Investments

The friend I am writing about has long been the best of my feeble guild of friends.
First, however, I must prequel this praise of her spirit and loyalty with a blurb about my most recent ambition. Today I signed into the Primerica Financial company. I will be training to show clients, whether in debt or outside of debt, how to properly manage their accounts in order to ultimately save for a rather desirable early retirement. My managements of my clients' mortgages, car payments, and sheer VISA craters are the new "arrows in my quiver", if you will, that I will be retrieving in fine Sagittarian fashion :Op
To this friend (you know who you are) I owe a formidable debt of gratitude for loyalty in friendship, a debt of conversations spent talking about her ambitions and not my selfish meanderings down Chance Ave., and a big big hug and a cup of hot cocoa (H&H cocoa). I need you to understand that you indeed are my best friend. While I have been mulling over ideas of how to attach a rope to one of my arrows, shoot it up and out to ground level and climb out of this debt crater I'm trapped at the bottom of, you are always there in my heart or at the end of the e-tunnel as a shining light in my dark. Do know that you give me hope to find what it is I'm pursuing, and once I've found it to pursue something else. You give me courage to do what works for me, not always focus on pleasing others with my talents. You remind me that there are other people like me who, once they've made a strong connection, nurture that and build onto its roots.
I played Lydia's last night and got Mr. Jones, the host of the open stage, saying after my set that I was the most underrated songwriter in Saskatoon (!!!). He himself, and for the last couple of times now, pitches my cd to the audience as being a great listen and very unique. I sold 3 and gave one away to a guy who introduced himself to me as (another Shawn btw) a floundering student. My sympathetic side got the better of me as it usually does and I handed him a freebie. Nobler Pursuits, my new song, has been atop the set each of the last two times playing there and I'm proud to say has turned the right heads. Kevin, the new sound guy, and Ian the former one have both complemented me on the subtle intensity of it (in not so concise a way but conveyed in the same direction). So I am once again feeling pride in my very neccessary creative side, the side you always said "shone" :O)
Where I am only learning about financial investments, it would seem I have always had an instinct for which friends to invest in. *strong warm embrace when you read this* It is a chilly Saskatchewan night that I would love to share with you.

Readers, stay comfortable and be happy yer not at that sh*tstorm of the Democratic Convention in Denver... scary.

Saska-re-turn

My first week back in Saskatoon has been quite a progressive one, to take a term from my vastly overused musical vocabulary. The day I returned to Saskatoon I went out to FolkFest with my friend Kellie. We got viking helmets at the Norway pavilion, drank to ethnicity's sake, and danced as randomly as we could both dance at the Ukraine pavilion, before going our seperate ways home for the night. Sunday I continued disassembling my laundry bags from working out in Drumheller, while listening to Pavement's Wowee Zowee collector's edition 2 disc set of goof-rock. I got back to the chocolate factory on monday to find my machine, Bo Jackson (cause Bo can do everything, and because it's the 'dark' chocolate machine), waiting for me to crank out another 8 or 10 batches of chocolates that day. Just the next day I found myself at a meeting for Primerica Financial. The result of the presentation before me was my signing up to take training to become an advisor for the company and pursue part time work for them. The earning potential, and the convenience of their office being located just 3 blocks from the chocolate shop on 2nd Ave, only beckoned stronger that I take this opportunity for all it's worth. Later that night I tested my new song Nobler Pursuits on the stage at Lydia's Open Stage night. It got some good reviews, but my rendition of Nirvana's On A Plain struck a more familiar and, subsequently, a stronger chord with the roomfull of barhops and drunk aging 90's-alternative fans. By wednesday I was gassed from struggling to maintain the manic pace of giving 110% (as the meatheads and jocks will say) in the chocolate factory, so I gave in to a movie night, watching Crash and Nirvana Mtv Unplugged, both of which I picked up at the library on Taylor St. south of me. I guess I wanted to see what was so fascinating about Nirvana even after all these years. I resolved that people find an outlet for a neccessary kind of sympathetic feeling when listening to Kurt, since he was a little more than a sympathy case. In some selfish way I feel like a bit of a Kurt myself lately; going through some personally tough months although no more tough than anybody else's tough times. I am thinking with great anticipation for September though. On Thursday or Friday I confirmed with Harry at the chocolate shop that I would be taking Tai Chi in September with his group of students just off Broadway at the Cosmo Seniors Centre. The concious awareness that Christmas season will be causing my hands to tense up prompted the decision to responsibly care for them with some kind of exercise regime. Conveniently, Harry was happy to have me join.
June and July had me feeling like I was going over Niagara Falls in a barrel at some points but I am now feeling collected and like I'm riding the tour yacht at the base of the Falls, feeling the mist on my face. I can't yet say if university auditions are still my main aim this winter, what with all these new developments making my plate seem as full as it needs to be for now. The idea of having opportunities as promising as being able to save up and record an album by after Christmas and to subsequently have something to tour and promote are undoubtedly more appealing than buying a buttload of music theory textbooks. *pondering and thinking and pondering*
Thanks for tuning in~

Month off... or ON

There is something refreshing about getting away from "it all"... although I haven't yet figured out what that "it all" is refreshing to get away from. One gets so absorbed in making the everyday work to your preparations, if not expectations... anyhoo, I think I'll post some photos of my entailment far far away from "it all" in order to explain whatever it is that I mean. I think all it means is that I would rather have shared this "all" with someone very very special~ ...and I didn't.

Blog, eat yer heart out... I think I've wrapped yer game of wonderment.