Jeff Timons "The Goonies"!!!

I felt that my blog was in DESPERATE need for PICTURES!

Jeff Timons' "The Goonies!" Featuring Matt, Craig, Anthony, and David "The Ohio Team" (order of people to whom I have met, order means absolutely nothing otherwise). Last weekend I had a very bad panic attack, so on Saturday I went to visit Jesse and everyone at California Sound Studios in Lake Forest, California. Jeff Timons (of the band 98 degrees) wasn't there (I think he was with his kids) but it doesn't matter because the whole "think tank" crew for Jeff's next album was there, and we had a blast taking pictures. Everyone totally cheered me up. I was going through denial that I was in school, combined with my own panick-ing, simply because I didn't have a camcorder to mess around with (though it's already been the first week of school), combined with my lack of knowledge of Final Cut Pro. In all honesty, I was eager on the first day of class to get a 10-hour bootcamp orientation on how to use the cameras and final cut pro.... But no, I had to wait like for a WEEK-AND-A-HALF before I could play, play, PLAY!!! Life is good at Ca Sound. Life is very simple. Just chill out and make music. Hang out and watch Planet Earth in the evenings (a very generous present from Jesse). Hang out and be an "armchair environmentalist." (what a tragic concept for America, but it's true. People are addicted to the "beautiful, weird, and interesting" in which organisms--my research--become high fashion models down the runway of diverse environments, my research essentially is everyone else's tourist attraction, and visa versa... everyone else's work is my play, ha ha). It was very healing to visit--because I was just bombarded for the past week with all this new information: new environment (to some degree, UCSB has changed, new buildings, old buildings bulldozed, new people, for sure...), new people in class, new teachers, new place to live, new this, new that, new habits, new routines.... And this can be extremely stressful, especially since I worked so hard to establish solid relationships and friendships with CA Sound and some people in Central Casting, to just give this all up and go back to school was extremely difficult! I think every time I make a big "move" the first week I go through depression because my mind has not assigned "addictive value" to routines yet. I have not adjusted my mental nor physical metabolism yet. The same thing happened to me when I moved to Orange County in March of 2007. The first week I was very depressed and stressed out.

Many things about UCSB were familiar, but many things were not... but the point is right now I am feeling psychologically more stable hanging around the Central Coast. Well, at least at THIS moment.... We'll see what I'm up to an HOUR from now....

I have a track record of volunteer work with California Sound Studios, mostly with photography. California Sound helped me and motivated me with my individual pursuits in music. They helped me through some of the most difficult periods of my last year's leave of absence. I can never thank the whole Wright family enough. It's as if they have adopted me.... I have learned so much from everyone in the family--Frank (professional guitarist for Sony and Cher Chicago), Joann (President?), Nathan (the PR guy, the "hustler"), Jesse (head sound engineer), and the sound engineers Adam Duffy (music and dance expert from North High School of all things [that was my high school, if you can't tell], he's a total hilarious riot act), Jeremy, and the musicians Dan Bellini (Reign the Italian), The Morning Riot (Tony, Josh, Chris, Fuzzy), and as above, The Goonies!!! Jesse has been such a great friend for me. He listens to all my crazy daily "intellectual dramas" without really being too annoyed by them. He thinks my intellectually emotional ramblings are "cute," which is just fine. As long as he's listening. Which reminds me I just wrote a poem called "Time" which I'll post on the next blog. We confronted the whole "boyfriend-girlfriend" issue a few times, which I responded in the end with a poem-song called "My Addiction" (Jesse responded with giving me an archaic A-drive floppy which I can't even read! He says there's a letter inside, but...). In short, right now I am in such transition and vulnerability, I don't want to mentally strap and assign my mind to any other person to such a degree. Some people claim relationships are like "freedom" and to me at this it's more like "bondage" or a form of prison. I can have best friends and all that, but *ugh* I don't want to get into it anymore. The discussion of the male species is a whole book on its own (N = 7).

There are so many stories that come from a special place called California Sound Studios. I'll spare you for a later day. :-)