Week 9/10

"I know I'm late and I took all year, but you can stop complaining cuz I'm finally here."- Kanye West

   

     Oh hey there, been awhile. Sorry about that. Due to life being all...lifey...I haven't been able to keep up with my regular once a week blog. Says a lot about me now that I think about it. Short comings aside, here's a recap of the last two weeks of my life. Spoilers: I watched a lot of Netflix.

   

     Hiatus: So last week (8/11-8/16) I was on hiatus, which basically means that they were tired of paying us and decided send us home for the week. Alas, Netflix ensued, and to be honest, it was nice to have a break. I hadn't really had much of a break since moving out here. Always either working or furnishing the apartment and what not. So things were chill. 

And then Mike Brown was murdered. And before mine and the countries eyes, my hometown was ripped apart. And there I was. Unable to help, and unable to escape it. And I'm not ashamed to admit I wanted to escape it. Being filled with such anger, and hatred is very taxing on the mind and soul. Even right now, as I type this, I still feel raw. I don't expect that to change anytime soon.

And then, before I could really digest what was going on back home, the world lost Robin Williams. And it hurt. And that was surprising, at least at first. But the more I thought about it, I recalled how big a part of my childhood he was. I mean, he was THE actor that every kid from my generation knew. And what's more, the circumstances surrounding his death, and the spotlight placed on his struggle with depression really hit home. I am one of many hundreds of thousands of people who suffer from depression, and it is so unfortunate at how people are made to feel about it. Depression is real. It's not a result of not looking on the bright side. It's not a choice of looking on the dark side as opposed to the bright. It is a disease, and I hope that more people understand that now.

   

     So in just the first few days of hiatus, the world completely went to hell. Thank God for friends from back home and alcohol!

I feel that I should also note that I spent a lot of time during hiatus struggling with self doubt. Thoughts of being in over my head plagued my mind. They still haven't really gone away. I think it's safe to say that too much time alone in your own head is a bad thing.

Summary of Hiatus: Racism, death, destruction, and self-doubt. Oh and I got some new swim trunks!

   

     Oakland: Finally back to work, this past Monday we loaded up our crew cargo van and headed up to Oakland. And when I say "we", I mean me and the other PA drove 6 hours up the highway to the Bay area while the rest of the crew got to fly up. Awesome.

But I can't complain too much. That first night we spent the evening across the Bay in San Francisco with a very old friend. It was nice to be away and share some genuine laughs. So for the rest of the week I made sure to spend as much time as I could in San Fran. Which wasn't hard to do considering that my alternative would've been to spend time in Oakland..........Oakland.

Admittedly the trip was stressful. A lot of running and gunning and flying blind. But ultimately the Bay was good to me, and I'm looking forward to heading back up.

Summary of Oakland: Cool breezes, stressful work, good friends, and not getting shanked. Oh yeah, I'm about 99% sure that San Francisco was once used a giant rehabilitation center for mentally ill people, which then shut down and all of the former patients are now homeless. Seriously, the homeless of San Fran are batshit crazy. Beware.

Which leads me to here and now. It's 3am, and while I should be sleeping, I'm sitting here typing out this jumbled mess of my mind just so that I don't disappoint the few of you who care enough to read. Is it wrong to find that endearing?