Blog of Josh Hall

Moved rachel out to cleveland this past weekend.  It’s only a 2 hour drive or so, so the distance thing isn’t really bothering me too much at this point.  Sure, i don’t get to see her everyday, but they say that distance makes the heart grow stronger…or is it fonder?  both?  I forget how it goes…but yes.

The Deirdre moved in with me this week too.  That should be fun.  Havent really interacted much yet, she’s going to be busy with volleyball in the evenings, but we should have a good time.

played out at another open mic last night by myself.  I was late, so i was the last person to go on around midnight, and half the people had left already, so it was only for a crowd of 20 or so.  Everyone was only doing 3 songs all night, but after i did my three, the dude running it asked me to play another.  It very well may have been because I was the last person, but it still felt nice not to be stopped after 1 or 2.  Afterward he came up to me and asked if those were all mine, and he seemed pretty genuinely entertained by them and told me to definitely come back.  I think i want to try at least 2 other spots before I go back there though. 

Almost forgot that my classes are starting up next week.  ugh.  2 classes for the first half of the semester and then another 2 for the second half and then FIN.  hopefully.   This fall is going to be so busy with all that is going on.  especially with me wanting to go to vegas and colorado for my birthday.

Work gave me some more responsibility.  I’m actually in charge of my own project now.  I’m heading up the project to upgrade every PC in the country to office 2003.  pretty daunting, right?  I have to come up with a plan of action, support, all that jazz and that’s on top of my current responsibilities.  I think i’ll be alright though…I just hope they arent judging me too harshly, I’m still a newb.

so as you can see, quite the plateful as of late.  I want to try and get new songs up before the end of next week as well…I should get started…

It’s present time, and me and my sisters are over at the estate doing random work inside the barn.  Keren’s boyfriend, Robbie, is there as well.  He and I are loading some bags of garbage into the back of the my truck.  Keren and my mom are around too, and we’re talking about me forgetting to get Keren a present  (Keren’s birthday was friday, and I didnt get her anything) but while we we’re talking, I said that no one told me who I had for grab bag, and I just assumed it was Keren, but that is why I didnt get a present for anyone, as if it were christmas.  We’re on the side of the barn where the pool used to be, but just enough infront of it, that if I turn around, I can see over to the park.  I do just that, but as I do, everything goes black and white.  I’m confused at first, but everything is so silent, everyone else seems to have disappeared for a moment.  I keep turning clockwise and there’s a large healthy tree where the pool used to be, still in black and white, but there’s a large section of the leaves on the tree that are bright red and orange.  So bright, so rich, it’s almost as if someone threw a bucket of red and orange paint into the tree, but the two colors are blended in so well to eachother.  I start to walk around the house, and I here music.  Not off in the distance, but everywhere, all around me, a turbulent classical peice, violent violins, booming drums, and a piano in the style of Rachmoninov.  It’s very intimidating and commanding.   As I come to the front steps, there are small flowers all around the steps, painted in the same thick, chaotic red and orange pattern as the tree, while everything else remains in black and white.  All the way in the front yard now, I look down the road to the left, where the trees form a sort of tunnel over the road, and I see Michael Galis, Robbie’s younger brother, in full color, but almost too much color, as if his color is was painted onto him.  Bright blue jeans, and a black shirt with a patterned stripe about 3 inches wide on either side of the chest running from the shoulders to the waist.  He’s got a semblance of a smile, but it’s what he’s doing that causes me to slowly back away from him as he comes towards me.  His hands are playing the piano to the piano in the music.  No piano, just his hands, so accurately and purposefully striking the air with every angry note of the piano music.  I keep walking backwards, struck dumb and just staring at him, watching him play, and I start to really get emersed in the music, and I get the sense of some impending presence, not so much doom, but just that "something" is coming.  My mom is on the deck on the side of the house, and the right side of her face is showing color, but only reds and oranges.   I’m standing there in the driveway for a good 5 minutes, listening to the music and waiting, waiting for something to come down the road, or something to happen, but nothing ever does.  I just look around and see these touches of color in this black and white world and I’m amazed at it.  Then, the music stops, I turn quickly, I think I let out an audible "whoa", and everything is back in color and I’m standing in the driveway next to the barn with Serah, Keren, Robbie, and J’aime.  I start telling them about what had just happened, I’m a bit shaky after the experience, and Serah gets mad at me for sharing it with them, and Keren starts to cry telling me it was just too much, and I feel bad for sharing it.  A car drives by and I jump; my nerves are shot.  I think that they don’t believe me, or they easily discredit my crazy dreams as nothing more than dreams.  Not that I was looking for them to take some prophetic meaning to it, but they couldn’t see the dream as something beautiful, as I did, and do.

Not that I’m all THAT self-conscious about my baldness, but once my receding hairline starts to become a descriptive attribute, I think i’ll be sad.  If I ever heard someone say, "Hey, I’m looking for Josh Hall, a tall, bald guy. etc"  I’m hoping that people will just be able to go with the tall attribute as my primary identifier.

When i was a kid, we used to have this awesome conversion van with nice plush seats and what felt like velvet walls and all that.  It was classy.  Being kids, we slowly broke window screens, spilt juice in the cup holders, and just really abused the heck out of it.  We were 6 kids though, with lots of friends and energy.  Anyway, one day, i decided that i wanted to write my name on the wall of the van near the back seat.  I loved writing my name of stuff.  Only, I was smart enough to know that i’d be in big trouble.  So, I wrote Deirdre’s name.  She’s ~6 years younger than me, which probably made her about 6 at the time, so i knew i couldn’t just spell her name correctly.  I actually crafted some wobbly letters and a backwards ‘e’ and such.  I remember J’aime saw it first.  The fraud was genuine enough to fool her.

I was singing this outloud when i got out of bed today. 

Bob Marley – Stand Up for Your Right

I clicked on this news article just to see what happened down at station square.  http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07203/803529-53.stm
David Hall, 24, was killed by a car at pretty much the same location that I was hit in my truck.  Am I stretching to think that’s really creepy?  My middle name is david, I’m 24, I was involved in a hit and run at that same spot.  freaks the crap out of me.