The Daily Diary Continues

 4-30-12

I am woken up by an excited wife saying she got approved for a quick loan consolidation for some of the medical bills we’ve accumulated thanks to a couple untimely trips to the ER and bots’ testing for his issue with talking. Plus the fucking credit cards! With this new loan, we’ve whittled our debt down about 9,000 grand now! So she takes off to do that and I check online shit and chat with Shane. She comes back saying the place don’t open till 10, so we decide to get dressed and head to Okemos, cause I want to go to TRU (Toys R Us, as us adults call it). It of course doesn’t open till 10am either, so we go to Target to kill time and then I drop her off at the place to do the loan stuff and I return to TRU. Finding nothing I want, I head back to her place but get a call saying Bots’ school is cancelled for the rest of the day due to a power outage and they are sending the kids home early. I realize we’re not there to get him if he gets dropped off! In a panic I head back home but the wife finishes early and I turn around to get her to prevent a 25 minute drive there and back to get her. I narrowly avoid a huge accident from a truck that almost pulls out in front of me and another car, the idiot. I get the wife and we hightail it back home. We stress the drive and yell at all the slow movers cause we’re worried we won’t get there in time and have images of bots standing at our apartment door all alone, but the school hotline we call says we got time. We get there in record time and end up sitting in the parking lot for 30 minutes anyway. So we didn’t need to stress out or hurry home after all!

We get bots off the bus and head to Logans for lunch. We return home and she takes a mini-nap while I chat with Shane and check online shit and obtain a screener copy of the Game of Thrones from last night. The wife wakes up and heads to work. I get an email from Nick saying that all the cards I did for Marvel Beginnings 2 have been approved, even the Artist Proofs! So I can now sell them and promote me being on the set!

I decide to get some work done around the house so I dig back through bots’ closets, tossing about 4 boxes worth of crap in the process. I end up finding her maternity pants mixed into our laundry, so I sort that as well. I unearth some of Bots’ old toys and he plays with them all day. I then straighten up my office area, redo the budget to adjust for us paying off that stuff this morning and kitchen before cooking the bots and I some burgers and fries (his favorite!). We chow and watch some cartoons together. He’s bored with it so I put some socks and undies into the laundry and watch the newest episode of Game of Thrones. Finally the laundry is done and bots is laying around quiet. I get him into his Pjs and clean his room back up (after I cleaned it the first time, he spilled his toy box back out, natch. I lay with him and he falls asleep around 9pm.

Finally free , I check online shit and scan Holmes cards and other pieces and load some of it to Deviantart. Once my pallet is cleared I start work on the piece for the video game company. I text Lee to see if there’s a Sabo on for tonight, to which I hear no reply at all. As I am finishing the piece the wife comes home and gets mad at me for doing the budget. I get sorta ticked at her about it and she heads to bed. I follow shortly thereafter to find her upset that this week’s work schedule for her hasn’t allowed her to see bots at all. I tell her we can have him stay home from school tomorrow as he has been coughing a bit with a runny nose anyway.  She finally agrees and we pass out to AVGN around 1am. Pregnancy can really bring on the emotions.

5-1-12

Bots kicks the door around 8am and I get up and so does the wife. I have no idea why I have to get up too, as it was she that wanted to see him. Anyway I get online and check shit and post a ton on twitter and Idiothead.com to keep me awake. I also get email changes on the game design graphic I did and I pencil em and send em back to Jordan for approval. I sheepishly ask the wife for an apology for freaking out about the budget thing the night before so I can be okay about it. She does and all seems well. I lay down on the couch and doze in and out for an hour or so. The wife announces that we should use the Arby’s coupons I found yesterday and go out. I say yes and get dressed and we go. Once there I cut up some of the bun and chicken from my meal and save it, saying we can go feed the ducks after. We then head to two different parks where ducks are known to hang out and there’s no ducks. We even drive to what was once our potential home in a townhouse near a pond and there’s no ducks. Lastly, we backtrack to this old folks’ home near Saginaw Rd and find a ton of ducks and baby ducks! We feed em and they are excited beyond all reason.

Our good deed done for the day, we head home, passing the post office, whose line is out the door and I opt to not head in to mail some stuff I gotta send out. The wife gets ready and heads out for work. I sit down to check online shit and then get up to clean house. I start some laundry and do the bathroom and my office area. Before I know it, I have dug out my convention gig bag and am going through what I need to stock for the FCBD show coming on Saturday. I take a break and head to the office to pay the rent and bots comes with me. I basically putz around the house all day and clean little things here and there. I take the time to watch a Kevin Smith Q&A standup video, which turns out to be good. Then put bots to bed around 9. I continue sorting my gig bag till the wife comes home. She heads to bed and I head out to Walmart to get catfood and other staples for the house. I get back and lose myself on Wikipedia for about two hours. Before I know it, its 1:40am and I hit the hay, watching Netflix’d Trek.

5-2-12

I wake up at 6:55 and get bots up for school. I got Cinnamon Rolls the night before, so I break those out and give him a bite. He’s never had one to my recollection. Instantly, I see hearts and cupids flying around his head as he munches on bite after bite of a roll. He loves it! The bus arrives at 7:30 and he gets on. I pass back out till 11:40. I get up, check online shit and get him off the bus. I text the wife that I am gonna cook spaghetti, and that she should pick up some garlic bread. I chat with Shane via email and he talks about his Death Star Lego set he got for his Bday, and his desire to get a record player and records. This surprises me, as he’s not really one for old technology, nor collecting old things like that. He’s always trading barely old for newer, faster, better, stronger. He talks about his desire to check out older bands and make it cheaper and enjoy the sound of a record player. Instantly, I am jazzed for the idea and remember recently that I was missing my record collection too.

So after talking with Shane a bit on it, I decide to go out and get some records. The wife gets home and we eat spaghetti and then hit a couple record stores. I end up getting U2’s Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree and bots a DVD box set (natch). Then head home to sit and hang with the family before strapping on the uniform and heading to the den of sin for a 6-2 shift. I get some emails from my boss that I sent involving the rude incident from last week and she supports my ranting, which is good and she even apologizes that “I am having such a hard time at work here.” I appreciate her thoughts and sympathy for my feelings about the place lately and decide to drop my swords for the night and just enjoy it there. The night drags a bit and we barely have any customers. The boots (still not broken in) are hurting my feet like hell and I realize I made a mistake getting the boots. Too late to do anything about that though.

 Anyway, I work the shift, get out and call Walters back after texting him a bit. No reply so I get home and hit the bed around 2:30.

5-3-12

 (I cannot remember what else I did this day other than I worked a long ass 7-4am shift at the Den of Sin and came home tired as hell with feet in agony) On a side note: I did a weigh and I almost fell to the floor as a slobbering mess. I weighed 358. I was officially at a new high of fatness and I was floored by it. You’d think after I heard my wife make a sort of snide comment about me eating Twinkies the day before that I woulda learned the lesson and took the hint. But I didn’t. So I vowed that tonight was the last night. I’m off soda and starting a diet tomorrow.

5-4-12

I get up at 10am and head out to see Avengers on matinee. I never get popcorn when going to a movie alone because I feel even fatter than I am, sitting there munching on buttery snacks. I know the butter content from working there. One shot of butter is equal to two big macs in calorie content. True! In fact, my love of popcorn has been tainted ever since I worked at a theater and smelled it for almost three years. But I get there and smell it and for some reason I want some, but I stayed strong on my declaration that today I start dieting and changing my life. I don't even get a soda, even though I am extremely thirsty! (the price points at a theater are a great deterrent for fatties trying to lose weight too!) I get in the theater and sit down, barely squeezing into the chair. I am now happy that I am making the right decision to finally change my life. Finally. I cannot wait for the house lights to go down so I can "hide" my fat body in the dark. (Thats how fatties think sometimes)

After a couple hours, I emerge fully convinced that I had just seen the best ACTION SUPERHERO MOVIE of all time. I get in the car and excitedly start tweeting and then find the sad news that Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys had passed. Highs and then lows. I drive home listening to “Check Yo Head” on my ipod and pick up the wife and bots and head to Grand Ledge to get groceries.  I stock up on protein and veggies/fruits because I am on full on “gotta change my life starting today” mode. We get home and I cook an awesome roast beef sub with portion controlled sides for me and the wife. Dean tweets to me some interest about drinking tonight, which I call and make plans (while gushing about the Avengers). I get to work on some Avengers related pieces to sell at FCBD tomorrow and chat with Brian Maze when he calls. I end up curling up on the couch for a nap from 7-9pm and then get up and start drinking Uv Blue vodka and mixer. Wife and I watch music videos online till Dean and Mjit show up and we party hardy. My favorite kind of buzz: Sitting around talking movies, music and comics and drinking. I get pretty damn buzzed and they take off around 1am. I hit the pillow at 1:10 and am out like a light.

5-5-12

I wake up at 7am and hear bots knocking on his door. I get us up and check email and plug my appearance for FCBD today. I chug some water attempting to get rid of the massive hangover I had to nurse all morning to no avail. I love vodka, but man am I paying for it now! I try a bagel but almost puke it up. I lay down wondering if I will ever A-Puke it up and get on with it, B-If I should call and cancel my appearance or C-Get up, nut up and get out there! I voted for C, cause I am not a quitter!

I get the wife and bots ready and they drop me off at Clems for the FCBD signing. I see Dean and he says its been busy and great! Excited, I set up and the next four hours are a blur. Tons of drawing, selling, talking and more. I walk out with a nice stash of cash for my work and a ton of happy kids going home with drawings of their favorite characters. (thanks again to all who came out! You guys rock!) I give the wife some cash for her work lunch and head home, stopping off at Big Johns for a couple sub sandwhiches. She drops bots and I off and he heads to work. I eat, check online stuff and start inking and coloring a piece for J on the video game thing. I get notice that the Night of the Living Dead card blanks are coming and I realize that my time is running out on all projects so I gotta get cracking on everything! I check the mail and there’s a check from Cryptozoic for cards I did a while back. YAY! 

I am on a high all day because of the FCBD appearance and the check arriving. I am beyond grateful for the good things that have been happening with me and my career over the last couple years. I remember doing shows or store signings where I MIGHT have made my money back and it certainly was frustrating at times. But I opened my mind, changed my game plan a bit and embraced what the people wanted, with a mixture of my stuff put in it and packaged together. And its worked very well. The plans I got for next year are really gonna heat up things for me beyond what I can do now. I can spin profit for my business very easily now and it feels great. I think its because I never stop. I keep going and going. I am a freight train and I'm carrying  nothing but fuel powered Logs and coal behind me. Never gonna stop! Unstoppable!

I play with bots for a while and text with Kelly in-between working. The bots proves to be too much of a distraction to get work done cause he’s crawling all over me and my desk! So I give up and watch cartoons with him. He passes out around 9pm and I take a hard shit and weigh in out of curiosity. I’ve been soda free for two days now and I am assuming it won’t have much of an impact but I weigh in at 350. Maybe the first weigh in I did the other night was wrong or something. But whatever, I’ll take it. But I ain’t ready to call it genuine weight loss and start sucking my own dick quite yet about it. I drink the fuck out of some crystal light tea (quite good!) and water all day and I feel good. I also down a lot of protein. I’m sorta half Atkins and focusing on more muscle and protein, no sugars or fried, plenty of veggies and fruits and low carbs. Mainly, PORTION CONTROL!!

I get some of the massive 200 sketch cards I gotta get done for the secret set started as well while texting the wife.  She gets home around 11pm and I am head down into finishing a couple pieces and cards that I have to get done. She heads to bed and I listen to movie scores, NIN and other stuff to keep me company. I end up passing out to Trek on Netflix around 2:20am.