After selling his half of the Om nightclub and leaving for India to start writing music again and to rediscover himself, Dan Reed has come home for a visit.

He will be playing an accoustical version of his new tracks at the Aladdin Theater, tonight.

I am thrilled how far he has come in the last couple of years, and cannot wait to see where his heart takes him...

If you would like to join me, the show starts at 8pm and tickets are $15. www.aladdin-theater.com/show_page.aspx

Here a few of his tracks on his myspace page: 'Heavin" is an incredible song! profile.myspace.com/index.cfm

Namaste.

If you may have been wondering where the hell I’ve been the last month or so…I started a new job, just before Christmas. I am still doing deliveries, but I went from working for a nickel and dime operation to working for a professional company with hundreds of contractors. It is EMS/California Overnight Delivery. I am basically the equivalent of the UPS guy. I have a set route and deliver to businesses and homes and use one of those fancy, schmancy scanners that you sign electronically.

When I first started, my route was Hillsboro, Cornelius and Forest Grove. Piece of cake. It was taking me about 3 hours to finish, so the Master Contractor that I work through *I am a Subcontractor* offered me another route, delivering in Beavertron.

I was still learning where the places were, so it was taking me longer than it normally would take for the route, and this would have been all fine and dandy, but then the weather started to become a little less than desirable for driving conditions and our trucks that were delivering to our warehouse for distribution started becoming 4-5 hours late.

I was leave my house around 6:30am. It was taking me well over an hour to make the icy commute to Vancouver. I would get there and sort what was there and have to wait for the truck for 3 more hours, then sort what came in off of it, then slowly make my way to Beaverton to start my route. I wasn’t even getting there until between 11:00 and 11:30am. Most of the offices aren’t open past 5pm, so whatever wasn’t delivered, I would have to attempt to deliver it the next day. There were still some places that could be delivered to *private residences*, and so I was ending what I could get done of my route, out in Forest Grove, after 6pm. Then I would slowly make my way back to Vancouver, which was a one hour commute *even taking the back way*, then another 45 minutes north, to Longview. I was getting home around 8pm, every night.

After the 4th day in a row of the delivery truck being late, it was really starting to wear on my nerves. I was wondering what in the hell I had got myself into. This wasn’t a life. And it really made me afraid that it was not going to get any better.

What got me through this is the guy I work for. He is one hell of a great guy. Not like the last prick that I worked for. This guy was a driver himself for over 10 years and understands what it’s like out there. He kept promising me that he had never seen it like this and that it wasn’t normally like this at all. And he was really appreciative of me and thanked me for doing a great job in spite of the weather. He also paid me more for the extra time I was putting in…wow…what a concept!

Two of the major problems I was dealing with were one: not knowing the route. I was having to search out these places. And two: traffic! After 3pm, the west side of Portland turns into a cluster of fucko’s that haven’t a clue how to drive. And they multiply by the thousands…

As of last Friday, I did one thing that was going to help me immensely, I bought a GPS. I program in the addresses and it talks me to the front door. That alone gave me some hope. Then, this last Monday, the loads started to get lighter and the trucks were only a couple of hours late. I was getting out earlier and that combined with my GPS was allowing me to complete my routes by 5pm. But I am still having to contend with rush hour traffic, thus a 2 hour commute home.

By Friday though, I was actually done by 3:45pm, both routes!!! Whoo-Hoo!!! I still didn’t get home until 6pm, but what a feeling of accomplishment!!!

Another side benefit of this job is that I am also doing deliveries for Staples office products *worked into my other routes* and deliver 50lb boxes of paper *sometimes up to 16 of them* to various corporations. So while loading them, unloading them and delivering them into the buildings, I have been getting a major workout!!! It also added to my really rough weeks, as I was out of shape! But I have dropped a good 15lbs in the last 3 weeks and am starting to get stronger. I told Cheryl that by summer time, I should look pretty damned good!!! =)

So…yeah…that is what has been going on with me as of late. If I have not responded to your message or phone call, please bear with me and I will be getting back to you! I have just been so exhausted that I would come home, eat dinner and after about an hour, pass out and do it all again the next morning….BUT…it IS getting better and in the next 6 months, when we finally start our move to Vancouver, that extra hour drive home will not exist any more and life will start to become so much more live-able!

I was really bummed to miss out on a great friends going away party…I was just too pooped and was asleep by 10pm on Friday…I love you Greg and am so very glad for your happiness and finding of Love!!

I love you all and miss you dearly!
Chesh

Well...we have made a monumental decision on this day. Cheryl and I deeply and rationally discussed our living situation here in Longview. Here are the things we discussed:

I am putting on 2000 miles per month, just driving back and forth to work, and spending two hours a day, just to get home through Portland traffic. That is a lot of wear and tear on our vehicle, not to mention the gas...

All of our friends and everything that we do exist in Portland, or south of Portland.

We have over $60,000 equity in our home.

Our son will be ending Eighth Grade and will be starting High School next year.

The only thing that was preventing us from moving south was having our son leave all of his friends that he has had since he started Kindergarten.

We had a talk with him today and asked him what he would think of us moving to Vancouver *Washington*. He said he would like that!!!

I can still come up on the weekends and let him visit his friends or bring them back down there with us for the weekend, and he and they will be driving in the next two years, anyways, so he did not have an issue with it at all....

This means that we are actually going doing something that we have talked about for the last 5 years...We are not actually moving into Portland, because I work in Vancouver and I don't want to have another big chunck of my pay taken out for Oregon taxes...

But we are going to be close enough to be able to start forming those closer relationships that we wished we could have, but the distance has always prevented!

We could actually come and spend a few hours at a weeknight event and not have to journey home for an hour afterward...wow...what would that be like? And as much as we've came and visited all of you...maybe you would actually come and visit us!!!!

We have some cosmetic work on our house to do before we put the for sale sign up. Plus Josh has another 5 months of school left....but we have made the decision as a family to do this and that is a reason for hope and celebration!!!!

Whoo-Hoo!!!!

It is ironic, but I am feeling no pain right now....Cheshyre is drunk......

Hahahahahahahaha

I haven't drank, drunk in years....I hate the way it makes me feel. It is such a numb feeling. But I have this cold that is driving me crazy and I needed an escape/.;....

So yeah...drank some vino.....and yeah....can't enunciate......we called our Toni in L.A. and let her know that Dad was wasted on the vino......she knows how much that I ahbore being drunk....she laughted and enjoyed the experience.....

Don't drink.....it turns you into an ass.....you cannot say what you mean to say....you cannot be there person you are.... you are only a shell.....*giggles and burps....*

If ya know me, ya know this isn't my drug of choice.....it is amazing how I know that with the chemicals that I chose to ingest, I am usually in control....add some booze and yeah.....dumb ass central......

No booze for Cheshyre..............I don't like the way I lose control of meself!!!!

*blows rapsberries......*

I just woke up from the strangest dream. It was about a place that my mom used to take me when I was just a wee lad. It was called Storybook Land.

I was born in Somers Point, New Jersey. We lived about 3 miles from Atlantic City. This was before the casinos were installed on the Boardwalk. I actually learned to roller skate on the Boardwalk…

We moved out to Los Angeles when I was 5 years old, in the summer of 1971, but one of my most vivid, fond memories of my preschool days was our annual trip to Storybook Land.

There were all kinds of rides and themes, geared towards children. Everything from the 3 Little Pigs, to Alice in Wonderland, to Cinderella…I remember the scariest thing of the park was a Robber, that would stop the train that circled the park and “rob” it. I don’t remember the details, but for a toddler, it was quite scary…and from a different time.

I haven’t thought about Storybook Land for at least 30 some years, but for some reason, my subconscious decided to revisit it, this morning.

I dreamed that we *I have no idea who was with me* were back east and were revisiting all of the places where we had lived. As we got close to where Storybook Land was located, I was informed that it had closed a few years ago and was being leveled to make room for a strip mall.

We stopped at the property and there was an information booth that was giving out maps with the grids marked out as to what stores would be where. For some reason, I happened to be standing on section +2,-2. I looked on the map and there was going to be a Taco Bandito on that spot. I wondered if there was any correlation between the robber of the train and the restaurant and was so saddened by the loss of such a magical place for children…then I woke up.

I went online to see if my dream had become a reality; if Storybook Land was still there….and it IS! storybookland.com/parkmap.htm

It has been owned by the same family for 52 years and it looks like it is doing just fine…

Dreams are so bizarre…this one let me remember something magical from my childhood. I am glad it was not leveled to create a strip mall.