Four for 4 Fore (Hodgepodge) in Book One: The Not So Daily Briefs 2014

I was out of town over the weekend doing a Thanksgiving Reduex for the relatives that were trapped in Missouri due to the Ferguson Issue. The drive from HERE to PARENTS is about 140 miles; a straight east 2 hour drive.

Along the drive, ideas tend to jump into and out of my head a lot. One idea seemed really interesting. It was a book idea with a working title called Prose. The idea is an author writes a brilliant book on his first try. The Freshman Curse.... his first book is so powerful and moving that he can’t bring himself to write another book because he doesn’t believe that he can ever write that well again. Ten years pass and the author devolves into alcoholism, reclusiveness and has completely withdrawn from everything around him, living in a cabin outside of a small town in the middle of nowhere. The only writing he does anymore is on a social media site where he encourages other writers and offers some insight. He keeps a personal blog on the website where he weaves his own personal story without ever divulging that he is the author who wrote “that one great book ten years ago.” Then one day, after finishing a bottle of Jack, the author makes the foolish decision to drive into town while drunk… predictably he gets into a catastrophic car wreck and wakes up in a hospital with no memory. The small town and his old publisher fill in the gaps up until 10 years ago, but nobody knows much until then. So… all the people from the social media site slowly fill in the gaps… either through the web or coming to visit. More Drama could be added with a “While You Were Sleeping Vibe” where someone comes in to try to convince him that there was a romantic relationship; but his true friends step in and take care of it…
or…
y’know…
this is just as much of the whole thing as I had developed in my mind on the drive.

I got to the parents’ house and the Missouri family was already there. I knew this because as soon as I opened the door, my parents’ 5 year old golden retriever came up followed quickly by my extended family’s 7 year old golden retriever and 3 year old golden retriever. So… 3 beautiful golden retrievers rushed me at the door to greet me… awesome! After hugs and howdys, I sat down and BOOM… a dog at left hand, a dog at right hand, and a dog in my lap asking “why won’t you pet me?” It was awesome.

Of course… my aunt tends to bring stress. She’s high energy, high control, high maintenance… but she was very quiet this trip… because Ferguson affected her powerfully. And the media narrative infuriated her. So… Tuesday after the first riots she started taking pictures of the “Paintings for Peace” movement. And by the end of Tuesday night had written a children’s book about Ferguson’s Clean Up and how parents can talk with their children about rebuilding after a disaster, about harmony and community healing. By Friday… so, less than 5 days… she had 4 publishers lined up with plans to publish before the end of the year. So… she was definitely preoccupied!

Other than drawing for the Family Gift Exchange… that happened. I’m not a fan of it… when it comes to family, I don’t want to be told WHO to buy gifts for… that’s just me. But… I acquiesced and it bit me right in the ass. Who do you suppose I have to buy a gift for? My Godfather. My Godfather… who makes over $7.8 million a year after taxes… I have to buy him a gift. Plus… this is a man who has personally given me over $50k in the last 12 years in order to help with my dreams of law school. How in the hell am I going to justify spending money on him? What can I buy him that he doesn’t have or wouldn’t be able to buy himself? Ufda!

I did get to see my niece, though!! Poor tiny thing was a trooper. Walking around, and able to talk a little but refused to… we were concerned about her, but she was a trooper demanding to stay up until she physically couldn’t stay awake anymore. But the poor little 14 month old had a low grade fever so… didn’t get to see a whole lot of her. REALLY hope to get back home soon (in a number of ways) to try to “imprint” on her… I’m pretty sure that, since we don’t see family that much, my niece recognizes Mom, Dad, Boompa, and Gigi but not Uncle or Aunt.

Ah… two more things. First one might need some back story. I got married on July 2, 2011. That would be roughly 3.5 years ago. My wife and I still don’t have our wedding photos! We went with a well-known professional who worked for the newspaper, the Wakonda Club (of which my family has been a member), and the Zoo… we did this SPECIFICALLY to avoid the problems associated with going with a lesser known photographer. And yet… every e-mail, phone call, etcetera has been met with an apology and a promise of product forthcoming. Y’see, we’ve already PAID for the product… we had to pay for all of it upfront, of course. 3.5 years and no product. I’d absolutely sue his ass, but that does irritatingly interfere with bar exams because I have to report any litigation and allow an investigation and… I don’t want to deal with that paperwork right now. BUT… remember how I mentioned Wakonda?

The family was ending our “Thanksgiving Reduex” weekend by attending the Christmas Brunch at the Wakonda Golf and Country Club. As we enter, my dad asks if I recognize the photographer. It is my wedding photographer shooting kids and Santa for their parents. My dad introduced himself and asked the photographer about a wedding he’d shot over 3 years ago. Photographer remembered, talked with my dad and… yeah, same shit different day. “I’m sorry, I’ve been busy and my wife got cancer last year. I’ll make sure that the first half is out to them by mid week.” Yeah… I’ve heard that shit so much that I’m glad I wasn’t there… I might have punched him. But… it renewed my fury. I mean.... the guy has been giving us the run around for 3 years but he has time to photograph wealthy little bastards near a gin-soaked Santa? Bullshit. He will be receiving daily phone calls from me starting December 29th… yeah, that means every time I have a scheduled break in my Bar Exam Prep, I’m calling his ass… which may draw a lawsuit from him for harassment; but I suppose that will give me an easy venue to counter-claim for the shit he owes me!

Finally… bar study. I take the Diagnostic Bar Exam tomorrow… a five hour exam. This means my time budget gets tighter from here on out… I’ll try to keep up with reading, and update when I can but… time is now a dearly held resource until the end of February.

And because we all need it… some links to stuff.
Here is a kind of heartbreaking look at The World from one police officer’s view in the wake of everything going on.
Here is a buzzfeed article on one of the (it seems) few things my wife and I share anymore: MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000
And… even though Government, Liberals and Conservatives, and even this article says “Economic Recovery in America is Real and Working” the truth is… adding jobs is a miniscule element to recovery. Read this article from the beginning and it shows part of why. Adding jobs in ONE thing; but are the jobs being added comparable to the jobs that have been lost? Do they employ the same types of people? And is the dollar that is now being made able to purchase comparably to the dollar that was being made in 2006? An “economic recovery” can’t just be a bunch of politicians saying “Enough jobs have been created and/or enough people have stopped looking for work.” Economic recovery needs to be real, authentic, genuine, and recovery suggests that we are getting back to where we were before… not significantly under where we were before.