Great Moments in Jasper History

On one hand I haven’t had a comprehensively good night’s sleep in a few days. There’s been a lot on my mind. Severing expectation in favor of what is can be a tough job for a man who uses his imagination to make a living. But I’m getting better at it. And as I get better, all kinds of things get better around me.

So I’m having breakfast with my mother this morning and we’re talking about God, both my version and hers. As our past turbulent parent/child relationship has given birth to blooming friendship, it’s so much easier for me to come clean about thing I’m going through.

I tell her I didn’t get the job (though I would learn later that it was because there were no writer openings and had nothing to do with my performance whatsoever)). Mom tells me that she’s nervous about the changes going on in her own life. She tells me that so many things that I’ve told her have ended up happening, that she’s able to see them now.

This warms my heart in the deepest way. It makes me forget about the restlessness of my own spirit.

I just found out that my 86 year-old grandmother has been watching LOST religiously for longer than I have. My mother and uncle explain the complicated parts, but from what I understand she’s been watching it since day one, which makes her a bigger fan than I am. I’ll have to peep an ep with her before the series ends on ‘10.

Over the weekend, in the middle of a conversation with my Dad about USA’s In Plain Sight, my father told me that my great Aunt Annette’s (RIP) husband Joe (RIP as well) was a federal marshal. But he wasn’t just any marshal. He was the guy in charge of protecting Joe Valacci, first and most well-known of the rats who testified against the Genovese crime family. Valacci was fictionalized in The Godfather Part II. And in that fictionalization there’s a scene where he ‘s brought into the courtroom by an African American marshal. I know it might seem small to you, but it’s some big shit to me.

For those of you who are sick of celebrity journalism and entertainment mags that ask the same questions over and over, I’d highly suggest that you check out Stop Smiling, a themed publication that features in-depth interviews, personal narratives and interesting critiques of pop culture past and present. Hopefully I’ll be writing for them soon. They’re the first mag in awhile I’ve been geeked to pitch. To learn more about them logon to http://stopsmilingonline.com. Out.