What to do…

My upstairs neighbor beats his girlfriend.

This is a fact. They’ve both denied it to the police several times, but I’ve heard it.

Since the police won’t do anything about it, I was about 30 seconds from breaking down their door yesterday and taking care of the problem myself. By the time I was up there, though, he had stopped hitting her, and so instead of protecting her, I would have just been retaliating.

On the advice of a friend, I left a note on the door to the building that read:

To the guy upstairs who hits his girlfriend:

We can all hear you. We know you do it. We’ve called the police, but she always denies it. Just so you know, if it ever happens again, we’re coming up there. We fucking mean it.

Signed: EVERYONE.

NEVER. AGAIN.

Today, the note was gone, but the only neighbor who wouyld have seen it at that hour was my downstairs neighbor. So, my only other able-bodied neighbor would rather sit back and let it happen than get involved. This is why the crime problem is so bad in our neighborhood and in our building. No one cares enough to do anything.

So, the dilemma is: do I go up and do something about it next time? Some of my friends say I should, and some say that I’ll just get myself killed. Honestly, I figure if I try anything, the girlfriend will jump to his defense, and I will be outnumbered. Plus, I’ll end up going to jail from breaking & entering and assault. Some friends say that I can’t help her until she helps herself. I feel like if I don’t do anything, I’m just as guilty as he is.

Anyway, thoughts? Advice?

Back to work!

Well, a new semester begins. I’m back at work (and with an internet connection!) so I hope to be here more often than I have been last month. However, just because I’ve been away from the blog doesn’t mean that I haven’t been blogging.

My friend Jayson completely redesigned To Eleven, and we’ve been posting stuff once a day or more there. If you’re not reading that blog, why don’t you go ahead and take a look at it. I’ll wait.

No, seriously…take a look at it.

It’s kind of a weird thing…Jayson and I started the blog just to talk about music, but we’ve found links to our blog on various other web sites, and Jayson found someone who cited our blog in their post, which is hella weird.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. besides that, though, I’ve been finishing up some short stories (“Things I Learned from my Father,” “Rich Girl,”), and I’ve been taking mental notes for two other stories I plan to write (which may end up being novel-length projects. GASP!).

I’ve also been working out more often. Did you get your tickets? Because these pythons are SICK! I think that’s how that saying goes.

Into the Next…

Well, it’s a new year. I can not tell you how happy I am to say that.

The year 2009 basically sucked. My relationship fell apart, so I had to break up with my girlfriend of 3 years, I found out that my mom has cancer, and on the 30th, the girl who was my new girlfriend, and then just a girl I was dating, became the girl I used to date. Other shitty stuff happened, too, but that’s the highlight reel.

So, anyone make any resolutions? I forgot about last year’s “develop a super-power,” so I’m reinstating that one. Also, I’m doing “spend less money on alcohol.” Note that this does not necessarily mean “drink less.” Also, I’m going to try not to get too attached to people this year. I need a break from that shit. I’m a sensitive guy, though, so I am going to have a hard time with this one. Even more so than the “develop a super-power” thing.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to a better year than the last one. Goodbye, 2009. Please drink some bleach on your way out.

From the dream journal of jaynova…

I am talking to Jayson Shenk on the phone. I have heard that Chris Seaman is in town, and I’m supposed to hang out with him, but I change my mind and decide to walk to Shenk’s.

Suddenly, I am in a classroom, learning about “foreign languages.” I’m having problems, because the class is about all sorts of languages, and even though each student only has to learn one, the class is overwhelming. Fatima, a girl I know from my job, is in the class, too, and she asks me something, but I can’t hear her. The instructor tells me I must remember the name of Russia’s ancient capital, and I write “Кразкиыл,” or Kraskiul.

What’s going on with me?

Well, I have been away from the blog again, due of lack of interwebs, amongst other things. It’s been a fairly eventful couple of weeks, though.

First of all, I introduced you all to my girlfriend, Yvonne? Well, she’s not my girlfriend anymore. We’re still dating, but we’ve decided to take a couple of steps back. I think it’s because I was too much of a good thing.

Secondly, there was some sort of holiday? I think? Anyway, I hope everyone had a nice holiday season. I did. I Saw The Fantastic Mr. Fox with Yvonne and her kids, I had them over over for a gift exchange/supper, I visited my grandparents and parents, and I had Asian food with my brother and his lady-friend, neither of whom are Asian!

Third, I did some writing for My Very Own Adventure. Be on the lookout for more products from them, including their “Unrated” line of MVOAs for grown-ups!

Other than that, I’ve been writing for my other blog, …to Eleven, with my friend Jayson. If you don’t read that blog yet, bookmark it!

So, that is my Winter break so far. Hope everyone is staying warm!

The Dream Journal of jaynova

…I’m at work. However, I’m scheduled with studio sessions, which are times that go go to a classroom and work with 4-6 students at a time, so I’m not actually in the Writing Center. As I walk the hallways between classes, I keep bumping into my girlfriend, Yvonne, as she makes her way to her studio sessions. She is wearing a strange black sweater with orange mittens attached, and these mittens look like foxes. It’s like she has fox hand puppets connected to her sleeves. We don’t have time to talk because we are busy.

Later, I’m in the parking lot, heading to my car (!?!), when I see Yvonne heading to hers. I walk over to her car and hug her. Then, I wake up…

What’s going on with me? (The good news)

As I said in the last post, some really good things happened this month. Great things. Awesome things.

First of all, I completed NaNoWriMo! If you’ve ever done NaNoWriMo, you know what a challenge it is, and if you’ve ever completed it, you know how good it feels. This year was easier than last year, and I think that was because my coworkers (Yvonne, Jenny, Jessica) were doing it too! Good job, guys, whatever your final word count was!

Secondly, my moustache (which is now gone!) earned $57 for prostate and testicular cancer research through Movember. I think the site is still up if you want to donate! This was a lot of fun, so I’ll probably do it again next year.

Another cool thing this month was the karaoke contest at Quaker Steak and Lube. I made it through round 1, was booted out at round 2, but because not enough winners showed up for round 3, I was put in as a “wild card.” I survived this round with my rendition of “War Pigs”, and so this week, I’m in round 4! Wish me luck!

The last piece of good news I have is, well…

Meet Yvonne:

We’ve been dating and talking on the phone and such, but this Sunday, we decided that what we had was “a relationship.” Then we realized that that would always put our anniversary in NaNoWriMo and Movember (plus, Nov. 29 just seems like a hard date to remember), so we’re calling today, Dec. 1st, our day. Because we’re cool like that and can just arbitrarily decide when our aniversary is.

Anyway, she’s my girlfriend, officially. I’m her boyfriend.

So, as you can see by these two posts, I had an eventful month! It was a very good month, even with the stuff from the last post trying to mess everything up!

So…what’s going on with me? (The bad news)

Now that NaNoWriMo is done, I have time to write about what else is going on in my life. I’ll start with the bad stuff. First off, my apartment continues to be the ghetto. All month, I’ve been trying not to throw stuff away because my dumpster was full. It seems that my landlord neglected to pay the bill. This all came to a head on Friday, when the garbage collectors repossessed the dumpster. Now, legally, I have no place to put my garbage.

My landlord told me that I should just use the neighbors’ dumpster. When I pointed out that that’s illegal and that my neighbors yelled at me when I last did that, he said, and I quote, “Be sneaky.” He also said that a new company would be out to give us a new one. Three days later, and nothing.

I also heard my neighbor sell drugs to someone. So I live next to a drug dealer. Again.

Obviously, it hasn’t all been bad. There’s been a lot of good this month, but I don’t want to ruin it by talking about it in a post about garbage!

NaNoWriMo day 30, Movember day 30.

Well, today is the last day for a couple things here.

First of all, today is the final day for NoNoWriMo. I actually finished on Friday, so today is just a relaxing day watching other people cross the finish line. I had a lot of fun with it this year, and I enjoyed my story more than I did last year’s NaNo. I’d like to thank Yvonne for helping me stay motivated!

Also, today is THE LAST DAY TO DONATE TO MOVEMBER. The money goes to fight prostate and testicular cancer. That means that tomorrow, I shave this stupid moustache off.

The stupid moustache.

Here’s a random NaNoWriMo excerpt for you!

Movember day 24, Nanowrimo day 23

Hey, all.

It’s been a while. How’s it going?

I’ll make this brief. There’s only a week left to donate to Movember. My moustache is a weapon against prostate and testicular cancer.

Here’s what it looks like:

I grow facial hair like a 14-year-old, AND now I have acne.

Also, I’ve gotten a little behind on my writing. i missed a few days, and now I’m playing catch up. I CAN STILL FINISH IT ON TIME. And so can you, Yvonne. Jessica, I thik you’re out of luck.

Here’s a little bit of what I’ve done, sans proofreading or editing