Before Coffee: 03/24/08
I slept in today. Sue me. I’m still a bit sick here off and on with this cough and congestion, but today feels like the day it’s clearing up, thank goodness.
Probably gained a pound or two thanks to Easter food. Back to the gym tomorrow, as long as the cough is gone.
On conversations… I think I’ve had the strangest mix of conversations here this morning. Via email I’m talking with a guy at DC Comics, then our PR guy at Platinum Studios, emailing back writer Jay Busbee right before this blog. I was on the IM talking with James Patrick, he has an awesome new book deal in the works, an we were talking about Hero By Night issue 4 stuff which I’m starting here this week– gotta bang out issue 5 cover here first…. but then the phone rings.
My wife answers and comes in about 30 seconds later with the phone muted and not looking happy. It’s my Dad. He’s at the magistrate’s office. Being the adventurous type my Dad is, and a man of honor, on New Year’s eve he had an altercation with some couple, where this woman’s boyfriend had done her wrong in some way, and well, I think my Dad cold cocked the guy for hitting a woman or something. He wouldn’t give me details. The police got involved, but ironically my Dad wasn’t cited for anything, the woman was. And I guess this woman has been seeing my Dad since then… a knight in drunken armor! —- UGH. Well, today was court day, and they need money to pay her out of there or they’re taking her to jail… supposedly they tried everyone else because they are broke, but they end up calling me to ask for 140 bucks– which my Dad can pay me back on Friday when he’s paid…… so what do you do? Well several thoughts go through my head.
#1 I don’t know this woman. And I don’t really care to, especially now. Let her rot?
#2 My Dad’s voice asking me, I could tell we were the last hope to help this person, but only for HIM. And it seemed rational that we will be paid back this Friday I guess. So I got off the phone and asked my wife to write a check out to the magistrate’s office…
Well, my wife is thinking more along the lines of #1 there, without the question mark on the end. She takes the checkbook, and she’s pretty damn angry right now. She’s going in to deliver the check, and she says a few choice words for my Dad too. UGH.
It’s very odd that somewhere along the line, WE became the responsible ones and the parents seem to need our help now. We’ll be scolding them. She’ll be scolding him telling him not to surround himself with trash…. and it’s true! The whole situation just sounds incredibly trashy and Fayette-Nam to me. It’s embarrassing to hear, to write about… and I’m sure it’s embarrassing for my Dad to have to call me. It’s going to be doubly embarrassing if my wife does show up and school these two grown adults. Maybe that is what’s needed, someone to tell them the truth.
My opinion of my Dad is, he had a longgggg boring marriage with my stepmother. He was the old adventurer from the 60s who I wrote about in comics, and suddenly he was a kept man, contained… broken down. Sitting around waiting to die. — probably the BEST thing that ever happened to him was losing that dead weight of crazypot my stepmother was… — So I try not to judge my Dad at all. He raised me well and taught me right from wrong. He taught me the simple things about honor too, which still gets him in sticky situations like this one he’s in today. So I guess i kinda feel like, I’d rather have him out there LIVING than sitting around waiting to die and being miserable with regrets of the past.
On money... people around here think we have fucking money! It bugs me. I mean, we have enough to get by with, but we’re not rich or anything. We’ve built everything we have, and we work really hard to keep it all. And being sort of the freelance/consulting type income, sometimes the checks don’t always come exactly when you thought they would, and it can cause some stress. It gets amplified when someone calls and asks for a loan, or suggests we must be secretly stashing Hollywood money away or something…. after all, I travel all over now, I just came back from Los Angeles! — Boy that DOES sound fancy, doesn’t it? Believe me, downtown Los Angeles is nothing to write home about. I think when some people hear I went out there, they envision me camping out on the Hollywood sign, with a campfire using money logs to warm me. UGH. — I’m a cartoonist!!! — and anyway, that adds stress to my mind. The perception locally that we have a ton of money or something.
My wife and I laugh with the money we DO save though. We don’t smoke, we don’t really drink a lot either. It’s at least an extra 300 bucks between us that other couples would blow on cigarettes and beer. And thank god we don’t have drug habits. — we’re just RESPONSIBLE ADULTS. And man, that does feel GOOD and WEIRD at the same time. I’m pretty low maintenance, just put me in a room and let me draw comics all day, or do research on the internet.
While it would be silly to move away from here, I can now see why someday, it might be necessary to do so. Somewhere near the beach calls to us.
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People like to gossip even where there is nothing to gossip about. Imagination is a powerful friend and foe in that situation. I get worried about similiar things and other’s perceptions. But more from the fact that I’m single, never been married and travel whenever I can. Apparently being 30 and unmarried is heresy? Meh, just like you and your wife not smoking or spending absurd amounts on partying, I save money by being single. I know for certain that though I like kids, I’m not a ‘dad’ type. I like my space and my freedom to work on art till 4am if i want. But that never stops the rumour mills from churning out grade A gossip. ;P And don’t feel too bad about your dad. I have an uncle that is right at 50yrs old (young family) and he hasn’t stopped partying since his teens. We’re talking about the kind of parties that he’s seen several of his group die or be killed (accidental deaths and arguements turned murderous). He was the uncle as a kid you thought he’d be awesome to hang with but when you got a bit older you realize he wasn’t cool just immensely sad. It is a weird feeling in life when you realize you are more responsible than your elders in a family.
It’s the same sort of thing that led your dad to your stepmom. Hearing this story is a really weird kind of deja vu. I hope Don can break out of the cycle before it repeats itself.
The gossip *is* typical of Fayette county. I never did understand the way people manipulated each other back there in order to incite drama. I learned some crazy lessons the hard way about what you can and can’t say and when to take people at their word from those days. OTOH, maybe I just turned into a cynical untrusting old bastard.
I understand the call to the beach… If I ever leave Santa Cruz, I’ll always be wanting to come back.
Hah– Yes. I’ve thought of that. He met both my mother and Mary at Bud Murphy’s when they both worked there together. In talking with him about the marriage, i could just tell they were both unhappy and sort of “bored”. There was a brief time he was driving himself crazy staying in his apartment with nothing to do, and its a shame he’s started drinking again, but I kinda feel like, who am I to tell him how to live his life now, he seems happy– if that makes sense? I told my wife, I’d rather have him living happy, then sitting somewhere waiting to die.
I hate to judge the majority of people in this area– we moved out of Fayette and over to Westmoreland county and it’s odd how we saw an immediate difference in the, uhm… level of … i don’t know what the word is– civility? Fayette is like a weird time warp to 15 years ago. I mean, people are STILL JUST discovering email and internet for the most part. And I’m always careful, I don’t want to sound like we’re “better” than other folks around here– but i guess that comes with living in such a depressed economy.
San Diego is calling me soon I think.
eh, even places like san diego I bet you can find almost exact replicas of your area. In fact ironically enough, I live in Fayetteville, AR and it’s a lot like what you describe in areas with Fayette-nam so to speak ;P….oof makes one wonder about the naming of towns now then doesn’t it….
It would be nice to move away so that certain family members would quit calling us and asking us for $$$. Maybe they just need to hear the cold hard truth! Just my opinion… Love ya babe!