It's Time.

So, yeah, it's time to get this going.

I've come to the conclusion that I simply can't sit around and watch the world go by silently.  I mean, I have a lot of things to say, same as anyone.  But... I'm in a bit of a pickle, you see?  All these endeavours are intertwined together so one leads you to the next, leads you to the next.  So, in effect, if you find me one place you've found me everyplace.

I simply can't have that.  Too many conflicting interests, you know?

And should I restrict my thoughts and words to generalizations and benign commentary?  Fuck no!

That's just goddamned ridiculous.  What the hell did I go through life for, just to silence myself in the end?  No chance.

So, in lieu of repressing my musings, I've reduced the obviousness of this media outlet.  No longer listed on the Facebooks and Twitters of the world.  I mean, it's not the effervescent freedom of, say, retiring or a perfectly timed rainstorm, but it's a start!

So, yes.  It's time.  I hope life finds you well, and stay tuned, whether you want to or not.

As always,
Jimmy.

A Week in the Life - The Reason…

 

Well, what can you say.  My life is good, and I can’t complain about the fact that I’m so busy in such a good way that I’ve over neglected those things that once kept me sane.  I mean, shit, look at her.  She’s a lot of fun to be around.  Couple that with the usual smorgasbord (spelled that right on the first try, thank God) of skills that pay the bills, and you find yourself home long after she’s gone to bed.  The days fly by faster than you can count, and the one thing you always know is this, the tired doesn’t change.  If I settle in at 6:00 pm, there’s as much a chance of me sleeping straight through until morning as there is when I get in at 1:30 in the morning.  There’s no such thing as wide awake, no matter now long you sleep.  Every day we close in on one goal while setting two more, two steps forward one step back.

Still, every once in awhile I find time to myself.  Like now.  They were both in bed by the time I arrived, and by the time I wake up tomorrow, one will be halfway to work and the other will probably be asleep through the morning drop-off.  I saw her last at 5:00 pm today, and I’ll see her again tomorrow at about 6:00 pm.  It seems like it would be difficult, but then I’m one of the lucky ones.  It takes about half a second to think about those who go far longer periods of time through exigencies far superior to mine.  So I press on through my relatively easy life, enjoying every minute of time most others might take for granted.  Somebody always has it worse than you do, always.

So, what’s new?  Not a lot.  Still working, still in school, still playing in my usual two orchestras, and still teaching Mariachi and a private violin lesson or two.  The Ms. is working full time as well, and going to school full time.  The spawn is fast approaching her 3rd birthday, and plans for her yearly pachanga are fast underway.  No clowns, no ponies, just pure unadulterated debauchery on an epic scale.  BYOB.

So, until next time, whenever that is, hope life finds you well.  Let’s see if I can’t make a habit of this again.

Jimmy

I’m up...

I’m up, so what better to do than write.  No worrying about what tomorrow holds, or late night snacking.  Just writing.  I always feel like there’s a great deal to say but no simple way of funneling it efficiently into clear thought.  There’s anecdotes and opinions just swirling around my head like 5 dollar bills in a used car lot cash grab, and me flailing my aging arms about trying to grasp cohesiveness…

…and then out of blue comes clarity, and I realize once again that I’ve managed, somehow, to sum up my very existence in a single metaphorical sentence.

And then I’m stuck again.  Shit.

Forget the past, I say, for today is a new day.  I suppose that’s more fortune cookie than actual insight, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  Many a day has gone by confidently nurturing the spawn into her own identity, gazing at infinite pixels (be they work or play), and music, such wonderful music.  I live in a world where all I want every day is another six hours, because there’s always either something I need to do, or something I long to do, and never time for both.

Life as you know it is in full swing.  The usual combination of busy workweeks, multiple symphony concerts, school and family leaves little time for the frivolity of surfing the net.  Yet I reminisce always about a time when there was little else to do.  I suppose it is all about prioritization.  And while I can’t say my priorities aren’t straight, that doesn’t mean I can’t shave a minute or two off each segment of my day to better communicate with those around me, right?

Right.

A Week in the Life - Day 2 – Movin’ on up.

Today marked yet another milestone in the JRTW reboot, as I physically moved the computer to a more prevalent location.

Basically, everything was located in the bedroom. It seemed like a good idea at the time, since it kept me close by the bed. But I came to the quick realization that my late night shenanigans were quite the distraction for Caitlyn. It didn’t seem possible, but it turns out she’s more of a computer junkie than I am. I can’t count on all 21 of my digits the number of times she’s shoved me out of the way en route to the desktop and/or laptop. She’s equally handy (deadly) with a mouse. And while this chokes me up with nerdy pride, the habit doesn’t lend itself to a good night’s sleep… for any of us.

And so it came to be, that more often than not I would find myself sitting in the living room, watching TV or playing with Caitlyn, until bedtime came rolling around. As the official crapshoot of parenthood, bedtime yields mixed results. Some nights bedtime is quick and painless,and others nights are best described as un-sanctioned MMA bouts. Nothing strains the heart strings like having to choke out at 15 month old child, but all the same… it’s cheaper than pay-per-view.

Moving on. So there I am, waiting for the little one to go off to sleep, at which point I now have the remainder of the evening to myself. This golden opportunity leaves me with roughly an hour online to ration out as I see fit. Most nights, I’m simply catching up on emails, social networking, and the like. Occasionally, there’s the funny video or a quick level or two of a flash based game. And rarely there’s a tempting pseudo-login to World of Warcraft (*sniff*). Of course, a night would not be complete without a visit from our old friend… porn.

But JRTW sat there and waited patiently. Every day I’d come home with every intention of working on the blog. But motivation gave way to routine, and routine was quick to inform me that by the time I would have the opportunity to post, I'd have neither the time nor the consciousness necessary.

Now, the comp rests peacefully in the living room, in plain sight and eager to augment my reality. I must say, it feels pretty damn good.

As always, more to come.

Jimmy

Are you there, internet? It's me, Jimmy

Like a veritable net-Phoenix I once again rise from the depths of digital obscurity to proclaim my Internet supremacy. And by Internet supremacy I mean my infantile attempt at procuring a decent readership with a total lack of effort on my part.

But hey, got a text message tonight basically kicking me in the ass for being social-networking-anti-social. So here I am, take me or leave me.

Time has passed, children have gotten larger and chock full of personality; and the same three-headed monkey (work/school/symphony) is ass-raping my ability to successfully procrastinate.

So business as usual.

But I digress.

You can't hate me, because here's an adorable picture of my little girl. If she was yours, you'd spend less time on the computer too.

(We were doing a quick photo shoot for her birthday invitation. It's her Halloween costume you see, since her birthday falls on the tail end of October)

Moving on, it's great to be back. And I think I've got enough Moxie stored up to safely begin a steady slew of madness for the coming seasons. Hope you are all well. Missed you.

Peace out, bitches!

Jimmy

P.S. More to come, and thanks for the nudge.

2 1/2 Weeks in the Life - Busy busy busy busy....

My my it's been a long time.

Hope all of you are doing well, and I'm sure you are.

So what's new?

Here's what's new....

Well, the last couple of weeks have been a blur. We'll start with my sister.

So my sister has been with her fiancee Peter for some time, which may or may not have alot to do with their son Brandon, who was born about 3 and a half years ago. Together they've joined families, both having children from previous marriages, and now all of them reside happily in Roswell. And after 4 happy years together, my sister decided to make an honest man out of Peter. So the wedding was set for Sunday the 14th of June.

In addition, they decided to utilize my brother's services as well.

As you may or may not recall, when Crystal and I tied the knot three years ago, we had my brother ordained so he could perform the ceremony. I had already chosen my best man, but had wanted my brother to have as important a role as possible, so it was a thoughtful way to include him in the wedding without relegating him to usher or some other nonsense. So the 'no brainer' answer was to have him ordained online, which we did. So they flew him down from Hawaii to visit and perform the ceremony.

Of course, as life would have it, my last concert with the Juarez Symphony took place as well in the same week. Originally planned for Saturday the 13th, the concert was moved to the 14th, overlapping my sister's wedding. As much as I would have liked to skip the concert and attend the wedding, it was too much of a double whammy to miss out on the extra money (i.e. spend money to be at the wedding and lose money by not playing the concert). So we split the difference and I played the concert while Crystal and Caitlyn attended the wedding. More on that later.

So all week long it was your basic wash, rinse, repeat with work and symphony rehearsals.

Thursday (6/11), my brother flew into El Paso from Hawaii. I took some time off from work and we all went out to The Olive Garden for dinner in El Paso, and everyone went their separate ways (Crystal and Caitlyn to Las Cruces, my parents and Chris to Alamogordo, and me to my rehearsal in El Paso).

My sister's wedding took place in Ruidoso, where her and Peter had reserved a hall specifically for such occasions. One of those nice, all inclusive package type deals where one price covered food, decoration, music, libation, etc. The whole family, sans yours truly, travelled up to Ruidoso on Saturday to check into the hotel and unwind for a bit. Meanwhile, we were in Cruces doing whole lot of nothing.

On Sunday, Crystal and I parted ways as she left to Ruidoso with the baby, and I left for my morning rehearsal in Mexico. I was in it for the long haul, as the morning rehearsal went from 10am to 1pm and the concert started at 6pm, so there was no sense in enduring the wait to travel back to El Paso for the afternoon. So I stayed in Juarez for the whole day, just hanging out at the concert hall playing the DS. On the plus side, I did complete the New Super Mario Bros. , so hooray me.

This time around we were playing Donizetti's "Elixir of Love", which is really a great opera if you have a chance to see it. Take your basic love triangle, toss in a travelling salesman with a magic elixir, add a pinch of coincidence, and BAM! Great music, one really great famous tenor aria (Una Furtiva Lagrima), and some comedy to boot.

But I digress...

So Crystal drives up to Ruidoso to meet up with my parents and my brother. Once she arrived everyone started getting ready for the afternoon. As with most weddings, there was the usual catastrophic event, as my sister's hairdresser failed to show up. Some rainfall as well moved the locale from the outdoors to the indoors. But in spite of some delays, everyone arrived safely and the wedding went swimmingly, much to the delight of all in attendance. I've only seen pictures, but it all looked beautiful, and I'll get some online eventually (about as fast as I've gotten Caitlyn's pictures up).

Meanwhile, back in Mexico, I finished up the opera around nine and promptly headed up to Ruidoso. The bridge back to the states only had about a 30 minute wait, due the the new Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative requiring everyone from the US to have a passport or passport ID, plus they're still killing people pretty regularly down there so the Mexican army is everywhere. All in all, if I didn't have to be there, it would probably discourage any recreational travel there on my part. Of course I've been procrastinating so I didn't have the necessary documentation (just my driver's license and birth certificate), so I got a stern talking to both on Sunday and after Saturday night's rehearsal. No worries though, because I'm not headed back that way until September, leaving me plenty of time to obtain a slick new passport ID.

So I haul ass all the way up to Ruidoso and get there around midnight. I've missed the whole wedding, but I'm still in time to spend some time with the family before everyone falls asleep. The following morning we all had breakfast and everyone parted ways again after a nice morning swim. Nancy and Peter left for their honeymoon in San Antonio, and the rest of us drove back to my parent's house in Alamogordo. We spent the day there relaxing and then left later that evening back to Las Cruces, and brought my brother along.

Back home, we picked up some cerveza, some food from Sonic™ (I know it sound's weird, but they don't have them in Hawaii), kicked off our shoes, and relaxed.

Tuesday morning we slept in, then hit up Santa Fe Grill for some Breakfast Dream's (egg, green chile, cheese, potato, and your choice of meat - our's being chorizo). We went to Mesilla to shop the afternoon away, as my brother picked up some gifts for the return trip home. That evening we went to Si Señor's for dinner and margaritas, then it was back to Alamogordo to hang out with my parents the night before my brother was flying back to Hawaii.

Wednesday morning (6/17), we all had breakfast and then high tailed it to El Paso once more to deliver my brother back into Hawaii's open arms. It was quite the caravan, as my mother and father packed in all my sister's kids and my brother rode with Crystal, Caitlyn and I. We had some coffee at the Starbucks™ in the airport, gave him one last round of special-ed-sized hugs, and watched his plane take off (albeit, after waiting forever thanks to "security").

My parents took the kids over to Ft. Bliss to do some shopping at the PX there, while Crystal, Caitlyn and I travelled back to Las Cruces to wind down. We were all feeling a bit under the weather, so we arrived home and promptly slept the rest of the day away.

Since then, back to work as usual... wash, rinse, repeat.

Friday (6/19) was Crystal's 25th birthday. We celebrated by going to Peter Piper Pizza for her niece's birthday party... yay. But no, really, we'll find a way to make it special, just as soon as she finds something she wants so we can buy it as her gift (that's just the way it seems to work with us).

Saturday we went to the mall and shopped for Father's Day for her dad and my dad. We ran into some friends at JCPenney whom we haven't seen in awhile, and were invited to hang out with them that evening, which we did. Just drinking some beers and catching up on old times.

Sunday, of course, was Father's Day. We all slept in, Caitlyn and I especially, and left the house at about noonish to pick up some desserts for our visit with Crystal's grandfather. We spent a couple of hours out that way than returned to town and went by her dad's house to give him his gift. After relaxing for a short while, it was off again to Alamogordo to meet up with my parents and give my father his gift. We were able to see Nancy, Peter, and the kids once more, as they returned from their honeymoon over the weekend and were in town to pick up their kids and visit for Father's Day as well. Finally, it was one last long drive back to Las Cruces, and our cozy beds.

So yeah, there ya go. There's the past couple of weeks in a nut shell.

Hope life finds you well!

Jimmy

P.S. 3 years today!

Being married that is...

A Week in the Life 23 - New Babies

Ahh, nice to finally have some time on the ol' blog.

Been busy, mostly with work. It's just life. I come to work, go home, then it's right to Caitlyn. And can you blame me? Didn't think so. Just something about walking through the door and the way her face lights up when she sees me. There's nothing on the planet more important than that, not even computers.

Speaking of computers, spent the last week or so putting together my latest model, in case you're wondering why I haven't updated. It's been about 5 years since I built my last computer, and it's served me well. Some minor upgrades every now and again like a new hard drive, more RAM, or a new video card helped me stretch the life on her as best I could. But no matter how you slice it, I'm long overdue for some modern computing power.

Besides, you can only make games look so good with an AGP slot. Yeah that's right, an AGP slot.

Bonus nerd points if you laughed at that, double it if you laughed mockingly.

Anyway, Angry Beaver IV consists of a Phenom Quad Core Processor, 4 Gigs of Corsair RAM, a BGF Geforce 8800GTS OC, 600W Power Supply in an Antec 300 Mini Tower, 2 640GB Hard Drives in a RAID 1 configuration, a ZBoard Merc, a Razer Diamondback, and a set of Logitech Z4's rounds out the peripherals.

Still unsure whether to run Vista, XP Pro, or the Windows 7 release candidate, but I'll figure that out soon enough.

In the meantime you'll be hard pressed to find a way to pry me from my computer. Unless you're Caitlyn, in which case it's ridiculously easy.

Of course, as you all know (those of you that care about these sorts of things) Chad and Amy welcomed a new addition to their family. Margarita Jean is the newest addition to the clan and we can't wait to meet her. DC has jumped into the top 3 on the list of places we're looking to travel to over the next year.

Congrats you two, and welcome to the club!

FYI, they really do grow up too fast. No matter how many times people have told me (hundreds) it's still faster than I ever imagined.

Enjoy it!

So this week nothing amazing, which is as it should be. NBA Finals are on, so I'll tune into that. Just watched the Magic get their asses handed to them last night so I'm hoping they can exact some revenge on that date rapist Kobe Bryant.

Anyway, next week has much more in store. I do promise to post more. Elwood's been lax so for some reason I've felt like it gives me the right to do the same.

But again, can you blame me? New computer people! I'm enjoying the electronic eye candy that is my new self-built PC. It's just fun.

Some babies are flesh and blood, other babies are electronic boxes that whisk me away to the magical world of whimsy known as the Internet. Either way they both took a substantial contribution from me (maybe not that big a contribution on the former).

More to come!

Jimmy

A Week in the Life 22 - The Story So Far

Ahh, welcome back friends!

Ok here goes.

I applied for a timekeeping position at work a while back. The position didn't necessarily offer more in terms of pay, but it's a back office job which would alleviate my time on the phone processing claims. In addition, it didn't require any weekend work.

So I went ahead and put my name in the hat. I really liked the idea of having a job with weekends off, and there's something to be said for not spending all day on the phone filing insurance claims. It's not a bad job by any means, but it can affect your mood depending on the severity of the claim (i.e. fatalities), or the demeanor of the caller (i.e. total asshole).

So, I was pulled from my desk last Monday the 11th. I had previously sat down with management to discuss the ins and outs of the position a couple of times before, but they went ahead and let me know that I was their second choice. I really had no preference one way or the other, because in this day and age a job's a job, so I returned to my desk to finish out my day.

A couple hours later I was pulled from my desk a second time. This time I was informed that the person chosen for the position had declined, meaning the position was mine for the taking. So as of last Monday I'm the new timekeeper... hooray me. Since then I've been busy training for the job, and my schedule has been shifted to overlap the person moving out of the position. So it's been a busy week and I apologize for my absence, but things are returning to normal so full steam ahead.

Now my day consists of adjusting work schedules, keeping track of employee's missed time, and making sure people get paid correctly for overtime, vacation time, bereavement, etc. It's a whole lot of numbers to crunch working with 200+ employees, but it's right up my alley and I'm enjoying it a great deal.

____________________________________________________________________

In addition, I had the pleasure of spending some time with my old friend Liz Gaylor. Liz was the bees knees of viola players when we played together both at Alamogordo High School and for a time in the Las Cruces Symphony before she moved on to bigger and better things. Through the magic that is Facebook we were able to reconnect, providing us an opportunity to catch up on lost time.

Saturday I played with the New Horizons Orchestra. New Horizons is an organization which oversees the forming of community music groups to cater to adults and senior citizens whom are just learning a new instrument, or may have played before but have been inactive for some time. The purpose is to provide, you guessed it, new horizons for those local educators, casual musicians, would be musicians, and all those who love playing music but never get the chance.

I must say I had a great deal of fun playing with the group. There's something to be said for playing music for the sake of playing music. It has a certain fulfilling quality you don't find when you're playing professionally. Don't get me wrong, I love that I am able to perform at a level that makes people think they have to pay me, but there's a certain gratitude people have for volunteer work that you simply will not find anywhere else. I guess you could say I'm pro pro bono, and I look forward to playing with the group again whenever I'm available.

So, in grand coincidental style, it turns out that Liz's mother performs as the principal flautist with the New Horizons Orchestra, which worked out great in terms of finding a time to get together for a beer. I must say for the record that she hasn't aged a day since we were in high school (a strange phenomenon amongst AHS alumni). We headed over to Farley's for a pitcher of Dos Equis Lager, and Crystal and Caitlyn met us there to shoot the breeze.

On Sunday, the family and I went down to El Paso for the day. Crystal was shopping for a dress to wear to my sister's upcoming wedding, and I was searching for some top notch Chinese buffet action. We were both successful. In addition, we procured some knockoff shades, so when you see Crystal rocking her Coach and Chanel sunglasses, make sure you envy her. But really, it's pretty fucking bright over here, so we bought the first sunglasses we could find. In the evening, Liz and her mother came by the house for a quick final visit before she left back to Fort Collins on Monday.

All in all, a very busy week, and a whole lot of fun.

So, this week I'll be adjusting to my preferred sleeping schedule of staying up late and waking up not as early. Can't wait for the weekend and the drunken stupor that is the Southern New Mexico Wine Festival. Should be, again, a great deal of fun.

Hope you all have a wonderful week and nice talking to you again.

Jimmy

P.S. Thanks for the gas!! (You know who you are.)

A Week in the Life 21 - Coming Soon!

Ahh, this week has been crazy.

I'd love to tell you all about it but it just so happens that it's crazy enough for me to not have the time to do just that.

Suffice it to say that the week has been loaded with some adjustments at work, some good movies, and hopefully some time with old friends (pending).

So I'll not keep you from your busy day, but I did want to let you know I'll get to this week's update sooner than later.

And as always, thanks for your time.
Jimmy

A Week in the Life 20 - A Case of the Mondays

Another weekend come and another exciting week ahead. Today is ho hum. It's Monday and I'm a bit on the sleepy side, but I'll get to that later.

While we're on tangents here, do you ever look ahead at your week and try to pinpoint chunks of time when you might be able to catch up on sleep? I see the future and little lines shoot out at specific moments like connecting stars in a constellation, mapping my zzzz's like some distant cosmic event. I see naps this evening as a possibility, think Wednesday afternoon perhaps, maybe Thursday night... who knows.


But back to reality, I'm sure none of us really gets as much sleep as we'd like. That's what death is for. Soon will I rest, yes, forever sleep. Earned it I have.

Last weekend was the final season subscription concert for the Las Cruces Symphony. That officially marks the end of my fourteenth season with the Symphony. This week we'll be playing our Children / Family concerts. We round up all the 5th graders from all of Las Cruces' elementary schools on Wednesday morning, bus them in, and play three concerts in a row. It's a great opportunity for us to reach out to the community and provides some insight for those children who are about to undertake an instrument of their own. On Saturday we play a family concert at 3pm as well. Families can bring their children for the concert and the kids can hold and see all the instruments to get a better feel for them.

This weekend also marks the release of the revamped Star Trek franchise. On Sunday I'll be taking my parents out to see the movie. It is a fine coincidence that Sunday is Mother's Day, as my mother is a huge Star Trek buff so it's an easy gift.

At some point this week I'll finish up my online class, get an oil change, get a haircut, and apply for a Passport card to enable travel to Mexico come June. Somewhere in between I'll be hanging out with Caitlyn and Crystal, watching the NBA playoffs, finishing Children's Week, and hopefully adding a couple of posts.


Busy busy busy.


Oh yeah.. I said I'd get back to the "I'm sleepy" thing later. So, um, yeah. I'm sleepy.


So have a great week, and best of luck in all your endeavours.
Jimmy

P.S. Still not dead of swine flu, and still eating bacon like it's breathing air.

A Week in the Life 19 - Rising From the Ashes

Ahh, good ol' blog. Long time no see.

After a lovely weekend, I return for another week of musical goodness. Last Saturday was spent in Juarez, Mexico playing Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsikov. Sunday was an off day, spent enjoying an otherwise uneventful day with Caitlyn and Crystal. We just vegged out all day and watched the NBA playoffs and Sunday night FOX animation. Here's a quick clip of the piece performed by the Moscow Symphony.



This week is the final concert for the Las Cruces Symphony's 08-09 season. The highlight of this coming weekend's performance will be Stravinsky's Firebird Suite. Haven't played that piece in over a decade so I'm looking forward to playing it again. Here's a rare video of Stravinsky himself conducting the piece.




So again you may see me only intermittently, as I'll be busy juggling the goodness that is life. Other than work and symphony, there's the usual school which is wrapping up next week. I'll also be working on making the magical switch from the heater to the air conditioner. I'm pretty sure we're through all the cold fronts mother nature wants to send our way, so it's the balmy sizzle of summer from here on out.


Apologies in advance for what will no doubt be a slow few weeks on the blog.


I'll try to throw up whatever interesting crap I find online. I always have that uneasy feeling that you've all seen everything I post up here somewhere else on the Internet, but I'm going to do it anyway just to look like I'm keeping up with my end of the deal.


So here's to another week! Caitlyn turns 6 months on the 29th. You know, they do really grow up too fast. I wasn't sure after hearing it 15,000 times, but it all makes sense now.


Hope life finds you well, and if not, best of luck in the future. I'm going to spend the last 10 minutes of lunch grabbing a warm cup of coffee, and searching for useless junk to toss up on the blog for the rest of the week.


Take care,

Jimmy

A Week in the Life #18 - Happy Feaster

Yes, happy feaster is right. Your friendly neighborhood Jimmy is officially stuffed with honey glazed ham, corn on the cob, potato salad, innumerable Chinese food dishes, and assorted grilled meats. All in a couple days work for this Easter weekend carnivore.

So now, back to the grind. After a lovely weekend off, including Monday, it's back to work. Have to make a living somehow, and for the time being it seems that the best way to do that is by working. Personally, I'm hoping that whole concept changes in the future. If I'm lucky someday you'll be able to make a living by sitting in the comfortable corner of the couch and falling asleep on a partly cloudy afternoon while watching The Simpsons.

Someday.

Not a whole lot going on this week. I had Monday off and I'll have Thursday and Sunday off this week as well, so my work week is split right down the middle.

This week my priority is cleaning the house and reassembling a computer I've been working on. I received a nice little piece of work the other day, and I'll be doing a complete tear down and rebuild since it wasn't posting. I noticed a couple of inconsistencies (i.e. improperly seated RAM, video card power cable plugged in 1 notch off) so I'm just going to dismantle the whole thing and start from scratch. Wish me luck.

As far as cleaning the house goes, I need to take out the trash and wash the dishes (I'm way overdue, it's totally my turn). Likewise I need to get rid of all the clutter surrounding my computer desk. I need to file away the important stuff (W-2's, paper copies of taxes) and throw out the rest.

This will be my final rest week before heading into the home stretch for symphony season. Juarez next week, Las Cruces the following 2 weeks, then Juarez again for two more weeks. The whole thing is already making me a bit sleepy. However, I'll stay active and alert if only to avoid the inevitable "Slowpoke Rodriguez" references.

Speaking of which, at some point I should acquire some credentials. I've been border-hopping the last 3 years pretty regularly and have yet to procure myself a passport. If I'm not mistaken I'm going to require one here shortly or they won't let my ass back into the country. Fortunately there's that new border crossing card which covers you for land travel to Mexico and Canada. It's cheaper and more efficient than a traditional passport, so I'll probably go that route. Especially since I won't be taking my European vacation anytime soon.

Caitlyn made out like a little pink Easter bandit. Chocolate bunnies, creme eggs, handsome little outfits, and even some delicious rice husks. She still seems to amaze us everyday, and I'll tell you right out that I totally don't deserve this kid.

Speaking of which, it's high time I put up some damn baby pictures. I talk and talk about her like she's Snuffleupagus. Add that to my list of things to do this week. Clean house, fix computer, post baby pictures to blog/Facebook page. Done, done, and done.

More to come,
Jimmy

P.S. I ate this bunny too.....

A Week in the Life #17 - Hasenpfeffer

Well this week, like so many before it, will come and go rather uneventfully. The usual work and school combination, with just enough free time to take care of errands and family.

Took most of the weekend off from the Internet, something that Jimmy-from-five-years-ago would have never foreseen. It seems to happen more and more these days. Used to be I'd never go through an entire 24 hour period without being online, but now it just sort of happens. Funny how no matter where your focus lies in life, life finds a way to shift it without you noticing. It is a bit strange, when not so long ago most of my waking hours were spent in front of the computer. However, since I don't seem to notice, I'll leave it be.

Work is fine, although each week seems to bring another set of micro-managing rules. Don't do this, stop doing that, do it this way instead of this way. I'm sure it's not too different than most jobs, but it tends to feel a bit cliche (i.e. one bad apple). Whatever, I get off at 3:45 so by the time I care I'm already home. Besides, I'm no hypocrite.

Looking forward to Easter weekend. Had the weekend off already and took Monday as a vacation day, so we'll get to see all the family and gorge ourselves with rabbit stew and deviled eggs. I'm just sayin' cause people buy up all those roadside "Bunnys-4-Sale" rabbits since they're so cute, and before you know it our rivers are choked with dead Lepus. So I'm taking it upon myself this year to eat as many abandoned Easter bunnys as I can to ensure they don't contaminate the public water supply. It's just one more service I offer. As for the deviled eggs, I'm sure you can figure that one out for yourself.

Anyway, we'll make the local family rounds and then eventually head over to Alamogordo to visit my parents and my sister's family. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Caitlyn cleans up in the chocolate rabbit department. Diabetes doesn't onset itself you know.

So, the rest of the week should be posts as usual, I've got nothing going on at lunch through Saturday so I'll have the free time. No more concerts until the week of the 25th, so hopefully I can catch up on a few things. If not, the free time will allow me to come to terms with not giving a shit.

Yesterday: Off, taking care of business (BTO FTW).

Today: Work, dinner with family, freeing up hard drive space.

Tomorrow: Never Dies

Movies watching: Bedtime Stories, Marley and Me, The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire.

Going to watch: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Doubt, Yes Man, The Tale of Despereaux.

Reading: Lamb: The Gospel According to Bif, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore.

More to come,

Jimmy

A Week in the Life - The "Most Hairy + Fat Bear" Award goes too...

Hello again my beloved minions. Back to work this week with a full load of school, work, and symphony.

Yes, that's right, the life monkey is pelting me with the feces of obligation.

Last week was great, relaxed, fun filled, and loaded with lots of time with family. This week is not.

Today I'll work from 7am to 3:45, then off to class from 4:45 to 7:15, then off to symphony rehearsal from 7:30 to 10:00. Mondays I tells ya.

But I'll not pine over my lengthy day. I'm a firm believer that you're not allowed to bitch about how hard your life is if you've made it so based on the options you've chosen. Nobody asked me to spend a decade+ in college, or play the violin for extra income, so I'm not going to sit here and whine about how tired I am. If it were that hard I wouldn't do it.

Instead I'll look at the positive side, I do have enough time to play with my beautiful little girl before she goes to sleep, I have enough time to eat, pay bills online, and post this super-awesome life update. Not to shabby, right?

This last weekend we went to my sister-in-law's house to celebrate her daughter's birthday. They had the usual eats: burgers, potato salad, etc. That evening we vegged on the couch and caught up on some DVR action. Sunday we hopped over to Alamogordo to visit my parents, as my sister and her family were in town visiting. I don't see myself heading to Roswell anytime soon so it was a good chance to see all of them before they left for home. Watched some good NCAA action that afternoon, and then the usual FOX Sunday night animation. Home by 9:30, we watched the episodes we missed on the trip home and then hit the hay.

Before my sister and her family left we were treated to a variety show performed by her 3 daughters. The "Crazy Colors Show" (free admission, which was great what with the economy and all) was delightful, and featured Josie as announcer, Lana on keyboards, and Brianna on choreography. The whole thing was really cute, with a brief intermission when my sister's son Brandon fell forward off the hammock he was sitting on and pulled of a grade A faceplant. But, as they say, the show must go on.

After the show they had us all dance, and then gave out awards to everyone. The awards ceremony was rather impromptu, so Josie basically pulled the categories out of her ass. Needless to say I won for, and I quote, "being the most hairy, and for being a fat bear." Now I've won an award or two in life, but never one so contradictory. I didn't even know there was a fat hairy bear competition, and if I had I might have been more compelled to be either:

1. Less fat.


2. Less hairy.


3. Less fat and hairy.


4. Not a bear.

Suffice it to say I accepted the award with some reservation. No worries though since she's still in the innocent child phase. She calls em' like she sees em'. Since I know I'm definitely not the least fat or hairy, so at worst she's partially right.

So on we go, this week it's a performance with the Las Cruces Symphony. Jennifer Frautschi will be performing the Khachaturian Violin Concerto with us, then we'll finish the show with Shostakovich's 5th Symphony.

Links to their respective sites/youtube recordings.

See you all soon,

Jimmy

A Week in the Life - One Down One To Go

Well, another awesome week come and gone. Last week was great, so nice to work M-F and have the whole weekend off with no commitments, symphonies, or appointments. Hopefully this week will be more of the same.

On Friday, we relinquished our child to the custody of my sister-in-law, as she's been dying to spend some time with her favorite niece. The baby (knock on wood) has been just super with everyone and enjoys being around all sorts of people. We've been fortunate enough to have the luxury of others wanting to watch the baby, instead of us needing them to. So every once in a great while we'll deliberately schedule a movie or a night out to give family some playtime with the little one sans parents.

So the Mrs. went out with her mother for a girls night. They spent some time at the casino for a bit and eventually wound up at a traditional Mexican bar (stateside, but there really is no difference when you live as close to the border as we do). This particular bar showcased a variety of Hispanic males in full mating plumage. It's really quite amazing how you can travel 20 minutes and be in a completely different world.

The men were adorned with cowboy hats, silver chains with obnoxiously large rooster pendants, and pointy boots of a most peculiar color. Shirts unbuttoned just enough to frame the gigantic rooster pendant and draw the eye to what must clearly be a hair nest for said poultry. Now, I wasn't there, but I can imagine the spectacle as well as I hope you can.

I went out to see, you guessed it, Slumdog Millionaire. I would love to sit here and write a full on review, but it's only a 45 minute lunch so maybe I'll write more on that later. Truth be told it's difficult to imagine a better film to take the title of best picture. I've only seen Milk and Slumdog, but both were top notch. Slumdog takes the cake however for what is simply a perfect story. Each time I see this movie (3 times since last Friday for the record) another subtlety is brought to light, making it that much better.

Do yourself and favor and see the movie as soon as it comes out on DVD here in about a week or so. Don't rent it, buy it. You live through the lives of the characters, and their lives will correlate with your own. It refreshes your memory of what true love can be, how fragile it is, and how hard it is to lose. You know, in case you forgot.



Do not fail to see this movie.

An easy five out of five Chai Wallas.


That'll be funnier after you see it.

Ok, only eight minutes left. This week, a whole lotta nothing. Sunday I have a rehearsal for the Las Cruces Symphony, which will keep me occupied for the whole of next week. I need to clean house both online and offline, as my desktop is cluttered and my WoW mailbox is full of things that should have gone to the auction house months ago. In the real world, the dishes need doing and we are ever so close to needing the AC's switched back on.

So for now, that'll do. Here's wishing a most happy of birthdays to Elwood, who we hope continues his entertaining work for years to come.

Take care and see you all real soon,
Jimmy

A Week in the Life - All Work and No Play Makes Jimmy a Dull Boy

Well, this week is a free week for the most part. No musical happenings to say the least. Still, it's a busy week as I try to catch up on neglected schoolwork (as per my M.O., one class is a breeze, the other is a mountain of work. Why? I'm not sure).

In addition, taxes were filed last week and now refunds must be appropriated in the manner most suited to eliminating debt and/or catching up on ever looming mortgage payments.

Likewise, the house needs maintenance, another ever looming issue. Had the ol' septic tank empited the other day. You see, while our house does lie within the city limits, at the time it was built (1961 methinks) a septic tank was pretty much your only option. We may still need a visit from Roto-Rooter, as the pipes are still running a bit slow. I'll give it the ol' college try later on today (insert mad plunging here).

Hopefully today we'll be able to catch Coraline in 3D while it's still at the theaters. Here in the LC a new set of 10 screens just opened up at the local shopping mall. Previously the Mesilla Valley Mall contained 8 screens, 4 outside and 4 inside. When the company opened up 12 screens on the north side of town they shut down the outside four screens. Now they've closed the other four and built an addon to the mall complete with comfy stadium seating, an in-house restaurant, and some rocking digital projectors. It opened on March 6th, just in time for use to catch Watchment on Sunday afternoon. But more on that later.

All in all that brings us 26 screens, 4 cheapo second run and 22 digital. Nice work keeping the tickets down to a reasonable 8 bucks as well.

This weekend there's a plethora of activity. Some distant relative has a baby shower on Saturday, and on Sunday we'll be at my company picnic. Weather permitting of course. In the evening you'll find me with family, watching the latest DVD releases a second time (Milk and Role Models), tinkering with my now Level 80 Death Knight in World of Warcraft, and hopefully blowing the dust off my guitars, both real and plastic. I've been itching for some more progression through Rock Band 2.

Lastly, I need to seriously get on it when it comes to communication. I haven't updated anything lately. Facebook, nothin'... MySpace... pshh... Twitter... zzzzz..... I'm failing miserably at this interpersonal communication. Haven't called my parents/brother in at least two weeks. Hell, my friend Geoff lives 5 minutes away and I haven't seen him in two months! Needless to say I need to spend an hour or so over the week and call everyone just to say hi. Alot of good it does utilizing all this fabulous technology to reconnect with long lost friends only to "add" them and shuffle them off into the long lost pile again. And a blog post or two couldn't hurt either...

So, there ya go, one more week in the harnessed madness that is my life. Here's to the hope that your's goes easier, and to the appreciation that it's not nearly as bad as it is for some.

As always,
Jimmy

A Week in the Life - Back to Business

Well, another week is here, and hopefully I'll find the time to do more than ponder if I have the time to make any significant changes to my blog. Usually, I open it up, stare at the screen for about a minute, than carry on with the things I must prioritize over posting. You know what my distractions are so I won't bore you with trite summaries.

Impossible tasks teach us the art of prioritization, and the virtue of acceptance when we fail. Some things are impossible, but it is our reaction to failures that ultimately determines if failure exists or not.


So yeah, I'm not to bothered by my lack of posting, since I was pretty damn sick last week. What motivation I could muster was gladly spent helping around the house and spending time with Caitlyn. Crystal as well was feeling under the weather all last week, her illness came a few days prior to mine. The baby had a small cold as well, but she's a trooper, and you wouldn't know by her smiling all the time.


Went to the movies for the first time on Saturday to see Taken. It was Caitlyn's first foray into the movie theater. She made it a good hour into the movie before getting a bit restless and started talking it up a little. Crystal just took her to the back of the theater where she promptly fell asleep. All in all it was alot of fun, and we avoided being "that" couple. You know, the shitty parents who don't give a damn if their child is crying full volume at the late showing of Return of the King on opening night weekend. Assholes.


Anyway, what I'm saying is that wasn't us.


Finished up the ol' taxes this week. It was a colossal pain in the ass, even with friendly software to assist. I had a bunch of 1099's from gigs this last year, Caitlyn is a dependent now, I had a couple of W2's as well from the job change, and Crystal's entire income is a form 1099 as well. So both of us have Schedule C forms to fill out for our personal businesses. Add onto that the house being a home office for Crystal's day care, complete with all it's deductions and percentages and depreciation's, and it's just a big pain.


This week I'm playing with Juarez. Just a whole mess of songs, all popular stuff. Several selections from Carmen, the William Tell overture, and Borodin's Polotsvian Dances. All real big crowd pleasers.


Sunday I'm going to see Watchmen. I finished the book recently and am looking forward to seeing the "unfilmable" film. From what I've read they've stayed pretty true to the book, as best they could. Can't wait for the "Tales from the Black Freighter" DVD as well, I liked the parallel story in the book for its dark theme and macabre scenarios. Mostly though, I guess I'm just hungry for some hard "R" super-hero type violence. Should be a good finishing touch to an otherwise busy week.


So yea, another week come and gone. We'll see what she holds! Hope you are all well.

And welcome back Elwood.

Talk to you later,
Jimmy

A Week in the Life - Steady as We Go

Ahh, another week starting, another story to tell.

This last weekend as you may remember, I was in Roswell for a concert with the Roswell Symphony. It doubled as a visit with my sister, and some away time for Crystal, Caitlyn, and myself.

Valentine's Day, as Elwood so eloquently puts it, is in fact "weaksauce." Nevertheless, Crystal and I celebrated it with a stop by Sonic™ for a shake and some cheese tots.

Probably more significant a reason for us to celebrate Valentine's Day is the fact that exactly one year ago on Valentine's Day, Crystal and I found out that we were expecting. I remember it well, mostly because it plays out like most other days, with me on the computer.

I was just sitting online in the "computer room" (now the "nursery"), Crystal came in just ever so teary, equal parts shock and happiness. We had at the time, recently hit our self appointed deadline. We had been trying for about three months or so and we're ready to wait another year or so to start trying again. It's not to say that we were officially trying (i.e. tracking Crystal's ovulation, that sort of thing), but Crystal was getting impatient, and each negative readout ever so slightly chipped away at our perception of how easy the idea was of conceiving. Negative indeed...

Lo and behold, later that October Caitlyn popped out cute as could be. The rest, as they say, is history ... recent history, but history nevertheless.

This week is a cookie cutter week. Work, no concerts.

On Saturday we'll be attending a wedding for our friends Adam and Maria. A long time coming, it's good to see these two finally tying the knot, as they've seemed destined to be together for some time. Crystal knew both Adam and Maria in high school, and I've known them both through my time with Peter Piper Pizza. At one point or another they were both Team Leaders with the company. This Saturday should be fun, and we wish the best to them both.

Anyway, that's pretty much the coming week. I've succeeded in my first scheduled post, as "A Week in the Life" is the first in what I hope will be specific themed posts for specific days. If all goes well every Monday you'll see the usual weekly compendium of all things Jimmy. Stay tuned the rest of this week for the new format.

I lieu of sappy Valentine's Day drivel about true love, soul mates, and other assorted relationship buzz words ... instead I leave you with a clip of DMB.

In particular, our wedding song. You may love or hate Dave Matthew's Band, but the song succeeds in being sincere, fitting, and not overplayed in the mainstream.

Have a good week,
Jimmy

A Week in the Life - Yes ... again... part 2.... the Quickening.

Welcome back to those of you who tuned in earlier only to discover that I had postponed my usual weekly postponement for a later time. I do apologize for the incovenience. But I'm back again to finish out my weekly summary of all things Jimmy.

This week starts out uneventful, although the weather here is fucking things up temperature wise. One day sunny and 75° and the next hella windy, overcast, and a balmy 50°. What gives, Jesus? Is it a sign of the impending apocalypse? Is Stone Cold coming back to professional wrestling? Did we forget to flip over the Mayan calendar to see the 5126 year period on the backside? Either way, it's funny weather regardless of the inconvenience of the truth.

The parents were in town on Monday and again today. Various doctor's appointments bring them over from Alamogordo to Las Cruces every now and again. Both nights we ordered in for pizza and just sat around shootin' the shit. Monday was TV and conversation, Wednesday was a screening of Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, and more on that later.

Tomorrow, as soon as I sneak out of work we're off to Roswell for another concert with the Roswell Symphony Orchestra. We'll be playing some of the more popular arias from Verdi's opera La Traviata, which you'll recall from this post back in November when I played the whole opera with the Juarez Symphony Orchestra. If you need a refresher, I believe the post has a link to some information on the opera, or you can click here.

A clip of Brindisi "The Drinking Song" from the opera.



We'll return from Roswell on Sunday, and it's off to our friend Daniel's house for a good ol' Daytona 500 party. I can't say I'm the biggest NASCAR fan in the world, but even the smallest appreciation for the challenge of the sport is multiplied by the presence of a friend who knows the ins and outs of it. This goes for you CJ_ATC and LaCrosse as well.

And that's the upcoming week. I'll be stuck in a small hotel room in Roswell as of tomorrow night, and won't have to be at work by 7am on Friday so tomorrow I'll try to start stacking up some entries and saving them for the purpose of future posting. That is, if the laptop can't handle the latest World of Wacraft expansion.

Love and Cheez-its,
Jimmy