Friends, family, and people I generally don't loath:

Well, it's been quite a while since I had any news big enough to post about, but this certainly counts as such as well as the fact that my LiveJournal had taken over that area to a large degree.  That is, when I can update it.  I can't very well recap everything that's happened during the last two months - that will come in the next week or two on LJ. All I can say for now is that it's been an absolute monster of a summer, with very little time off and far too much planning, responsibility, and mental as well as physical work involved. Long car trips within intense time periods were made, heated phone calls were exchanged, breakables taken extra care of, music gear taken even more care of, my car given a proper “goodbye” upon its non-functioning, kitties drugged for a long trip in the car, and an entire house packed up into one Ryder moving van, one minivan, and our Neon.

...but the day I'd written (and whined) about had finally come on August 6th. After almost three years which seemed like double the amount of time, countless viewings of the police at our neighbor's door to break up a “domestic dispute”, far-too-many posts about the Hell that is shopping at Wal-Mart (and which I can say will never happen again) and a general malaise that settled over the last year, we finally got to do what was dreamed about for far too long:

We left. See you in Hell, Mount Sterling Kentucky, and don't let my bitterness bite your ass on the way out. No, wait. Let it. ;-)

Stephanie and I have escaped... err, “moved” from Kentucky to Akron, OH where she's started her Doctorate Program in Psychology.  For her, the last few months have been all about finding a good program in a local that would suit us both, as you can imagine that another spell in a rural area would cause psychological damage of untold amounts, as well as cramming for her “oral comps” - no, it’s not what you think – it’s basically a review of everything one has learned in a Masters program, and to which upon passing was told by a facility member, “Your presentation has renewed my faith in our program”.  Fine praise indeed.  After that was the finishing and presentation of her thesis, which alone say a great deal as a thesis isn’t required for a terminal Masters program – she chose to do it anyway, the actual physical graduation and “hooding”, and all the red tape to transfer her paperwork to her current school.  Add on top of that a few day-trips up here to visit the school, apartment hunt, going through a last-minute emergency of our being informed that the new apartment not being ready in time for our move when the utilities were scheduled to be turned off (it was fixed in time) and the actual, physical move up that involved the moving truck blowing an inside tire and thus being 3 hours behind us as well as Kitty Valium™ not working and a consistent stream of “merp... merp... merp” and you can imagine the language coming out of our mouths through Eastern Kentucky and West “Fuckin'“ Virgina.and you can understand why I haven’t written much of anything recently.  Given the choice between writing and sleeping after days of packing and red-tape, I chose sleep.

We're quite happily 90% settled in our new apartment where we got a tremendous deal and are ending up paying less per square foot than in Kentucky. It's freshly painted, carpeted, larger, has more closet space, and is even *quieter* compared to the old house even with people on 4 sides as opposed to just one (again, the lack of police activity helps.) The management was helpful when problems arose, which is a post unto itself, and has been great since then. There's a heated pool for me to stretch/work out in, and believe me it's been getting used.  So is cable and high-speed Internet, which after three years of 4 fuzzy channels and dial-up we deserve, damn it!

The city itself is wonderful - a sense of "small city/large town" where you're not overwhelmed by the size and traffic, but is big enough to find enough places to go and things to do without repeating yourself within a week. We're at the tip of the iceberg at to entertainment possibilities, which after having to drive 45 minutes to simply go the library, a Walgreens, or a club is a feeling that words cannot express.

Contentment. Happiness. Potential. "Home". Actually, I suppose that words can express them.

...and yes, by "potential" I mean ones within the musical realm. It's only been three weeks, and I already have a few solid leads for musical experiences. With any luck, soon I'll be doing what I do best... making no money playing crappy clubs. ;-)

New contact info is listen on the Contact page, so go ahead and update your address books now: our experience with the new apartment and management has been so good I doubt we'll be leaving for a while.  I hope everyone's summer was an enjoyable one - more than the quick apartment-hunting trips and numerous little moving details we had to deal with was - and that I’ll hear from you soon.  Hell, even *call*: we've got unlimited long-distance as well as local calls, so I'll be happy to return a call and chat now that it's much more financially feasible.

Contentedly,