“We have the luxury of being busy.” – Kirk James, CINCO Design Office

The guy is on to something there. Things could be worse. Lots to do, fillin’ those weeks up real good. I spent a good portion of the last couple days shooting Nixon’s upcoming ads…some beautiful stuff coming to pages soon, folks. Wow. From that shoot, on to the 2004-2005 COAL shoot. Andy Wright and Brad Sheuffele are in town, as well as the COAL headwear team. Chatter leads to action, action leads to ad concepts, ad concepts leads to location scouting, location scouting leads to shots, shots lead to ads, ads show up in publications, and so it goes. Very excited with the stuff I’m currently involved in.

Little bit busy, which is cool cuz it keeps my mind off the things that have a tendency to get me down, or make me hurt. Things haunt, and my spirit weakens. The littlest thing in the world can feel the biggest, and it kills me dead. I fight to stay strong. I work hard to forget sad things. My mind doesn’t have time for the ugly line items.

So we focus, and celebrate the good things. Things like cautious steps in the homeowning progress, Zergebel’s new digs, a handshake from Brad, Goo’s haircut, a cloudy day, a wink from a gal, the new Wilco album, the new Jay Farrar EP, the new McSweeney’s quarterly, a check in the mail, a robust set of finances, a call from mom, a “That’s a wrap” from Marcus at the Swanson Studio, a tuned guitar, clean sheets, a tall glass of cool ice water, a call from Matt Cooley, moral support from Matt Kass-hole, multiple offers from friends to help me move, a plan for a October roadtrip (and we mean, “All of October, on the road.”), a cold Heinekin and good conversation with James Sullivan, a massage from Julie “Big Hands” Kahn, track three of the new Bonnie Prince Billy album, a call from Capozzi, woodgrain, big plans for the new pad, Big S and his cool summer air conditionin’, a call from Tommie Tucker, a new idea and hope for more and more good days.

These things keep me going.