Preparing for the journey

Alls I can say is wow. I have done more shit today than you can absolutely imagine. It all started early this morning when I had to run to home depot to get gaff tape and knee/elbow pads for the actors at the workshop. I went to hte home depot on North ave, they had THE WORST SELECTION OF CRAP EVER. There was 4 clerks who stood next to me the whole time and did nothing to help me, I was so pissed. After that, I headed back downtown to spend four hours with Alex working over the last of the fights. I also grabbed my dad's refund check for the old apartment. Even with the hole in the wall, they still gave us our full deposit back! How awesome is that. Anyways, Alex and I then went to the library to check out the movie rendition of Macbeth. I wanted to scope out the fight scene at the end to make sure i did a good job on mine. It was pretty cool, Macbeth walks into a group of four soldiers with this tiny little dagger and kills them all. After that we came back, and he showed me this movie called Undercut while I started to pack. It was done by another stunt team, and pretty much we're using it as a base for the level we want to eventually get to. After that me and Hailey went to target where I was in luck! They had knee AND elbow sets that were perfect for what I want. I grabbed a couple and some plastic matting to set out on the ground during movies. This way we can flip people on the streets and have them not get hurt. I came home, and gave myself a quick haircut. You probably wouldn't even notice because its just a little trim, but I didn't want to have to get a haircut while in NC. Oh, I got uncrustibles tonight at Target for my lunch tomorrow while waiting in AIRPLANE HELL. Should be interesting, they look pretty good. Hopefully the audio blogging will start working again, and I can leave messages while I'm in NC. If I can't, I'll be writing in my real journal for the entire three weeks that I'm gone, and I'll transcribe everything when I get back. I'm so excited! A little earlier this week I had been bogged down with a lot, and wasn't sure how excited I was about going because so much had continually gone wrong. I can almost taste the airport now though, and I'm going nuts with anticipation. Time to go get my explore on! hahaha Wish me luck!

BTW I'm taking 5 blank mini DV tapes and enough memory card space to fill like 700 pictures I think? Good quality too. I'll be using ALL OF IT at the workshop, so don't think you'll be missing out on anything!

Kicking it up a notch

BAM. The big question on everybody's mind. What has Jason done since he's been back? Well, I'll tell you. Since ma left it's been nothing but practice practice practice. Alex, Tracy, and a few others and I have been polishing up for the National Workshops, which I leave for this saturday. In fact, we haven't been doing much else. I started teaching martial arts lessons again, and they roughly go for about 2 hours a day, every other day. Then me and Alex are usually so bored that we just sit around and choreograph shit for another few hours. In fact, we've been working so much that we're both starting to get sick. He's been really tired all weekend, and I've felt like shit since last night. My limph nodes are swollen, I have a damn head ache, I'm burning up. The weird thing is that its just my head that's fucked up, my body feels completely fine. Everything I do right now is pretty crucial. If we continue to over exert ourselves, I'm only gonna make myself worse for the weekend. At the same time I dont' want to not train for the 5 days before I leave. We're going to have 12 hour work days; I need to be at my best for it. Yes yes, I know that means rest. I've been trying to sleep more to counter act the shitty effects. And yes, it's worked-to some extent. I'm not malnutritioning myself either. I get plenty of food, fruit, and water (this time).

I feel a little bit better about the lonliness too. It hit me today when I was thinking about things, and I reminded myself about the little saying I say about winter. I'm absolutely fine with all those cold shitty days in the winter, because with out them I could never really appreciate the hot ones in the summer. It's the same thing about seeing my family from home. I'd get bored and tired of them if I was actually there all the time, and they'd feel the same way about me. It doesn't sound like much, but it carries lots of weight in my retarded (and empty) heart.

Catching up Part 2

Warning: If you just got onto this page and haven't read the other entry (that chronicles the earlier days) I suggest you do that first.

Day 3: Human wallets

We woke up relatively early this morning, and enjoyed eggs for breakfast. Sleeping on the couch for the second night wasn't that bad. I've been so tired lately that when I lay down I just fall right to bed. Me and mom found the car rental place with out too much of a problem. It's up off the grand stop at the Hilton. They gassed up the truck and got it ready for us, then it was off to Ikea.

First of all, if you haven't been there yet, you definitely need to go. It's insanely huge! Me and Ma carefully picked and prodded our way through all the furniture, picking out exactly what we wanted. Ann came with us, and we all enjoyed lunch at their resteraunt (which was very affordable..and good too). Today ended up like the rest of the days, full of errands.

I also got into a wicked bad argument with my mom about shit. We fought pretty bad, and she almost went home tomorrow. Things got taken care of though, and we're all ok.

Day 4: Building an Empire

Today me and ma spent the day building all the furniture. Now you can revel in the fruits of our labor! Here's what my room looks like:


As you can see, the place is gorgeous. The rest of the apartment is like that too. Tonight me and ma went and saw War of the Worlds. We watched at Loews and the awesome sound system there made it really intense. After that, we milled around the north side, it was great.

I was looking into the mirror after taking a shower, and felt the first hints of loneliness. It's like a slight twang that hits your heart. Mom hasn't left yet though, I need to make sure I make the rest of the vacation count.


Day 5: Kaimono!

Can you guess what we did all day today? If you speak Japanese, than you already know.


Shopping! Me and ma went down State street and bathed in the glory of all its retail fineness. I got some new clothes too. Tonight we ate at Giordanos, and sat around on the roof. Giordanos is closer now! It's only like a five minute walk. I discovered what pizza I can eat there too. It's great.

Day 6: As the Rush Comes

This morning me and ma went to Chinatown. We wandered through all the stores, and picked my brother up a cool T-shirt too. It has the kanji for "Fortune" written on it. When I didn't know what it said, I walked up to the store clerk and was like "C'mon, be honest with me. What's this say." She looked at me so pissed off and straight faced that I'm pretty damn sure my brother isn't walking around with some weird word on his shirt. We also went into the Chinatown Market, where I usually get my groceries. They had my favorite cookies again! I haven't seen the cookies in like 6 months, so I bought all the packages that were there. After we got our fill of chinatown (and the ridiculous heat) me and mom headed back home to an afternoon of 24. We took one last walk down to the store to grab her an iced coffee (and a sandwich for the way home) then went back and packed the last of her things. We took a taxi to Roosevelt, and were off for the airport.

When we got there, there were no ticket or baggage problems. Mom moved through swiftly. There was how ever a flight problem. Mom's plane was grounded until at least seven because of weather in boston. That was pefectly fine with me though, it allowed me to hang out with mom a bit longer than I thought I would. We ate a snack and really enjoyed that last hour and a half of hanging out. Finally, at 5:30, we both decided that it would be best if mom went in, just in case they left early. Saying goodbye had never been so hard before. With so much different here, and coming from a place so filled with close people that I care about, I got really used to mom being here, even for a short period of time. And yea, she can be an ass sometimes, but so can I. Doesn't mean I don't love her any less. A part of me does really wish that I stayed home and was able to take care of and be with the people that I really love. Especially right now. Soon though I'm hoping my level headedness will kick back in and afford me some peace.

The song of the day is "As the rush comes" by motorcycle 10. It perfectly describes and sounds how I'm feeling emotionally. One of the lyrics is "As the rush comes, life goes on." Even though I'm feeling really shitty, I have a lot of work to do. Two weeks left until both the National Fight Directors Workshop and the National Action Film Workshop. I'd like to be at my best for both of those. There's still so much that clouds my memories though. I wish I spent more time hanging out with my dad. I should've taken more pictures while my mom was here. I wish I could help take care of the people that have been so damn good to me.

As the rush comes, life goes on.

Catching up

Hello everybody! I'm back. In Chicag, that is. Taking a cue from my Missouri counterpart I decided to write my journal entries into notepad until being able to transfer them online. Today is the second day I've been in Chicago, but dont worry, I'll highlight the first too. This will be posted along with Day 2 that way you can read them in order of update.

Day 1: The long haul

Everything pretty much went on schedule this morning, that is until we made it to the airport. But we've got plenty of time, and the story gets good even before that. So, we needed a ride to the airport this morning, and ages ago this old guy that hangs around the fire dept. asked if he could give us one. Obviously having no objections and needing a ride, we ageed. Big Mistake. Don't get me wrong, he's a great guy. But I think he's 70 years old, and his driving reads more towards 80. He drove us in my moms truck (being uncomfortable in his own, gee wonder why), and within the first minute I was ready to have a heart attack. Me, someone who usually never gets nervous. The man drove IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD the whole time! I literal said holy shit to myself like six times. It was worse when got onto the lynnway, he was only doing like 30 the whole time. Anyways, you can imagine how scary the ride was. He got us to the airport alive, and let us off. Me and ma had no problems getting our tickets and through security, even though we had all this shit with us. Ma had picked up subs for us in the morning too, so we enjoyed lunch and tooled around the airport while waiting to board. We made it to our gate at around 11:40, which was curious because the ticket agent said we'd be boarding at 11:38 (I like to mill around the airport and waste as much time as I can).
I brushed it off though, and sat around playing games and listening to music. That is until 12:15. When the flight was supposed to leave in 7 minutes and you weren't on board yet, something was obvoiusly wrong. Luckily, at this point an ATA agent interjected and informed us that State cops were investigating the plane, and as soon as they were done we'd board. Wow. How comforting. Not only did we have the appetizer from hell, we're getting the main course too. It took them roughly an extra half an hour to "investigate" the plane, to which we sat for another 20 minutes on the tarmac too. Finally we were in the air and on our way. We made it to chicago with out too much trouble. THE NEW APARTMENT IS AMAZING. I don't think I'll ever
be able to go back to cramped living again. It was great seeing Jared and Yusuke again, it's been far too long. Me and Ma went up to Brookstone, grabbed an Aero bed for her, enjoyed Bao's for dinner, stopped off at Target, and called it quits for the night. We went to sleep watching Dave Chappelle, it was great.

Day 2: Clearer skies

What a movie moment. I walked out from the elevators and saw Ann and her mom in the distance. As soon as she turns and looks in my direction she jumps up in excitement and sprints over to me. I scoop her up and twirl her around several times in the biggest hug ever, and we just kind of sit like that for a minute. It was great. Tonight we all went to Flat top for dinner. You boston folks would recognize flat top as being a lot like Fire and Ice. You get cold veggies and meat, mix them (seperately), and give them to a chef who'll cook it for you. It tastes so good! We milled around in old town for a bit, I picked up some insense(sp?) and we saw the Fudge Pot (greatest chocolate shop in the world). After that, Ann and I
took the moms to Navy Pier. Ann and I too photobooth pictures there, they came out great! It made me so happy to see her this morning, you have no idea. It's like a big part of my heart lit up. Anyways, we're back at the apartment now, and it's kin of late for me. Time to head to bed! I get the furniture tomorrow!!

Ok, this is all I got so far. Take a breather, then scroll up. The fun has just begun.

One last toast

Today is the last full day that I'll be in boston. I stopped by Dad's house, hung out with him for a few minutes, and we parted ways. Tonight I babysat the kids at Kara's. I've decided that I want Jared to be my replacement for taking care of the kids, and with Randi not exactly batting 1000 right now, and me heading off to Chicago, and I think there's no one better to do the job. The kids were thrilled to hear the news, and happily went to sleep. He came over and helped me put them to bed. Sorry it's all coming out so strange, I guess that's just how it feels. Just ackward and shitty. The other night while at the grocery store Jared and I bought a special ice cream sundae thing that I could eat. There was two in the package, so he brought them over to Kara's as the kids were going to bed. We chilled out, ate the ice cream and laughed at adult swim as we pissed the last of my hours here away. He took off to head to dad's for work in the morning, and I was left to ride my bike home. It was a very soothing reflective ride home, kind of like a last look at Marblehead. More than anything, it felt like wading through a pool of old memories. I had a conversation with a good friend of mine last night about how in relationships as much as people don't want to admit it you are investing a bit of yourself in that other person. That saying goes across the boards, not just with boyfriends and girlfriends. Quite frankly, no matter how much I'm going to love being back in Chicago I have a lot invested here. I'm going to miss it a lot. It really was great being able to hang out with my brother and just fuck around every day. It's now time to put my eyes back on the ball, and get ready for work. Only 2 weeks until the National Fight Directors Workshop and the National Action Film Workshop. *sigh.

Fore!

Today the male family Walsh headed out onto the back 9 for a rousing game of golf. Ok maybe it wasn't the back 9, maybe it was that crazy putt place in Swampscott haha. Anyways, the whole time we were there me and Jared couldn't stop laughing our asses off. My dad, him, and I are all very similar people. When you put us in a room together, you're bound to get hilarious results. Forget a room, you put us on one of the hardest mini golf courses in Massachusetts, and you'll get great results. The whole time I don't think anybody actually got par in a hole. Jared and dad kept going after each other too. Ough it was so funny. One of the great memories that I'll have to take with me for next year. This is why I came home.

Happy Fourth of July

I hope everybody as good a Fourth of July as I did. Today we lazily woke up a little late, and headed over to dad's house to hang out for the day. We played whiffleball for a while in the afternoon, which was hilarios considering I haven't played in such a long time. Then we played frisbee for a bit. After that, we just lounged around for a few hours talking about this and that. It was really nice to spend some good quality time with dad. After that, I headed over Kara's new house to watch the fireworks from there. She lives right on the water, it's friggin gorgeous. Marblehead's fireworks sucked! I don't know if anyone saw them, but you could so tell they were milking it. It was poof, poof, one firework at a time until the end. I'm used to seeing fireworks where you'd have to guess where the finale was because there was so many going off at once. I guess they're still lacking quite a bit in the fireworks budget though, if any of you headers remember the stunt they pulled on us last year you'll agree. There were none! I'm not saying I'm rich myself, but Marblehead is a pretty damn rich town. You can't tell me they didn't have enough money for fireworks. One guy on the neck could've had his own set of professional fireworks.

Annnnnnnnyways, sorry this wasn't posted sooner. Theres this hilarious picture of my dad on my cell phone from the fourth, and I wanted it right at the top of this post. I've spent the past few days trying to get it off the damn thing and it won't work. So I figured I might as well just make the post anyways. 6 days till I'm back in Chicago again! Start counting them down!

Party like its 1999

Before you start reading, I added pictures to the night in Boston. Go look at them.

Last night was the block party down at John's oil. Of course I was there, I wouldn't miss it for the world. I think the block party has been going on since before I was born, and I've been there every year that I possibly could. It's kind of weird going there now because I remember being one of the little kids, and now I'm an adult there. It's still a lot of fun though. I think it was a night I really needed too, because it allowed me to open up a lot. Lately (especially after last semester) I closed up a lot and became much less social. Being around and able to shoot shit with people that I've known for ever just let me really be myself. Anyways, check out some of these awesome pics haha. The rest will be posted at my photo gallery

Here: http://photos.yahoo.com/cyber_walsh

Me and my cromagg cousin


Me and my cousin Matty

Load the guns

Today's been a pretty boring and run of the mill day, but I figured I'd leave a post just to give all you nice people something to read haha. I gave myself a haircut today, and for THE FIRST TIME I'm happy with it! It looks like someone else did an ok job! I don't know if you remember, but the first few times were less than perfect. What started out as a touchup became me practically balding myself because of all the mistakes. But just like everything else, cutting my own hair just takes practice. I'm finally gettin good. In other news today, Andrew Chan, one of the most incredible illustrators I've ever seen (you have to see his sketchbook) has finished the drawing for the main character of the comic I'm writing! I mentioned the comic before, but I haven't released too much information since then. The first two issues are written now, and everybody just needs to wait for me to get back to chicago before anymore work can get done. This is Taka:

I don't want to reveal too much about the story, because things get complicated pretty quickly. To simplify things best, Taka is a merchant wandering across the country. The story kicks off with Taka visiting his old martial arts teacher and finding the entire school dreanched in blood. From there Taka begins his journey to discover the story behind the violent slaughter of his old school. The name Taka comes from my old Japanese teacher, who is the friggin man.

In other news, tomorrow night is the Block Party!! I can't wait to go, its one of my favorite parts of the year. You can be damn sure you'll see all kinds of pictures and stories tomorrow night.

Boston your my home (bum bum bum...bum bum bum!)

I figured singing the song was appropriate because I ended up spending all last night actually in Boston. My mom's friend was given box seats tickets to the Red Sox game last night, but she ended up not being able to use them so she gave em to my mom. With nothing else to do, me and her decided to go. We left for Boston a little early because I wanted to head in and check out Chinatown. The FDW (fight directors workshop) wants me to get elbow and knee pads, and theres a martial arts supply store thats dirt cheap and damn good. PS, Boston is FINALLY adopting card sliding fares and getting rid of that stupid token shit. Come on, catch up, Chicago's been doing it for years. Anyways, ironically enough the store had every kind of pad, even forearm and stuff EXCEPT knees and elbows. I kind of figured though, nobody really hits you in an elbow (knee sometimes though) but if those joints are attacked, they're pretty much screwed anyways. A pad isn't going to stop your knee from getting jammed. After we went through the martial arts store, my mom and I decided to look for something to eat. As we were walking through chinatown we saw all kinds of movie trucks getting things together. We found out that they were getting ready to shoot "The Departed". If you haven't heard of it yet, it stars Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, and Leonardo Di Caprio. Matt Damon is one of my favorite actors, and I would've loved to hang around, but they weren't going to start filming till sundown, and we really couldn't sit around and wait. We walked down to Boston Common, I took a few pictures, and we took the green line down to Kenmore square.
This might be a good time to interject how many things have changed since I've last been home. The T is now using charlieticket (officially on tuesday), they have digital voices sometimes and stuff now, Kenmore Square station has been totally rebuilt, and the martial arts supply store has expanded. I love it. I just had this long thought though..the only thing that sucks about it is that Jared isn't here. Usually when I goto boston or do special hang out shit, it's with him. Anyways, so we get to the game, I got a chicken sandwich outside before we got in, and headed up to our seats. Alls I have to say about the view is WOW. We sat in the box seats above first base and it was AMAZING.

Anybody who knows me knows that I'm really not a big fan of sports anymore, so I wasn't really into the game all that much, but it was just nice to be there to experience it. Seeing all the beautiful view definitely made it worth it too.

The Red Sox were getting slaughtered (the game ended up being 15-2 Blue Jays destroying them) so we decided to get home in the bottom of the sixth. We pretty much missed most of the traffic, and got home with out too much trouble. All in all it was a great trip to boston. I really want to go back to goto Copely Plaza and Caimbridge square. I think I might do it with my brother next week. I only have 12 days left here! I gotta make em count.