Well its winter in Ohio. Winter Solstice is in three days and Christmas is in six days. Amber and I have been working quietly in the Mansfield area for the past seven weeks. I've been working at a Chipotle and she has been working as a full time baker at Aspen Bread and Bagel. We've paid off all of our debt, and since we've been staying with the folks, we have been living comfortably in an actual house on a real bed! Amber often goes into work at 3 in the morning, but I must say that she has picked up some ability as a baker that my sweet tooth is thankful for. And my job has the benefit of providing fresh, good, filling, free vegetarian meals almost every day of the week.
We've got a little set up in an upstairs room of the house where we have been working on our music without too much pressure. We've done some writing and some recording, but most important of all we have done some chilling. We've hung out with family and we ran into an old friend, Brandon, who we've done some hanging with, too. Of course, all of the serenity was mixed with an overall feeling of disconnection. It seems that the Mansfield area is still as boring as ever and there are not really any (there must be some, but they are well hidden) people like us here. There are no places to play shows or open mics which sucks, although i think the temporary removal of these from our agenda lifted enough pressure so that we could actually practice and write without so much frustration. There were times when we had to take trips to Columbus just to feel like we were people again.
Anyhow, the good news is Jacob has hooked us up with the sort of travelling sales / infomercial / demonstration job. That means we are packing up and heading for San Diego in the first week of January!!! We'll be in San Diego for probably a month or two and then we are off to Hawaii for a couple months. We just found this out a few days ago. Supposedly the job pays well, too, and it is easy to get time off.
We are still debating over whether to fly out to San Diego or drive. Flying will be faster and cheaper considering gas and food combined for the drive, but it would be advantagous to have a car to get around with. Driving 10 hour days we could make it in 3-4 days. Driving slower would be more fun.
The downside to driving is choosing which car to take:
-Midsummmer, the 78 VW van would be perfect, but does not run.
-Stella, the 95 Dodge Avenger stalls, idles rough, and has some kind of unsolvable fuel injector problem. It's also sporty and so small that we can't fit much luggage in it. It's also a bitch to sleep in and it has 192K miles or something. It does have an alarm and a nice stereo, but the dome lights don't work which sucks at night. One tire leaks air over a period of time.
-Abner, the 89 stationwagon stalls on occasion, doesn't start in the cold, runs out of gas near the 1/4 tank mark "sometimes", leaks transmission fluid, oil, coolant, the transmission slips when it is cold, the engine fan has been rigged to work with a manual switch, the blower has been rigged to only blow out the defroster vents (yes no front or feet heat), has no cd player or tape deck and the radio is flaky. It does provide enough space to all the belongings we would need, including our guitars, a comfy place to sleep and change clothes, a rack on the top to put even more stuff if necessary, only has 137K miles, the dome light works, we've drawn all over the inside with sharpie markers, so it is kind of cool. It doesn't have an alarm as of yet, and oh yeah, the floor board has rusted though so the entire floor is falling out, but has been strapped up to help slow the process.
I'm sure there are more quirks I'm too tired to mention, plus I'm losing interest so I'll move on. Tough choice, though. I'm open to public opinion on this one.
If we fly, we won't have to sleep in any hotels or sleep in the car where it is warm enough to, we wont have to eat as many meals out, and we can arrive on a day that our lodging will be provided by the company. We can't really bring much luggage or our guitars and we won't have any means of transportation, so we'll be either renting a car, taking the bus, or walking. I doubt we'll have the money to rent a car right away. Also if we fly, we won't be able to explore California at will, and I think if we drive and end up there early, then we can stay at a youth hostel or in the car outside the city somewhere for a couple days.
We probably need to start packing and planning or something like that. It is only like 2 weeks away, but with all the Christmas and New Years stuff going on it's gonna seem like a lot less time than that.
Anyways, I've got to get to bed. We're making a trip to Columbus tomorrow to finish up our Christmas shopping. I should be awake for it.
Peace and happy various winter hoildays!
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