time and make it more fluid, until then, thanks for reading.
On the other hand I have made many good memories over the years. I've always done pretty much what I've wanted to do in my life, save some exceptions. I've spent a lot of time traveling and playing music, and all the time in between I've spent working and saving money to make these ridiculous adventures possible.
Some of those adventures I have documented in journals. Unfortunately most are not, but the memories are still ingrained somewhere deep inside my brain. Documenting those memories has always been one of my ambitions. More for my own sake, to make it easier to look back and remember all the good and bad times I have had over the years.
I love to write, and I love to tell stories. Not really sure I'm good at either, but nonetheless both activities give me pleasure. I've been wanting to start a personal zine for years. I have started writing material on many different occasions, but I always get side tracked with another project and end up starting again from scratch. As for story telling, I tend to drag out stories, and my audience looses interest. I've been accused of telling "old man stories" where I include details that aren't very pertinent. I also tend to tell stories that aren't very interesting, sometimes I just a string together a group of events with no climax, but I don't realize it until it gets to the end. But once and a while I tell a good one that's fit well for the situation.
My goal with this blog is to tell the good stories, and the bad ones, but write them in such a way where I don't feel I'm wasting anybody's time. So there is my inspiration and motivation for this particular project, I don't think I tied it together all that well, but it's all there. Maybe I'll edit over time and make it more fluid, until then, thanks for reading.
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