one thing after another

Life has been full to say the least. Everyday for the past few months have been busy, and even sometimes stressful.

At the end of March, Jenna had her senior project, which was a concert with a band. It happened that the concert fell in my Spring Break, which was good, because I did a lot of work for her. Along with the concert she also recorded her new demo. She and I did a photo shoot and I designed the artwork for the demo cover. The concert itself involved a fairly stressful day. The recital hall at her school supposedly was capable of doing what we wanted to do, but they had never done a concert as technically involved as hers. She had a drummer, a bassist, a lead guitar, a piano, and even back up vocalists. Three monitor mixes would have been ideal, but some of the wiring was not working as it was labeled, so we had to go with two. Set up took longer than wanted, so the sound check got shorter. Over all we were ready when performance time came. The recording of the show was only dealt with on the fly, so the first couple of songs have some overdriving distortion issues. But, again, overall it sounds good. Everyone was impressed with how well she sang and played. She even played the piano and sang at the same time, which even I had never seen her do. She was great! Mike would have been beaming with pride.


You can hear these tracks on her myspace page.

While I was available for work in my last week of spring break, I did not get any work, so I had the opportunity to chill out. I did not do much of anything. It was just fine. :) Meanwhile, Jenna's wedding plans continued. Everyday there was something else happening, someone else whining they wanted to be invited. Wedding planning does not help keep the stress low.

I have gotten some work, though as of a few weeks ago, I am no longer on the work list. Between school and the increased social calendar prior to my moving away, I felt it would be better to not have to say "no" to work all of the time. School is very demanding this term. In my Psychology class there is a lot of reading, and papers due every week.

I had the opportunity to support my brothers and sisters of IATSE Local 500 and walked a picket line around the Kravis Centre for Performing Arts. I even made it into the paper! This was the first time I have ever walked a picket line. I may not be an uber-union person. Being born on the cusp often leads me to seeing both sides of an issue equally. But, I don't feel that it is fair that my friends were locked out of a theatre that they made work as smoothly as it does. They were cut out of tens of thousands of dollars worth of work a year. Some of them are really struggling financially. It was an honor to walk beside them.


Barry, Rubin, and Me, brothers and sister, in front of the Kravis Center (Daily News Photo by Jeffrey Langlois)

May 3rd Jenna graduated!! After five years, she finally got to walk across the stage. Of course, after a few years of manipulating the system of a new program at the school, it is no wonder that she wasn't listed to graduate! The stress of the last few months had been compounded by last minute requirements of her to conform to the (new)requirements of the new program; these requirements that had been waived for her major, but the dean had forgotten about. So, it was not surprising when Jenna's name was not listed in the program for graduation. The dean did announce her and she was one of two music students who graduated with honors!


Jenna with her friend and co-worker Nell.

We followed graduation with a party the next day to say goodbye to our South Florida friends. Jenna is of course getting married, and then she is moving to Hawaii for two years. I am moving back to North Carolina to spend some time with my Mom. She is doing good now, and I want to be able to help her when she needs it. The party was a nice and mellow time. People brought lots of yummy food and Jenna and her friend Matt played music. I am sorry more people did not make it, but there is a time to let go of those friendships built on Mike's illness and death. I suppose that is now.


Jenna and Matt in the backyard.

After Jenna's graduation, she started packing. Turning the house upside down, she collected her things, made decisions about what to keep and what not to keep, what was going into storage and what was going to Hawaii. We had daily discussions about what to do with Mike's things. This brought an edge of depression into my life. Now that I have experienced how it feels to be depressed, I can see it coming. I know that it will take a while to get adjusted to the fact the Jenna and I no longer live together. There is a further realization that Mike is gone and is not coming back.

It was really hard to say goodbye to Jenna when she left on May 13. I knew it would be hard. Shopping for a card for her brought tears to my eyes.

So now I live alone again. It's been five years since that has been the case. Tears flow regularly as I sift through Mike's belongings and as I realize that I will have to say good bye to a lot of really cool people here.

I try to see the positive though. I am going back HOME. That means a lot. Winston-Salem is a comforting place both physically and spiritually. It will be great to be near the mountains so I can go hiking. It will be great to live in the same town as Mom and to spend some quality time with her.