Tubasaluki: Quoting music since 2003

The title, as long and confusing as it is, sums up my past week quite nicely. You’re confused. I can tell.

On Monday evening, I boarded a train for Havre, Montana. Tuesday afternoon, I got off said train (luckily, in Havre) and went and looked at the new stations. Its a three in one deal, so thats neat. I talked to the program director for a couple of hours and accepted the position. I like these guys, as they seemed nice, personable, and gave me asprin for my “being on a train for 18 hours” pains.

The job entails a little bit of everything. There’s some voice tracking work, some writing of copy, some producing, and possibly calling games. I’m looking forward to it. I think it will be good.

That said, I’m not letting myself get too excited. I did that with my last job. When I re-read what I wrote at the time I accepted the job, its mind blowing to an extent. I’ll be cautiously optimistic and hope that this is a great opportunity. If not, I now know what my back-up plan is (teaching) and that gives me a sense of calm about the whole thing. If this works, great. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll know where to go next. Direction is a good thing to have.

On Wednesday, I found a place to live. Havre is a college town (really!) and so the apartments that are there are pretty much full. I was able to find a place to rent for the time being. I like the place, but it doesn’t allow pets. So, I may see if something opens up in the summer time (everything is basically done month to month, rent wise) that will allow Cagney to move out with me. In the meantime, I may get some plants. I’m thinking of getting a cactus and naming it Ned. None of you in the Midwest understood that joke.

I was able to poke around Havre a bit. I bought a book from the book exchange, at at some of the restaurants (I already like The Lunch Box). I like the town. I have relatives along the Hi-Line, so that’s helpful. Havre is about the size of Salem, which makes it the largest city in that part of Montana. I think I’ll like it, if only because there are mountains near by and its just hard to beat a Montana sunset. (Well, sunset at Martin Stadium against the clock tower is up there too).

Thursday I boarded a train for home. I read the book I bought at the book exchange. I found out 150 pages into it that it was Book 8 of a series. So, I stopped reading. I slept, came up with a new character and story idea to use him in. Basically, I came up with a story title: “The Denny’s Manifesto”. Why Denny’s? Because my last two years in Carbondale, I wrote just about every paper at Denny’s. So what is the Denny’s Manifesto? I have but a vague idea, but I think it will drift into religion quite a bit. Just toying around with it for now though.

Friday morning I got off the train and drove home. I was there for maybe an hour, 90 minutes tops before I headed down to Oregon for what is best described as “Track School”. It was USA Track and Field’s Level One certification class or: “About 20 hours of learning more about track than you thought was possible, but this is just the tip of the iceberg so don’t get to brain dead”. It was one of those sessions where you learn so much that when people ask “what did you learn” you kind of respond with drool. There’s a 200 question test that I’ll have to take to become Level One Certified. My brain hurts just thinking about it.

That said, I was happy to go. I loved it. I learned things that I could incorporate to a distance or cross country program should I continue coaching. I also learned of things that I can use for my own personal use. Maybe not so much when I learned how to throw a discus, but I did learn lots.

I went to this with my friend Nick, so that was a good time. I also made beet juice jokes with Courtney Jaworski, who is only an All-American in the 800. He’s fast. Also listened to Brian Hoddle speak. He’s a coach with the USA Paralympics team. I enjoyed listening to his speak. You can tell he has a passion for coaching and for helping people realize their goals. His philosophy of coaching was interesting to listen to.

Level One lasted through Sunday, at which point I was finally able to sleep in my own bed. Thats a welcome relief. And then I realized that by the end of this month, I’ll be able to sleep in my real bed. And that is a very welcome feeling indeed.

I feel my heart implode
and I’m breaking out
escaping now
feeling my faith erode

Alan