Entry
Fifty-Five.
Saturday, 2007.09.29, 9:58 PM CST.
Happy
EKG Day 2007!
It
is amazing how quickly time seems to fly, at least in certain respects. It
is even more amazing to me that exactly eighteen years ago tonight,
I performed at my first DJ gig, with my brand-new DJ company, EKG
Mobile Music and Light Show. The event was my high school's
1989 homecoming dance, and I was a senior with my own mobile DJ
system. I
was so nervous, but also so excited.
So,
happy EKG day, everybody.
I
remember being extremely pumped up about everything. My parents
offered to back me financially, and I picked out the types of equipment
I wanted. I put together the sound and light systems over
the summer, and practiced like crazy with two of my friends, Kevin
and Janet, trying to make sure everything was right. In the
meantime between mixing practice sessions, I swam in
my family's new swimming pool, played games on my Nintendo NES
or Atari 2600, played with my dogs Spike and Homer, and watched
a lot of movies, usually with my mum. Music-wise,
I loved listening to KTOW, Tulsa's last truly alternative radio
station, and going to Mohawk Music, Tulsa's best music store, to
buy the latest and greatest dance records.
The
gig went really well; it was a financial success for the school
and it very slightly upgraded my social standing among my classmates.
Over
the next 13 years, EKG continued to shift and evolve. Janet
left the group (per my request... long story) in late 1989. Kevin
got married in 1991, then left the state to be in the military
shortly after that. I continued running EKG with different
people, improving the sound and light systems and performing
for countless customers
until late 2002, when I "indefinitely suspended" the
EKG company to focus on other parts of my life.
KTOW
radio changed formats to "urban contemporary" in early 1991, and
Tulsa hadn't had anything exactly like it since then. Spike
died in 1992. Homer died in 1998. Mohawk Music closed
its doors in 2001. Then,
as anybody who has read the last few updates knows, my mother passed
away two months ago tomorrow.
Not
all of the life changes have been bad, obviously. As I've
also mentioned earlier in the Journal, during this year alone,
I have gotten married, welcomed my first child into the world,
and moved into a really wonderful place. Everything just
seems so bittersweet, because so many of the people, places, and
things that I once found so precious are permanently fading away.
This
weekend, my dad gave away the swimming pool. It hadn't been
used in quite some time, and it's my understanding that he gave
it to a family who could really use it. I still remember
how wonderful it was at first, and even though I haven't swam in
it
in years upon years at this point, I will miss it. Even when
I wasn't swimming in it, it was nice to go outside, climb up on
the deck that my dad built by hand, and just sit and think.
Now,
the pool - complete with the deck - has become yet another memory. Just
like EKG, and just like my mum.
Tonight,
even though this was a fairly big anniversary, I didn't have a
big party or get together with a bunch of friends. My wife
and I bought groceries, bought some food at Taco Bell, then came
home and watched an episode of "Drawn Together" on DVD
before feeding our son, bathing him, reading to him, and putting
him to bed. It's
not the way that I really would have wanted to celebrate EKG day,
but it was substantial, and I got to spend it with two people
who mean more to me than anyone else on earth: My own little
family.
I
do have more big (positive!) updates, but those will have to wait
a little bit longer. For the time being, happy EKG day, everybody.
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