Concerning luck.

I don't know if anyone ever reads this any more, but if for nothing more than an outlet for a overwhelmed mind, I'm just gonna sit and write till I go semi-comatose.

So where to begin. Right after the new year I moved back down to Arizona after having been let go from my previous job. According to inside sources the official statement is that I, "Already had a job lined up, and was planning on moving down to Arizona anyway, and that's why they let me go." Two months and 50+ job applications later, I got my old job back at Milano Music through the good graces of the management there. I have a few different jobs there. I work in store selling instruments and accessories and such, I work in the warehouse organizing the thousands of rental instruments, shipping and receiving products, delivering/picking up instruments from schools and depots throughout the valley, repossessing rental instruments on delinquent accounts, and pretty soon I'll be involved with our soon to be up website. I think my official job title is, "Do what everyone else tells you to do and don't complain" which suits me just fine.

Where was I? Oh, so I've been down here for about 4 months, just working to get out of debt till I can afford to get back into school. Debt is an interesting thing. I worked out a budget with some help last week, and figured that at the rate I'm going, it's going to take about two to three years to pay off all of my debts. I can only compare how I felt when I saw the final numbers as a swift kick to the gonads. I keep waiting for Bill Gates to back over my bike and write me a blank check. If it works in the movies, why not real life right?

Now on to my social life!


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Alright, got that one cleared up, sorry if it took awhile to read.

So on a bit of a whim, though I've always wanted to learn, I picked up a violin from work a few weeks ago. I'll never be professional, my bow technique sucks, but I can screech out a few scales and a few simple melodies after a total of about two hours worth of practice, so I'm happy with it. I'll never play for anything more than my own personal enjoyment, but I'm definitely loving it. One of my main reasons for wanting to learn is my love of Irish folk music, so hopefully in the not too distant future I'll be playing some toe tapping, knee slapping, or drink Guinness from the tap-ing jigs. Between that, my guitar, and the piano, I'm the epitome of mediocrity. But again, I play for the love of playing, so I'm content my playing ability.

So I was perusing an antique store recently, looking at old books and such. I've always been fascinated with 19th century literature, and through the good graces of my brother I've collected a few tomes from the time period. One is a small copy of "Nicholas Nickelby" and the other is a collection of sermons from a 19th (18th? I can't recall) century Archbishop on the first four books of the New Testament. I haven't had a chance to read it all yet, but it is definitely an interesting read. But I digress. I was perusing the book section when my eyes skimmed across a small picture of a bird on the cover of a small book. On my second pass over the books I noticed the bird was perched on a roman looking bust. My heart skipped a beat. Was that the bust of pallas I was looking at? I quickly scanned the whole book cover, I went weak at the knees. Lo and behold:

It was Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"!!!! For those that don't know I've been a huge fan of Mr Poe since I first read this poem as a child. I've read his entire works a few times, and I think the man is a genius. Anyway, so here is this book, just sitting behind the glass begging for me to take it home with me. Then reality hit me, either it was way too expensive for me, or it was only a few years old was just a cheap mass print. So I sauntered over to the shop owner and inquired about the age of the book. He said he didn't remember, but that I could grab the book and have a look myself. Okay, if he's letting me handle it it's gotta be worthless. So I walked over to the case and picked up the book. I opened up to the first page.

The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe, Illustrated, printed........................wait for it................1886! Holy crap! I was holding in my own two hands an illustrated print of The Raven, printed only 41 years after it was first published. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I quickly flipped through the pages, the binding wasn't in good shape, and one or two pages had some pencil marks on it, but I didn't care, I was holding a 123 year old book from one of my favorite authors. The illustrations were incredible.

Okay, if it's this old it must be way too expensive for me, I thought. I took it up to the shop owner, asked the price, and he looked at it for a few seconds and said, "Thirty five dol..." "I'LL TAKE IT!" I almost screamed. I can't even begin to fathom how incredibly lucky I was for stumbling onto this treasure. As soon as I got home I spent a good hour reading the book over and over, soaking up the words, the illustrations, the feel of the leather binding. After the sensory overload subsided, I hopped on the computer to see if I could find any information on the particular print, the illustrator, etc. I discovered that the New York Public library had a copy of the book on file, and through the miracle of modern technology it was possible to read the book online for free. Same illustrations, same book (though it just had a plain black cover) http://books.google.com/books?id=XAkUAAAAIAAJ this just kept getting better. The less I have to handle the book, or let other people handle it the better. I want to build a display case for this thing it is so precious to me, but I was able to download a copy of the book to peruse at my convenience. After finding this little tidbit online, I did a search of the illustrator, a W.L. Taylor. It turns out Mr Taylor was a very prolific and well known illustrator during the 19th century, illustrating several books, and also "The Ladies Home Journal" http://www.wltaylor.info/

So ya, for a paltry sum I now own an important (to me at least) piece of American Literary History. Happy Day! Out of curiosity I tried to see if there were any copies for sale online. I found one on ebay that was printed about 10 years after mine that sold for about $400, and another copy from an online bookstore for about $100. Not that I will ever sell this beauty, but it's nice to know it's not worthless.

Well, I guess I'll curtail the rambling for now. I don't know that it's done anything to help the chaos that's enveloped my psyche, but at least it gave me something to do for an hour or so.