No hope in sight
...but love was just around the corner
It became clearer and clearer that I would need to move in order to get back into television. While continuing writing my book I said goodbye to my friends in Oregon, helped my roommate find another, and then packed up my car to go to stay with family in Phoenix, Arizona. There, I would try to get a job at one of the many television stations. The book effort ended up taking the back seat while the search for a job became more critical.
Unfortunately, the stations all were having financial troubles of their own, and could not bring on new hires. I knew that I was going to have to take a job outside the field. I felt that I could potentially write for magazines while working a nighttime job of some sort.
Deciding that it was much more desirable to live in Bend, Oregon rather than Phoenix, I jumped in my car and headed back. My folks let me stay in their garage while I applied and got a job at Home Depot as a night-stocker, lifting up big bags of concrete, and restocking shelves for the morning home improvement shoppers.
Working at Home Depot really brought me back to basics and humbled me. I learned that from over the years in the media and in school that I’ve built up an ego that needed to be sanded down a bit. At first, I was feeling sorry for myself. I was a failed producer and a failed author with little hope for a creative career.
The nightshift job started at 7pm and I would head home around 5am. I started writing again, and began composing article query letters to magazines. I began to get into really good shape and started feeling normal once again. 2002 became a year of reimagining myself.
Bend, Oregon was also changing. Les Schwab Amphitheater had opened up, and they were bringing in big acts like Ben Harper, Michael Franti, and Willie Nelson. I would meet up with my former roommate and we’d go to the incoming shows near his home.
I worked through the winter and moved into a rental, near the rental I had lived in when working at the television station. During the 4th of July, my former roommate, Jake, invited me over to meet a friend who was visiting from Omaha, Nebraska. The home I stayed at, down the road, had an adult sized tricycle. I rode up to his driveway, parked my ride, and made my way into the party. That’s the moment when I met the love of my life.