Jack London

We'll Take A Cup Of Kindess Yet...

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 23:31:47 GMT

New Year’s Resolutions?

Don’t take off like that again.

So it occurred to me back after the disaster that I’d quite like to take a little journey. Now we all know Jack’s too broke to afford a ticket anywhere, that he’s brilliant enough to survive off on his own for weeks at a time and that trainyards always present themselves as an alluring prospect to bored teenagers who like to bend the law.

Starting to get the picture are you?

Unfortunately for Jack, its not nearly so easy to hop a freight train as it used to be back when all sorts of famous hoboes and illustrious bums were doing it, and those little granola bars don’t really stay fresh too long. Plus the chocolate ones get all melty and its hard to disguise the fact you’ve been somewhere when you’re leaving streaky bits all over the walls, you know?

Well maybe not. I don’t think anyone reading this has necessarily gone around trying to hide messy silver and green wrappers smeared with chocolate chip coated crumbs. Avoiding sitting on your water bottles? Maybe some of you’ve done that, I can’t really say, not knowing any of you all that well offhand.

Next in the order of problems was the fact that Sister Flora just happened to call up the school, wanting to report some family news or other and when they couldn’t find me, apparently all hell broke loose at home, though at least they kept it from spreading around the school. This hell all breaking loose didn’t much help when the cops caught up to me somewhere outside of Memphis, dragged me back down to Oakland where they tried to impose some kind of delinquency charges and it’s only by the skin of my teeth I’ve come through it and gotten back into Eupheme just in time for next Semester. (I think Home Ec’s a punishment for this)

Here’s where I say how it was very wrong of me to run away from school and tell the Dean just how sorry I am to have caused so much trouble and to say it with a straight face while actually looking all cute and innocent. Can I do cute and innocent? I probably should start pretending shouldn’t I?

Give me an hour or so. Jack’ll get it right.

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 14:53:47 GMT

In the midst of my own personal drama, comes...another lovely bit of personal drama, that I'm sharing here because...well Hell if I know why but I feel the need to vent. Those manuscripts I mentioned writing in my fit of...something last month?

They're slowly starting to get returned along with the rejection notes. You would think I had had enough experiance with this kind of thing not to care by now. Hell, I've been an editor, I know how hard it is to make those choices. But...I don't know, there's something in there that inherantly pisses me off anyway. I'm not sure if I'm pissed at them or at myself but...life I guess. And Friday the thirteenth and all. From some twisted logic this makes sense and were I in the mood to be objective about things, I'd say I'll try harder next time.

Well. Give me twenty minutes for sulking fits would you?

Okay cool, we'll do that Jack, you'll be out of it soon.

Thanks people, know I can count on you!

Uhmmm

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 20:07:57 GMT

Guys?

Did anyone else see the horses this morning on the way to class? In a way I hope not because it honnestly...
The poor things were staggering ahead, up a trail I've never even seen here before. Some fell then, I heard one scream, a gunshot in the distance...I didn't quite see that one but it didn't matter much. The sound stayed with me all through class, I don't think I really concentrated on much of anything... It... I don't even have words.

When I came back from class this afternoon, all of them were laying there dead, a dew flies had come along and were starting to settle...

You know what?

I'm not going on with this...

Um...yeah.

Well...Hell...

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 15:35:32 GMT

Next time I decide to launch myself into the sort of full on writing binge that pulls me away for weeks except for classes and in which I manage to get myself down to less than three hours of sleep a night, um...someone make me stop myself?

No seriously, today, in one of those freaking wierd moments of clarity between putting stamps on the stuff I'd shoved under the desk because I've been too busy...(or lazy, take your pick) to actually get out for stamps, I managed to get a glance at the calendar.

...

...

...

I'd no idea it was October already.

No seriously. I vaguely knew that time was passing, that I've had some tests and quizzes, that a part of my brain is learning the material, but it's all been so mechanical.

Jack London, the amazing human robot? Something about that one, I'm not okay with.

There's more to life than books, a word file, and coffee, even when the coffee's really good...

Um yeah. I do remember coffee and...the coffee's about it to be completely honnest.

Hell...October.

Well, I might as well get on with things.

So Hey Eupheme, I'm back from the dark lands of the bitter recesses of my frentic mind, with hopes that I do not again make that bitter journey until sometime next semester at the earliest. I'd say "ever" but let's be predictable and truthful here, yeah?

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 04:36:08 GMT

Hey Again Eupheme. Look who's finally found a reliable connection now I'm in the area and Mom's finally stopped calling and the time change is starting to make sense to my poor little addled mind.

So, the flight up here. I almost can't describe it in mere prose, though it won't keep me from trying I assure you. So lets set the scene. A quiet dignified departure, or at least one which did not garner stares was far far too much to ask from "Auntie Flora" herself. Mom can be a drama queen and though I'd said goodbye to the others back at home without a lot of fussing, I suppose it was too much to ask that it continue.

The minute I checked my bags in, she started sniffling, by the time she set off the metal detector with all her bangly jewlery, she sobbed, by the time we made it to the gate with five minutes to spare, her scarves were soaked through with tears and...I hope they were only tears to tell you the truth. I do admit I almost caved when she broke into the begging, just to get the crowd we'd gathered to stop watching. Until she called me "Johnny" anyway, when I haven't gone by that in years and felt about three.

Suddenly joining the rush to find my seat seemed like an excellant idea,my seatmates were both quiet business types who didn't rush to bother me with questions. Allowing myself to be lulled into peace, I actually considered that I might enjoy the rest of the journey here. Until SHE appeared.

Our Stewardess, the scariest, blondest, giggliest woman I have ever laid eyes upon. All through the safety demonstrations she bounced around as if she were on something really good. Personally I say she should have shared with the rest of us, like my grade school teachers always said but you know how that goes. Anything that could go wrong in her section...managed to do so. Then when she attempted flirting...

It almost made it worth paying attention to whatever crappy romance film was showing, and pretending I couldn't see her. Almost...

Once we disembarked, I found myself free of so many things. My parents, my sisters, someone telling me where I should go and what I should do...and yes, even my luggage. Thankfully the next day they actually had it shipped to where I'm staying, but you know, last thing needed at the moment.

But somehow, by some twist of fate, I'm here, I'm actually alive and I have net access. Expecting Mom to call again tonight, but the distance has actually seemed to help a little, probably because faceplants can't be seen over phone wires.

I think I'm going to like it here...

So what's up with the rest of you?

Entry The First

Sat, 05 Aug 2006 03:10:06 GMT

Should it scare me that Mom totally called the scholarship? Usually her 'predictions' get saved for when she's flouncing around be-turbaned, lighting her candles and incense and communing with whatever spirit wants to save her current caller's love life over three am cigarettes and hot toddies, in other words, about the time the infomercials start kicking in. Ah, The life and times of crazy TV physics. Wait, didn't they air that documentary when I was five? I'd be busy despairing but I have the bowling alley to resign from, and a school newspaper staff who'll kill me when this news gets out, so...not so much better really.

What's better is the fact I'm going this alone. For once my crazy family won't be tagging along behind me, trying to...God only knows with my stepsisters, who made Oakland High a nightmare for the first two years, what with their stories of the occult meeting where they dropped me on my head,(I know it's not Eliza's FAULT but man does that make for good blackmail) or how I managed to get drunk at five and fell headfirst into the cow pie back when 'Dad'(I call him Dad at least, the real one's reading fortunes in Tibet or some mythically Eastern and suitably Exotic place he sent a postcard from five years ago, I forget exactly) was trying out the farming thing.

What is it with me and head trauma anyway? God forbid, you'd think I'd be hearing little voices of my own by now, telling me what shoes Cancer should wear, or when Gemini is going to score the love of their life. The blue and green dotted heels by the way, and Oh yes, in March with all the sparkley love of the Rainbow Spirits dancing all around you, through the glow of softly lit jasmine incense fu...

...The two days left till I fly up cannot come any faster I assure you...