OLD FART IN SEATTLE

++ RECENT EMAIL EXCHANGES with a friend in seattle...

From: jay blackburn
Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2003 10:34 PM
To: A friend in seattle
Subject: little help..
ah mr. friend in seattle..
hope all is well and santa is still real and the new year jumps over the mississippi river and hits you guys as well.
can you do me a favor? and since you are not answering, i'll ask anyway. can you tell me what the codes are for the timesheets as far as A1, A2, etc.? i need them in order to fill out the IDP stuff.
end of quarter thingy for school went well. or better than expected. celebrated by taking a trip out to vail, colorado for a few days of snowboarding. it's just how i left it. snowy. white. beautiful.
they tell me classes start in a week or so. i'm ready to be out. i'm ready for a change and to move on.
new year's plans?
thanks a lot.
jay.c.b.


A friend in seattle wrote:
Shipped in the birth givers for the holidays. Haven't been to work or touched a computer for two weeks...that is, until jay asked for yet another favor....jeez.
Here's the infotainment on ARC's labor codes. Enjoy.
A0 - general
A1 - pre-design
A2 - site analysis
A3 - schematic design
A4 - design development
A5 - contract documents
A6 - bid / negotiations
A7 - bitch slappin' (a.k.a. construction administration)
A8 - post construction
A9 - extra services
Good to hear you're sick of school and distancing yourself from work playing in the snow...oh wait, maybe that's a bad thing...don't remember...too old...'you crazy kids and your new fangled snow shoes!'...rant, rant, etc...must find prune juice...
thank you,
-a friend in seattle


From: jay blackburn
Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2004 10:16 AM
To: A friend in seattle
Subject: undress your stress.
thanks for all the help crackpot. have you started the whole IDP thing yet? its a serious ripple in the water. a bump in the road. a hard spot where i'm sitting. a headset with only one working earphone. an unsharpened pencil with no pencil sharpener. a glass with nothing in it. me working. two days before classes. still haven't done anything. starting to think bad. have watched quite a few movies. drank way too much recently. won a bunch of football games on the playstation 2. this email contains something of nothing of importance, except for maybe the first word. of which that is not even of importance.
btw, its 60 here and partly cloudy and i just went outside in shorts and short sleeves and rolled around in the grass like a hobbit. it was fun. have to remind myself next time though to put on clothes. mental note. check.
lata.
jay.c.b.


A friend in seattle wrote:
Sunny yes, but at the end of the day you are still in Ohio...this could be seen as an offensive comment on my part...or....since I've never been to Ohio (or any of its neighboring countries in Europe) my comment should not be taken seriously.
I did get my first 'snow day' ever last Tuesday when Seattle got hit with 10" of snow overnight. The city basically shutdown and demanded that i go and play in the snow...gotta give the people what they want. And since the West Seattle bridge was closed, AND my bus to downtown was canceled, AND since i don't have chains for my car tires (i think you
kids call them 'bling-bling'), AND since i didn't have power for over 24 hours...i think it was best i didn't attempt to go to work. Even took a picture...see attached.
Speaking of which, the Nati-streak has come to an end. The next intern will come from Kansas State (wherever the hell that is) since Karin is no longer pimping Ohio (and Amy is now pushing K-State). The only attractive person (besides exotic Asian male Mr. Blackburn, of course) has left ARC as well = Alix...which, if in Bellevue, would result in an office shutdown by the city due to excessive fuglyness. She felt overworked and went to another firm to design custom homes @ 30hrs/week.
My friends from Spokane are coming this weekend, got reservations for the revolving restaurant in the Space Needle...could be cool...or could give their 1.5 year old a permanent fear of heights...either way there will be French fries.
Got a Baja Fresh gift card for X-mas, which rekindled my faith in the lord...if i may quote King James...'and on the 8th day God said on to thee: let there be salsa verde (Jose 4:11).'
thank you,
-a friend in seattle

WASHINGTON DC

++ ON SATURDAY I DECIDED i wanted to go to washongton dc. i actually went back to dayton to pick up some soccer clothes. at 5 i called a friend in beavercreek and asked if she wanted to get coffee. she said give her half an hour, so i did. picked her up. went to books and co. had some truffles coffee, which is oh so delicious. i think i actually like that coffee more so than any other coffee. its so smooth. in the words of a roommate, scrumptulecent. and so we didn't talk except for when we were in the car going to and from the bookstore. but thats fine. it was actually nice just to hang out. we got coffee. i looked at books. she looked at books. oh right, this story isn't about drinking coffee with old high school friends, its about washington dc...

so i decided at 6 in the evening that i wanted to go to washington dc, so i called up another old old school friend who lives and works in columbus and told him i was coming through columbus and that i was going to dc and he could ride along if he wanted or not, but that he had the time it took me to get from dayton to columbus to decide. a little convincing. he called back in15 minutes, said, "let's roll." by 9 we were on the road. i called yet another old high school friend living in dc and told him he better f-ing be in dc tonight, because i'm rolling in at 4 in the morning and it would be nice to have a place to crash. fortunately for us (unfortunately for him) he was there.

i never knew 8 hours in a car could have so little conversation. well, actually there was conversation, just not much. but it wasn't awkward silence. i've known him long enough. i know the stupid stuff he used to do when he went through puberty. actually i knew him before he went through puberty. thats awkward enough. there's no need for it now.

"have you seen the holocaust museum?"
"yeah."
"do you like it?"
"yeah, its ok, actually when was it?"
"what, the holocaust? years ago."
"no, when was it built, jackass."
"no idea."

tick tock tick tock.
gas.
gas.
coffee.
change drivers.
red bull.
wrong turn. back on track.
phonecall. "we're in the city."
"cool. see you in 5." click.
incoming phonecall, "did you just call?"
"yeah, i just talked to you for five minutes."
"haha. sorry, i was pretty much asleep."
"yeah? awake now?"
"yeah. so you in the city?"
"yup, still in the city."
"cool, see you in 5."
"later."

"you ever been here?"
"no. i've only lived here for 5 months."
"welcome to your city."

"hey, there are no pictures during service."
"i was taking a picture of the door."
"nice job jay, you got us kicked out of church."
"what? i was taking a picture of the door."

"holy shit its cold in here."
"hey waitress, do you guys have the heat on in here?"
"you know it would be warmer if we were standing outside with no jacket on than it is in here?"

Silence and Respect
"the United States Army. Guard of Arms. Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. the ceremony you are about to winess is the CHanging of the Guards. In keeping with the dignity of this ceremony, it is requested that everyone remain silent and standing. Thank you."

"so you're dating up?"
"yeah, she's a league or two above me in salary."
"yeah, no shit. i feel like i should take my shoes off to walk down the hallway of this apartment complex."

"so what do you think of her?"
"she's definately very intelligent."
"yeah, she's really smart."
"yeah, thats what i gathered from talking to her for an hour. what the hell is wrong with her?"
"what?"
"she's dating you?"

"hey, thanks for letting us crash at your place last night."
"tell him to tell his roommate that i think she's hot."
"tell your roommate that she's hot."
"no, tell him to tell her that i think she's hot."
"tell your roommate that he thinks she is hot."
"make sure she know's it from me."
"he says to make sure she knows its from him."
"oh, ok, i'll be sure to pass that note to her between 2nd and 3rd period on my way to study hall."
"he said he would pass the note to her between 2nd and 3rd period on his way to study hall."
"thanks, jackass."

tick tock. tick tock.

"you hungry?"
"not really."
"so where's the next exit."

"i vote no short-cut on the way back."
"i agree."
"i think all that turning made me sick."
"do i need to pull over."
"no, i'll give you enough warning."

"this place is still stuck in the civil war."
"yeah, except that the waitresses are all strippers."
"they had those in the civil war."

leftovers while driving with a rock star. no, the drink, not him.
thanks for tagging along. next time i'll give you two hours notice instead of one. ++

SOMEONE I KNEW DIED.

++ SOMEONE I KNEW DIED. a friend's little sister. she was on I-70 coming back to ohio from colorado with her dad and they got into an accident. i don't know what happenned. i didn't even really know her that well. but it makes me very very sad. my memory of her is when i was coming back home from seattle. we stopped to eat at my favorite restaurant in the whole united states, the wynkoop brewery. my friend and his sister had just got back into town. we were just passing through on our way back to ohio and had only a few horus to catch up, grab a bite to eat and leave. they met us there. she ordered macaroni and cheese but didn't want the ham. and a salad. we had an appetizer and i paid for the dinner. she lived in the dorms and went to colorado state and was very talkative and easy going. everyone gave her their leftovers so she could take back with her, because she didn't like the dorm food. when we left i hugged my friend and her and told them we would see them again soon. we said goodbye and walked around the corner without a look back. her last impression on me is a gleaming smile full of energy which lit up the night.

"may the road rise to meet you.
may the wind be always at your back.
the sun shine down upon your face.
the rains fall softly upon your fields.
and until we meet again may God,
may God hold you in the palm of his hands. " ++

FOR EVERY ACTION

++ FOR EVERY ACTION, there are multiple consequences. not sure it helps. definately, put it on the line. the weird follows. changes inevitable. not necessarily for the better. less people to talk to now. i live. sometimes i learn. i know what i like though, thats for sure. i'm picky. not every one strikes me. only the select few. its too bad though. i'm sure in my next life we'll have meaningful conversations again. until then. have a good life.

so i did some work yesterday! technically its classified under "Programming-Technical-DVD" or some fancifal romanticized title like that. helped out a friend in Columbus. it was fun. not very hard. and they told me to send them an invoice. i don't know if that means i'm getting paid or not, HA! just talked with my friend who talked with his boss. apparantly what i asked for 'sounds fair' to him. ha! great! guess i owe my friend a dinner. here's to you. ++

EVEN MORE SORE TODAY

++ I'M EVEN MORE sore today than i was yesterday. it hurts to lift my arms past horizontal. no, actually it hurts to lift my arms at all.

yesterday i was playing basketball with that same friend and was setting a pick on him. he ran into me and blindly hit his head against my eyebrow. he has a harder head than i do. yes, both ways. but this time it was the literal sense of hard. he's fine. he saw stars, but i got a 3/4" gash extended from my right eyebrow hich bled ane bled and bled. its big enough where it peels back and shows, but not deep enough where it requires stitches. i could have gone to the hospital, but they would of maybe put a stitch or two in there and told me to take them out in a few weeks or they would of gave me a very expensive bandaid and charged me even more just to look at it. so i didn't go. its not bad. a little tape. some neosporin. scrunched up face. good as new. i'm like a car. ok, not really. more like a bicycle that got hit by a car. .. that was going 53 mph. .. backwards. .. made of steel and not one of those plastic cars. .. with the 3 fattest people you can think of with all their clothing riding in the car. .. but naked. ++