Portland!

So, a lot has happened since I made my last post but I’m just going to segment it out in a series of different posts to make it easier to read. This one is about Portland.

I failed to find a rideshare out of Seattle or Olympia. Well, let me rephrase that… I failed to find a GOOD rideshare from Seattle or Olympia. All the responses I got were from the strangest, creepiest people including one guy who wanted to make sure I knew he was “professional” at what I don’t know, and that he was the owner of a company called “The Skull Company”. But when I looked it up nothing came up. He was also very demanding in when and where I would come get him because he didn’t own a phone (success?) and only felt safe meeting in grocery store parking lots. So I decided to ditch the rideshare idea.
I got in to Portland on the evening of the 20th and met up with my good pal Ed. Ed is this awesome punk rock kid from Olympia that I have known for years and as of a couple years ago has been living in Portland. He showed me around his giant house oh which he lives with 5 girls. 5 GIRLS. It’s like a less exciting, Portland punk version of the Playboy Mansion. Three out of the five are also old friends of ours from back in the day in Oly. There is Jenn, Nicci and April, all of whom are absolutely amazing. And then there were the Ice Queens… dun dun dunnnnn. These two bleached blonde punk princesses had a hard time acknowledging my existence even when we were being introduced. A muffled “hi” is all I could make out when shaking their tiny, cold hands. Ed and I met up with all of them at a quiet little bar called The East End where we drank large PBR’s and nachos. Then it got awkward… One of the bartenders came up to our table and asked us if we’d go in the basement. It was then that I realized that Ed knew this bartender. I asked Ed why we had to go downstairs. He told me that there was a band about to play down there and the bar felt bad that no one was there so he wanted us to be “the crowd”. So we watched this band, in a dark basement with nobody else there. It was very uncomfortable. And then it was on to the Alibi!
The Alibi is a tiki bar in Portland that makes you feel like you’ve just walked in to the most exotic goodwill you’ve ever seen. There is shit EVERYWHERE. Tiki statues, plastic fish, palm trees, hoola skirts stapled to the wall. This place was one of the most tacky places I have ever seen, but they had karaoke. So all night Ed and I had been talking about 90’s alternative music so naturally we had to find a doozie to belt out to the crowd. Our choice? Iris, by the Goo Goo Dolls. Let me just say that you are a lucky person for not having been in that room. We ended our night there with a dance party to No Diggity and made our way back to Ed’s house where we proceeded to dance to 90’s music all night. The next morning we made our way to a little diner to cure our hangovers with biscuits and gravy. After that it was on to Brooke and Dan’s.

Brooke and Dan are two friends of mine that I have known for a very long time. As a matter of fact I had a hand in bringing those two love birds together years ago and also performed their wedding a few years later. Good people. We went out and ate at a few good places but kept it pretty mellow. The next day I was on my way to Sacramento, with a rideshare buddy!

Annnnnd he's off!

The journey begins...

After countless treks back and forth between Olympia and Seattle, and countless errands and detailed reviews I am actually now starting my journey south. I tried to find somebody to ride with me through the rideshare option on Craigslist but the only two people I found didnt end up working out. One was a girl named Krystal who seemed nice but ended up on a bus shortly after contacting me and the other was a sketch ball named Zach who claimed to be "professional" and that he was the "sole proprieter" of a company called SKULLLL. Yeah, no thanks. Well, time to start posting for Portland. Hopefully I come up with somebody cool. If not I'll just pick up the first drifter I see.

Wish me luck.

Rob

Final Day in Olympia

So this is it. My final day in Olympia. Tomorrow morning I make the trek back up to Seattle to have a dear friend of mine brutalize my chest for the sake of art and then I pick up my last two paychecks and then, like a flock of Geese I'm heading south for the winter. I'm excited about the trip but I'm trying not to have any expectations. I dont want to romanticize what this whole adventure is all about only to have it fail to meet what I've dreamt up. After all this time and planning and amongst all this chaos and confusion it's finally happening. I'm pursuing my dreams. I'm taking the plunge to pursue a career I'm actually happy with. These past few days in Olympia have really helped me realize how much I need this to work. I've seen good friends here who have graduated college and are working part time jobs that pay minimum wage. I see people I've known for years who are the exact same as the day we met. This city is like a void. A black hole that lures you in with it's charm and liberal thinking and interesting people yet it so successfully manages to hide the fact that it's glass cieling is incredibly low. There is a glimmer of hope in this vortex, however. I know for a fact that there are a few people here who will rise above, whether it be here or somewhere else, this town is full of wonderfully bright and brilliant people. I wish the best for all of them and I hope to see them all succeed someday.
As for me, I hit my glass cieling with a tremendous "THUD!'' both in Olympia and Seattle and I couldn't be more happy about it. It was the kick in the ass that I needed to take a leap of blind faith. For now all I can do is keep my fingers crossed and hope to land in a position that at least has an open skylight...


Rob

Goodbye Seattle

So as I mentioned in my last post, last night I left Seattle. I am currently residing at my parents house in Olympia, WA right now in preperation to leave for sunny socal. The only thing I'm waiting on right now is to finish a large tattoo I've started which should be done in about a week and a half. After that it's time to hit the road.

I'm going to miss Seattle. It is one of the most beautiful places I've ever had the pleasure of living in. I've met some great people up there and have had a ton of wonderful memories from this past year up there. I will undoubtedly be back there in the future.

FROM THIS:

TO THIS:

BACK TO THIS:

I love Olympia and it will always be home to me but as great as it is I'm really hoping that my plan does not fail.

Goodbye Pants

I had to give away my dog yesterday. Not for good, but for a pretty long amount of time. Since this move is kind of on the fly I realized it would be best for me to leave my beloved Pants here as opposed to taking him with me into the unknown and potentially making it more difficult for me to get on my feet down there.

I left him with a co-worker of mine at the dog daycare I worked at so I know he'll be getting lots of love and play time with all the other dogs. Even with the comfort of knowing he's in good hands I still can't help but feel like I made a bad choice. He sleeps with me every night and last night I slept alone. This morning, still alone I almost drove back up to Seattle to get him but common sense took over and I convinced myself that this was for the best.

My plan is that once I get my own place down there I will come back for him or have a friend bring him down. I just hope this long time apart from him isn't going to screw with his little puppy head.

Pants, I love you and miss you!!

Welcome!

Hi, how's it going? My name is Rob and this is my blog. A little about me first... I love all types of music from folk to hip hop but I have built my life around punk/metal/hardcore. It got me through some tough times in my life and continues to bring me immense joy every day. I love to travel as well. Sad fact: I've seen more of Europe than I have of my own country. I need to change that. My hobbies and passions are movies/media, comics and nerd stuff in general, video games, drinking beer, partying with my friends, history, politics and current events, helping the less fortunate and meeting new people. Here is a picture of me:


So that's me. Now, on to the blog...

The purpose behind this whole thing is strictly for your entertainment. A sort of voyeuristic peek into my life and what lies ahead for me in the near future. See, I'm at a turning point in my life right now. I just turned 25 in October of '09 and on that day something took a hold of me. Some cosmic force latched itself on to me driving me ultimately to what this blog is all about - change. I need to change my life.
I got my first job when I was 17 years old as a maintenance mechanic for a Volkswagen dealership and it was cool at first. I was getting school credit for it and getting paid! Sure, it was nice having lots of money compared to my fellow Juniors but since I never had the means to attend college they all eventually went on to surpass me in the financial department. From 17 until the present I have done nothing but constantly work shitty jobs. Jobs with no growth potential beyond a $.50 raise after six months. I've had some great jobs though, don't get me wrong, but as time went on I realized that these places aren't going to get me anywhere in the future. I had no plan, no path, no goals in my life and on that day in October, the day of my birth, that cosmic force screamed into my ear "HEY! BUDDY! Get your shit together or you're going to hate life!". So I am. Well, attempting to anyway.
So here it is. My genius plan... I am going to get rid of anything that I don't absolutely need; dwindle my belongings down to only what I can fit into the back of my truck; quit my TWO jobs (Yes, I had two jobs. In this economy... you probably want to slap me, right?); save roughly $2000 and move to sunny Los Angeles! Why Los Angeles? Because that is the epicenter of my life goals.
Since about 4th grade I have been obsessed with movies/TV, but not just the characters on the screen. I wanted to know how these things were made. As the years went on and I became more passionate about it I started to try and figure out a way to become the next Scorsese. I tried to learn everything I could about being a director. That passion is still there but now that I'm a little older but my ambitions have become a little more focused. So here is what I want to do...
I want to work with this:

I want to be a camera operator, or camera assistant. I figure, get in to that field and see where it goes from there. But enough about specifics. My real goal, the MAIN reason for this change in my life and the root cause of this blog is simple... success. I want to be successful. Not rich and famous, red carpet, cover of US Weekly successfull, but living happy and comfortable successful. Understandable, right? My ENTIRE life has been one long rat race of mediocracy. I have never received a pay check for more than $700 and most of the ones that were that high were for two or more weeks worth of work. The closest I came was $730 tax return a couple of years ago and that trumps my paychecks I'm getting today. But, basically I'm tired of working these fruitless jobs with nowhere to go. I'm tired of busting my ass for 70 hours a week to pay bills. I want to get into a professional field with room to grow and I want to be fucking happy about it.

The idea behind this blog:

So the idea behind this is like I said earlier, for your entertainment. Currently I am still in Seattle and as time goes on and my journey begins I will be trying to document it as much as possible with the "happy ending" being me eventually getting a four figure check. That's the goal. I am going to document my journey from packing up the truck to the drive down to job interviews, parties, girls, random shit etc. etc. So please, check back occasionally and see how I'm doing. Will I make it or will I fail? Will I live it up in Hollywood or end up back at my parents house in Olympia? Stick around and find out. Thanks.

Rob