[00:00:00] Welcome to the average nineties GAL podcast. Join me as I share my own journeys through life, how I got and continue to get through them, as well as real stories from real people in this crazy world. Let's get through it together.
Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm so glad you were here. In today's episode, I chat with my friend Bill, who I have known since I believe it's 1996 or 1997. We touch on this really quickly in the episode, so I just wanted to shed some light on our friendship and the fact that we've known each other that long and that we met through the OG a OL chat room in the days of your and yesteryear.[00:01:00]
And we have stayed friends mainly online and through social media more than anything. And I believe we've only seen each other in person twice, maybe three times. Bill, if you're listening, you can tell me how many times because you will see that Bill has an amazing memory. His memory for dates is just wild.
And he has a great story, many stories throughout his life. He has a wonderful energy about him that I hope you will enjoy as much as I did. And we will also share our love of movies and a certain movie that we both love very much. And after the recording, we realized the word we were trying to think of was archetype.
If you listen to the whole episode, you will know what I mean. [00:02:00] So what we were trying to think of was archetype. Okay. I hope you enjoy this and hope you enjoy Bill's real story. Thank you again for being here.
Hello, bill. How are you? I'm doing well. Hello, Meredith. How are you? I'm doing well as well. Thank you so much for being here and happy to do it. Yeah. And uh, for being the first one who is, uh, virtual, you're my first online virtual guest, so welcome. I am so excited about that. Yeah. Okay. So as every episode with a guest, I always ask if you could tell me which generation you're in from, uh, the year you graduated high school, your, where you grew up, your family background, your family dynamic, anything [00:03:00] you wanna share.
Alright, so I am Generation X and I remember when I learned of that label, like in high school or something. I remember talking about it with my dad at my first job, which was at a waterpark on the Las Vegas strip called Wet and Wild. And if that sounds a little bit dirty, well the fact that Playboy actually shot and held a party there a few years later and I couldn't work the party 'cause I wasn't 18.
Well, it just goes hand in hand. But anyway, I remember saying, I, I can't stand the label, generation XI don't like it, it's just blah, it's this, and. In the years since I have come to embrace that label. 'cause I think being Generation X means you don't give a fuck about much. Like you care about the right stuff, but about like the small shit, you're just like, eh, he'll pass.
Um, that movie, the Ballad of Buster Scrubs, Ballard of Buster Scrubs, there's that scene with James Franco and he is on the Hangman's News and the one guy's all nervous and he looks at him and says, [00:04:00] first time, and there was threats of a nuclear war when, uh, Russia invaded Ukraine. And we were talking about World War ii, that was kind of in the background and I saw this meme come up and for all, all the generation Xers to the younger kids.
Nuclear war first time. Huh. So I have come to a ge come to embrace the title of Generation X. Um, well good. I grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada, and I'm going to say this right up front. No, I did not live in a hotel. Yeah. Um, growing up in Las Vegas, none of us really knew that that was a special place until we went outside of Las Vegas.
I remember specifically this moment in junior high school at Disneyland, in line at Thunder Mountain Railroad. We were wearing t-shirts that said Fremont Junior High School, Las Vegas, Nevada. And this kid, Jason Barker had done some of the, had drawn some of the Disney characters on it and we got shirts made.
So we're in line and this [00:05:00] woman in front of us kind of turns like, you guys are from Las Vegas. They have schools there. Yeah. Oh, they probably have to teach you guys how to deal, don't they? Don't you guys live in hotels? No, no, we don't live in hotels. What are they put in the drinking water where you're from.
Jesus. I remember like thinking that in my head. No, we did not live in hotels. I lived in the house. None of my parents, none of my friend's parents worked in hotels or casinos. Safe for one. Elton's mom was a cocktail waitress at The Sands, and then I think later the Dunes and then the di, his dad was a barber and he had a barbershop called Headlines and a little strip mall in front of which was a Tony Romas, outside of which Frank Lefty Al's car blew up.
And that became the opening for the movie casino. So, so, no, I love, I love did she really say, are there schools there? She [00:06:00] did. So people really do think that Las Vegas is just the strip, basically. Yeah, that's it. That's it. Um. My buddy Spencer, he was, it was his second marriage and I was driving him and his second wife around town and his wife, she was really pretty, but I swear that elevator did not go all the way up.
And she, like, we're sitting at Tropicana and Las Vegas Boulevard, which is Excalibur and New York, New York. We're like right between those. And there's those walk elevator walkways and people are walking above the streets, not on the crosswalks like you had to do when I was a kid, but she's like, man, does anybody even work here?
I'm like, what do you mean? Well, look at all these people. They're just walking around. Nobody works here. Hey lady, you see all this hotel casino on this side and on that side, all those people here on a vacation, everybody here is working there. So these people can enjoy your vacation. What? What do you mean?
I don't get it. So how, how far away from the strip did you grow up? Like for those, for those who are [00:07:00] hearing this for the first time, and or I should say the first time going, oh. There are schools there, uh, there's a bunch of schools there. How big, how big is Vegas? How far were you f you know, just let people know how big Vegas really is and what else there is around there.
I wanna say Vegas is huge right now, and when I was a kid it was such a small town, like you think, how can that be possible? It was such a small town. There was a locals casino called Sam's Town, the Killers named, I think their second album off of it. And I don't like the Killers at all. We can get back to that later.
Um, I'll write that day. Uh, I don't like the Killers. Um, Vegas was a really small town. There was this, there was a Mexican food restaurant called Willie and Jose's inside Sam's Town. And when it was your birthday, you just had to show 'em your ID and you got a free meal. You didn't have to be part of a club.
You didn't have to do this, you didn't have to [00:08:00] do that. You. It was just a small town. I remember, I think the mob still had some influence in Vegas at this moment, but I remember one time as a little kid, we went to the Golden Nugget for brunch back when my parents were still married. And I'm starting, I'm trying to get to the family now, like I keep getting distracted.
It's, but uh, we were going to Sunday brunch and there was a long line, it was me, my mom, my dad, my little brother, and this Italian looking gentleman, like a pit bog or something. It was like, Hey guys, I know what it's like to have kids. You just gave us a line pass. We got to go right to the front. I don't know that that would happen these days, but the mob was not a good thing.
But the mob knew how to take care of people, I guess in both ways. You stayed out. You, you didn't cause them any trouble. Ah, you got kids or whatever. Um, yeah, so my folks divorced and I, like my dad worked for a department store that was later bought out by Macy's. When I was a kid, it was called Broadway Southwest, and it was literally only [00:09:00] in like southern Nevada and in Arizona, hence the southwest.
My mom worked for the post office. The job she had when I was a little kid is now done by computers. Um, she's retired a few years, like about a decade, more than a decade. She's retired for a while, but she, when she retired she was in address management and she had a part-time job in a retirement at Red Rock Canyon Conserv Conservation Center, which is part of what's outside Las Vegas.
There's huge nature reserves outside of Las Vegas. Uh, red Rock Canyon is gorgeous, so named because the rocks are red and it's just beautiful. Like it's really nice to look at in the summer, but you don't want to go outside. So you generally go like spring through fall or fall through spring and then you're just kinda like, oh, that's nice.
Mount Charleston is gorgeous. Um, I visited my mom in June and we went hiking in Mount Charleston and we knew rain was in the forecast and that was fine. Another little bit of rain didn't hurt anybody, so we started the hike. We, there was some clouds, then some thunder, a little bit of sprinkled. By [00:10:00] the end of the hike, we were getting halted with hail, like, like quarter sized hailstones.
And like luckily I had a hat on and every time a piece of hail hit the hat, it would burst. I'm like, oh my God. There's uh, the Valley of Fire more north, and they shot like Star Trek generations there, which was the first movie of the next generation cast. Um, there, there's Lake meat out the other side of the lake.
Meat is much, much emptier than it was when I was a little kid in 83, like right after we saw Return of the Jedi, we went to Hoover Dam and they had to lower the spillways, which is the only time they had done that since they tested them. When it was built in like 33. It was originally called Boulder Dam, but they named it after President Hoover, as you know, just say, Hey, this wouldn't have been done because of you.
Um mm-hmm. So there's lots to do outside of Vegas. Yeah. Yeah. My mom worked for the post office. My dad works for Broadway Southwest. They divorced in 86. And I swore, I jokingly tell people that I'm surprised I [00:11:00] not in therapy or I haven't gone to therapy. 'cause 86, uh, 86 started off rough for me. Uh, like for everybody.
January 28th was the day the Challenger went up and exploded. And like, I forgot that Ronald Reagan spoke that night. He was supposed to be a State of the Union address and he spoke that night and he had a great speech writer, but he also knew how to give speeches in the way that our current president does not.
And like I liked Obama's speeches, but I don't know that he could've delivered it the way that Reagan did. And I'm not saying Reagan was great, but the way he delivered the speech on the evening that the Challenger blew up was, it's just so moving. And I remember reading that speech to an ex-girlfriend once because we were watching Star Trek four, which opens up with a, uh.
The casting crew of Star Trek wished to dedicate this picture to the crew of the spaceship Challenger, whose courageous spirit shall live to the 21st century and beyond. And she didn't know what that meant. I'm like, oh, well let me tell you, back when I was in fifth grade, we all filed into [00:12:00] this, uh, classroom, and then this is what we saw.
And like 72 seconds into the mission her, I'm like, yeah, we gotta see that. Then it was just kinda like, okay, go back to school. And I was out at PE at the time, so I didn't watch it, but I remember coming back in and my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Vega, was like, the shuttle launch has been, it's been delayed again.
Well, it's been delayed a lot actually. And she told us what happened. I remember thinking to myself, lady, that's not delayed. That's, that's done. That's gone. Yeah. Yeah. Like in my head, so that was January and in like March, the little redhead girl, autumn Harris, who sat next to me in the fifth grade in Miss Vegas class was kidnapped and sexually assaulted and left for dead from the church across the street by her house.
I remember following that case. The entire summer because like she was found in the desert with duct tape over her nose and her mouth. What? And she used, she used her spit saliva to loosen it so she could breathe. That was in March. And uh, I never saw her again, [00:13:00] ever saw her again. Whoa. And that's wild.
And then in May, yeah, and then in May my parents told us they were getting the divorce. Geez. So another explanation then basically, right? Yeah, a few of them. Yeah. So I remember my dad telling me after Autumn, 'cause that came in the newspapers and he is like, be really nice to her. And she sat legit, like right next to me.
It was a group, I think we were in groups of five. And she sat right next to me and never saw her again. So then my parents divorced and sixth grade was interesting. That was the one year when I really didn't care about school. I was trying to figure out school. I was trying to figure out, I remember liking school a lot more than being at home.
'cause home was just, home was interesting. Uh, seventh grade and eighth grade, by the time we got to junior high, my brother and I had, uh, kind of figured out where we wanted to be. We didn't go to court. There was no there, we didn't have to pick. My parents basically just said, [00:14:00] you guys choose. And like, for a while, it was one week at one parents', one week at another parents'.
My dad was cool. My mom, she could kind of hold a grudge back then. Mm-hmm. And so if we made her mad on Monday, she was still mad on Wednesday or Thursday. And I was like, my mom does not, mom, I love you. You do not hold grudges anymore. This is just a part of life as I remember. I love you, mom. Okay. Um, so by junior high, it was like every other night, every other weekend.
So we'd wake up, say Monday. We'd wake up Monday at my mom's house, she'd take us to the bus stop. 'cause we rezoned at my dad's house for school. So my mom was like a mile away, which meant we would go to a different school. But all the friends we had from elementary school, all the friends I had, they were zoned from my dad's house.
So we'd wake up Monday, we'd leave for, my mom would take us to the bus stop Monday night. We'd stay at my dad's Tuesday night, we'd stay at my mom's. And people like were always like, they were asking people like, how do you know where to find Billy when you wanna call him? Like [00:15:00] just, if I call one and he is not there, I just call the other, how was this hard to anybody?
He would ask. And so that was like high school for me going back and forth by high school. Any animosity between my mom and my dad were gone and they were just happy to have kids who were graduating high school and going to college and this and that. Yeah. Now having divorced parents isn't. So abnormal.
Did it seem abnormal back then? Like were you, did you feel you were like the kid with divorced parents or just curious? No, no, I don't think I did. What I do remember is like, like you're absolutely right. It is much less abnormal now than it was then. But I remember like in 84 I was in, I had to have been in fourth grade, Phil Donahue did this week long miniseries called The Human Animal and the first two episodes were like, really?
I don't wanna say they [00:16:00] were, they were like, they touchy feely, but they were like positive episodes. I remember one was Nature ER's Inertia and this the second one, the Tuesday night one was this. And then by Wednesday it started getting darker. And then by Friday I didn't wanna watch, but he talked about.
He talked about families getting divorced. And I remember thinking to myself, well that's never gonna happen to my family. And like a year later it did. And so that's, that's the thing I take away from it the most. Yeah. And you said, and you were in fifth grade, correct? Is that what you I was in, yeah. I was at the end of fifth grade.
It was like it fist, which is yeah, largely celebrated Mexican independence day. And since my mom has at least I thought Mexican ancestry in her, I was like always thought of that as a joke. And I shared that with her one day. And she did not appreciate it because she felt so badly about the divorce.
'cause it would mean she would never get the silver anniversary of being married 50 years. Mm. And so I was like, oh, well I will never tell this joke to you again, mom again. Mom, I love you. Um, [00:17:00] did your parents ever remarry? My dad did. Yes. They both did. My dad did and they made their 10th. They didn't make their 15th.
Uh, my dad died. Three years ago I got a tattoo. I don't know if you can see it. Oh, yeah. You can describe it though. Describe it forever. That's my, that's my dad's signature. I got my dad's signature right there. Oh, yeah. I see now. Okay. The, the signature I remember from his, uh, from me being a kid, so I got that.
So he's always with me. Mm-hmm. Yeah. My mom, my mom has been married again, and she has told me that she will outlive her, her, her now husband and whatever, however old she turned in 2019, she went to Antarctica because that was the last continent she had not been to, and she remembers going across Drake's passage.
And Drake's passage is very, very like wavy and turbulent and violent [00:18:00] because it is. The point of the ocean between the southern tip of South a, uh, south America and Anta and Antarctica, and there's no land masses there to break any of the currents or the wind, so it's very turbulent. She was like, yeah, that was my least favorite part of the trip.
But she posted all these pictures on social media. Drake's passes Usua Argentina, which is the southern most tip of Argentina. Um, penguins, a whale glaciers her most liked picture on social media was with her at dinner with this hasty ginger white kid. And she's like, yeah, he was such a nice guy. It was it, it was a singer like Ed somebody, ed.
Ed Shehan. Oh, ed Shehan. She's like, yeah, he was a nice kid. He just happened to be on the cruise. And they clicked and they connect, they connected, and she's like, oh, I really like him. He's a nice kid. That's great. The wonder was the most liked. Yeah, you got to meet him. Yeah, he was a [00:19:00] nice kid. And uh, she was supposed to do the Camino de Santiago, which is a 500 mile walk across Spain.
Yeah, yeah, she did. She was supposed to do that in 2020 and then of course cut it. She ultimately ended up doing it in 2022, and by then she was a few years old. She just turned 70 last year. Oh, okay. So she was 65 in 2019, the same age as Godzilla. Um, and so she was on the Camino. She was doing the Camino when my dad died.
And uh, I was like, I remember like having to, like, I knew she would want to know, and we had downloaded WhatsApp and I was just, mom, I hate to tell you dad died. My, okay. So I'll tell you, and for your listeners, my dad died of a very rare form of cancer called Hilar cholangiocarcinoma. It's very tricky.
It's not easily detectable when it presents. You're probably already in stage four. My dad in December, [00:20:00] 2021 started jaundice. So he goes to see the doctor and they just give him pills to treat jaundice, and that doesn't go away. So they treat a little bit more, and he is also got dry, itchy, flaky skin, especially on his scalp, whatever.
And so they run some more tests and they figure out, oh, you've got halal cholangiocarcinoma. Mm-hmm. Well, what's that? Well, this is what it is, is, and he was ing because the tumor was on his bary duct and it was blocking something in the liver that allows you to release the release file. So they figured it out, but he had an infection that they could never quite get their hands on.
So he was supposed to get. He was supposed to have like, okay, we, we can treat it all with surgery. You won't need chemo. It's in a perfect spot. We can treat it all with surgery. He was supposed to have surgery on May 5th, so from January to like May, he was in and outta the hospital, and the news was still fresh to us.
When I went up there in February, I was, and [00:21:00] we had to take him to the er, I remember it was, uh, Valentine's Day 2022, and my, we had to take my dad to the er. So I went, because what else am I I'm gonna do, I'm there to visit him. And he had to go to the er and I remember there was this, there was this woman there, and she was attractive, and she's just like, whatever she's there for.
I'm like, well, next Valentine's Day can't be worse. Right? It has to be better. Right. She just chuckled, but also gives me this look like you're not, you're not, you're not serious. Right. I'm like, Hmm, what else? But, uh, uh, so he ends up, like, he ended up being at the hospital that time for like 28 days. He had like a.
He had this infection they couldn't get their hands on, and he was supposed to have surgery to remove the tumor on May 5th. And he goes in to have the tumor removed and they're like, sorry, we can't, we can't, so we're gonna install a port so you can have chemo done. And I remember thinking, may the fifth is the day after May the fourth, which is May the fourth be with you.
So I was like, all right, today the doctors strike [00:22:00] back and tomorrow will be revenge of the sixth and we're gonna get that tumor taken out. And I remember my uncle calling me on had to have been May 6th, and he's like, Hey Billy. Um, and I'm just like, you need to finish your sentence 'cause I need to know what the next words are.
I just need to know. Yeah. Is my dad alive? And Yeah. And he tells me that, uh, they couldn't take the tumor out. They're gonna have to treat it with chemo. So he, my uncle called me who was my dad's older brother by four years. He told me what happened. And I remember being. I remember of course, being really upset.
Like I wanted to go out to my patio and I wanted to like throw chairs around and break plastic chairs. I wanted to punch a hole on the wall. I wanted to do this. And I took a shower and took a moment. And then instead of doing anything destructive, I walked to the nearest park. And then I took off my shoes and socks and I just stood in the, uh, the grass and I grounded myself, which is an exercise I'd heard of previously.
I'm like, this seems like the right moment for that. Mm-hmm. [00:23:00] So I grounded myself and I'd also just gotten a cat, the cat who might pop up in here. And, uh, we went to take her to a clinic that day to get her, uh, to get her fixed. And when I picked her up from the clinic, they were like, by the way, she was pregnant.
And this was not a surprise to me. Waffle. And I had noticed that her belly was growing bigger and her nipples were getting more pronounced. I was like, oh, okay. And so like, like we, I picked her up and you could tell she was sad. You could tell that she knew she had a loss. She knew that there was life in her.
There wasn't there anymore. But I took her home and still with my cat that day, excuse me. And that was May 5th. I remember Friday, May 13th, uh, waffle. And I were gonna go see Dr. Strange in the multiverse of Madness. And my dad had been like, we bought tickets early and my dad had been taken to the hospital that day because he got up to use the bathroom and then fell down and couldn't get back up.
And [00:24:00] he got taken to the hospital in ambulance. And my stepmom, Marjorie called me to say that he had a blood vessel that burst in his stomach and his blood pressure was really low. And I'm like, I remember talking to my roommate about this. I'm like, I still want to go to the movie because we already bought these tickets.
We already planned at this time. What can I change by not going to the movie? Absolutely nothing. And I went back to a moment after the divorce when I was staying at my mom's house, and my kid asked me if I wanted to stay the night. And I was like, of course I do. And my mom was like, well, I'm gonna say no because your dad's gonna wanna see you, but you can ask your dad.
So I did. And he's like, of course, of course you can go stay the night at Mike's. And years and years later, I asked him, why did you say yes? He is like, because I'm the one who made the decision to divorce your mom. Why should I punish you? You want to hang out with your friends? Why should I punish you?
And so that moment was playing in the back of my head when I decided I still want to go see Dr. Strange night. So we did it, it was a great time. [00:25:00] Friday, May 13th, Monday, which was the 16th, I remember I was doing inventory for my current job. Uh, so I had to be there at like 1:00 AM and I had to count my store.
And then late in the day, they're like, oh, this store doesn't have a, a manager. You need to go count at this other store too. All right, I guess. So I went and did that, and my stepmom called me and my dad at the moment was intubated. Which I didn't realize. Hey, your dad wants to talk to you. Hey dad. She's like, oh, he can't talk back.
He just wants to hear your voice. Mm-hmm. So, okay, so, so I called him and I talked to him and she was like, okay. And then I'm like, you know what? Once a year my dad was to go to McDonald's and get an egg McMuffin if he ever had to fast to do, have blood work done. As soon as blood work was done, he went straight to McDonald's and he's like, I don't care.
Once a year is not going to hurt me. So I'm like, all right, dad. Well, it's like nine 30, I got an hour left to go to McDonald's, so I'm gonna go to McDonald's on the way home. I ended up getting stuck at the other store doing something. So I think at McDonald's that day. [00:26:00] So that was Monday the 16th. He died on Wednesday, May 18th.
Mm-hmm. And I remember I was at work and I got like, Sean called me, my brother, Sean, my little brother. He called me to say this and that, and I'm on the phone to him and Marjorie's calling us my stepmom. And I asked him, Hey Sean, I'm on the phone with her to Sean. Hey Bill. And it was my dad. It's like, oh dad.
And we talked for a minute or two and he is like, okay, well I know your work, so I've gotta go. I'm like, all right dad, I can take more time. He is like, well, it's hard for me to breathe. Okay. And if you didn't know he was sick, you would know. And then Marjorie called me about two hours later to say, and then when, when she called me, I knew what the phone call was about and I was training this woman, Carolyn, how to make a caramel frappuccino.
And I'm like, one of my other coworkers, Nathan, I have to take this phone call. Can you please show Carolyn how to make a caramel frappuccino? And when I come back, Carolyn, you're gonna show me. Okay. So I go and I take the call. And your [00:27:00] dad died a few minutes ago. Okay. Alright. And it was such a relief to get that phone call because for the previous two weeks, since the 13th, anytime my phone rang before I could see who was calling, it was like, and so when I got that phone call, it was like, all right, this is the worst news you can get.
But now you've got it. So, okay. Okay. So I go back in and I was like, all right, Carolyn, did Nathan teach you how to make a caramel frappuccino? Yes. Okay, so now please show me how to make a caramel frappuccino. And she did. And it was great. All right. And this is where training's going to end for the day.
I'm really sorry. Uh, I just got a phone call. My dad died. I'm going to go home now. And, and they're both kinda like, I was like, I'm fine. I'll be fine. Just, just, that's why we're gonna in training for today. And I walked into my manager's office, I'm like, guys, I need to talk. Come right in. I'm [00:28:00] sitting in on this chair.
Okay, I just gotta call. My dad died. And they're immediately like, okay, we'll just take off and go home. Um, your department's gonna be fine. I have to do one thing before I go, no, no, no, just get out of here. If I don't do this one thing, I'm going to run out. I had to place a Starbucks order. If I don't do this one thing, then my store will run out of.
Coughing for tomorrow. But like doing this one thing was legit by being in myself and my co my assistant manager at the time, her name was Destiny. I had met Destiny when my store first opened on November 20th, 2020. And she stuck around from November till about March when she went to Kansas City because she bought a house and she wasn't gonna go there until, so she could live there with her kids.
And then she came back at August, 2021 and like, I didn't know this at the time, she ended up signing away the rights to her children to like her aunt. And she came back and she was like a new person. When I say like, like, she was so much more mature. Not that she was immature, just [00:29:00] all right. And she became my assistant manager.
Like that, she was just awesome. And so that day we were supposed to go out and have a margarita. And so when I, I got the call, I left work, I went over to Destiny's apartment. An apartment complex that I first, that I used to live when I first moved to LA and I picked her up. I was like, all right, Mar, I'm thinking Margaritas are for when you're happy, when you wanna celebrate.
I don't want a margarita right now. So my dad's favorite scotch was McKellan 12. And, uh, so we went to this dive bar and I told her what happened and was just like, we had a glass of McKellen 12. And then I went home. It didn't even occur to me until the next day that that was the 42nd anniversary of the eruption of Mount St.
Helen's. Ever since I was a little kid, I've always been fascinated by that eruption. Um, my grandparents, my dad's folks lived in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and they had a little vial of Mount St. Helen's volcanic ash. [00:30:00] Hmm. And I was just fascinated by, I was, I had like, there was this, there was this lame movie made called, uh.
St. Helen's Killer Volcano, made for video, released on HBO in its infancy. And it's not a great movie, but it does have some good moments in it. And, uh, one of the pe two people killed in that blast. One of 'em was David Johnston, who was a volcanologist. And now if you go to Mount St. Helens, there's the David Johnston Ridge, uh, visitor center.
The other guy was Harry, not s who was the president, but Harry r Truman. And, uh, he was the guy who refused to leave the mountain. He was like, no, no, no. I lived up here with Ed. That was his wife. She's gone. I'm not coming down off this mountain. And that's not what he wanted to do. He refused. And so David Johnston was overlooking the volcano when it erupted at 8:32 AM on May 18th, which was a Sunday.
And he's like, Vancouver. Vancouver. This is it. Those are his last five words. Harry Truman probably [00:31:00] died a few minutes later, uh, a few seconds later. He loved, his favorite actor was Art Carney, and the guy who plays. Harry r Truman in the movie was Art Carney. And I don't know that that was planned, but that's like, that's just cosmic working itself out.
Yeah. And so because of that movie, because of the ash, I was like, every May 18th I'll be like, all right, it's Mount St. Hell's Day and I'll draw a volcano or something. And then I didn't realize that that was next year, so I was like, I've always wanted to go see Mount St. Hells. Well now I have to. And so later that summer I went up to Washington and went to Mount St.
Helms, and I couldn't see her rim because it was, even though it was July, it was covered in cloud cover. So I was like, all right, well I'm gonna come back. And so May, 2023, which would've been a year since my dad died. That was cool. I got to be on, might sound Helens, a year after my dad's death. So that was cool.
That's great. [00:32:00] Yeah. And, and you said it's been three years, how. How have you dealt with the loss and your own grief? Has it changed each year? Do you, do you go and get a McMuffin? Uh, you know, if we're in his honor, I could see you doing something like that. So, um, I remember the, the week that he died, like some, like, I always worked Sundays and somehow we were kind of overstaffed this Sunday and I'm like, destiny, can I take this Sunday off?
I wanted to go to Santa Monica. Uh, my dad grew up in Santa Monica and yeah, went to Santa Monica in high school. Our folks have that in common. Yeah, that's right. Um, yeah. Um, so that's Sunday. I just, I went to Santa Monica and I sat on the pier and I brought, I got a McMuffin from McDonald's and I brought my dad's favorite book, which is called The Myst of Avalon by Marian Zimmer Bradley.
It's. [00:33:00] Legend, but told from the female point of view, which I love. Yeah. And I haven't been able to finish it yet, but I love that idea. Um, I remember he read that book forever. There was one time we went through a valet and my dad lost his card, lost the valet slip, and the guy's like, all right. So, uh, I opened this glove box.
What's the first thing I'm gonna see? My dad's like, um, you're gonna see the miss of Amazon, miss of, uh, Avalon by Mary and Zimmer. Bradley. Okay. Yeah. This is your car Kids rights. And did I tell you that I, that I, I've read that I, my, no, my roommate in Brooklyn was reading it and I read it after her. So that is so funny.
I read something problematic about Maryanne, Zimmer Bradley after I started reading it, and now I'm like, mm. Oh, really? And you can see like there's like a sentence or two in one of the rituals, one of the. I, I am like this kind of alludes to the problematic thing we heard about her. Mm oh. Um, I'm like, man, oh [00:34:00] well.
So I, yeah. So I did that that Sunday and, let's see, that was 2022. So 2021. Um, I don't remember doing anything. No. 2022. Yeah. So the second year I went to Mount St, the anniversary of the one year I went to Mount St. Helen's. And then the third year, third year we went to Santa Monica and, alright, I have to backtrack.
Sorry. This is, I have to backtrack a little bit. So, destiny, she was there with me for, she was there with me as my dad was going downhill. She was there with me for a lot of this and she loved butterflies. One of my trips up to Reno, I stopped at this. I stopped at shop where you can get like fossils and whatnot, and she loved butterflies and I found like this shadow box thing of butterflies.
So I got it for her just to say, thanks for watching the shop while I was gone. I appreciate you. Here you go. She loved butterflies. And I remember in August, 2022, like [00:35:00] she just kind of stopped showing up for work and she texted me, she's like, I'm not gonna be there for work. And I knew she wasn't doing well.
Like she used to do meth. And I remember one day she told me and she was like, Hey, I relapsed. And I'm like, all right, well look, relapse is a part of recovery and I want you to know that I'm here for you and I don't judge you this and that. Like I Googled what to say to somebody who relapses and I found something and I made sure to call her.
Mm-hmm. Like, all right, look. And uh, she said it was just a one time thing. I don't think it was. And that stuff plays tricks with your head. And she started hearing, she has to have started hearing things. Um, she, September 9th. The week before that, we went up to Reno for my dad's wake. He would've been 74 on September 6th.
So we went up to Reno for my dad's wake, and my stepmom sent us with all these things that, uh, that he had collected, that he had saved throughout the years for us. And I'm like, wow, I can't believe this. I can't [00:36:00] believe this. And so September 1st, Starbucks people came in and set up my kiosk. So I work for Starbucks, but I don't work for Starbucks.
I work for Ralph's. I just work for Starbucks inside of Ralph's. So Starbucks comes in and does this, and we're gonna get mobile order the next day. And Destiny's texting everybody if anything happens to me. So and so and so and so. It's them. It's them. And like she would text me. She would be like, I, they're upstairs.
I can hear them right now. They're saying, let's just go kill her. Let's just go kill her. And she didn't, no, she showed up for work on September 2nd, but she didn't look good, like tired. Ragged. She was like, I can't stay, I can't stay. I'm like, look, I need you to stay. This is the big day. I really need you to stay.
I can't. And this was all over text message. And I remember my last text to her was like, I not proud of it. It was just like, I need you to be there. And like I was definitely, definitely disappointed and angry. And so the next day was a Saturday, that would've [00:37:00] been September 3rd. And I was off that day because I had to switch schedules around for other things.
And this guy, Jared had opened the store. He is like, Hey, I can't reach Destiny. And so I texted her and I tried to call her and nothing. And the apartment she lived in was only a block away. So I remember going through all the stuff and my dad had saved, like reorganized it and put it in the way and like, alright, I can close this chapter and just move on and like, lemme go walk to a Destiny's apartment and see where she is.
And I'm trying to get in the apartment. I hear a voice from a car on the street, bill. And I'm like, it was this guy, Jesse, who was the bookkeeper who was friends with Destiny outside of work. He's like, are you looking for Destiny? Yeah. They found her. Mm. And she had thought that cartels were after her and or the FBI.
What do you mean? They found her? They found her in her bathtub. Mm. She liked the sound of running water. And the reason why they found her is because the water was [00:38:00] overflowing. The tub was overflowing. It was leaking on into the hallway. And I remember that crushed me. That crushed me. There were nobody, there was nobody in that calendar year that I had spent more time with, more than her.
Mm-hmm. And I remember just how, like, how that absolutely crushed me. You don't, you expect your parents to go before you, much as you don't like it. You do not expect your friend who is 20 years younger to go before you. Mm-hmm. And that just crushed me. Yeah. And. I made calls, I made text messages to my, uh, uh, to people I worked with.
'cause we worked in this little tiny kiosk, which at most might be 200 square feet. Yeah. But probably not even that big. And so like we all worked with each other and just Yeah. And she was with you at, you know, really? [00:39:00] Yeah. Pivotal time. Was she in your life? Yeah. Yeah. And just, I remember, uh, like I took, her favorite beer was Sand Man's October Fest.
So I remember going to the Ralph's nearest her apartment, which is also the one nearest me, picking up a six pack of Santa Man's October Fest and taking it to the car right before I put one in the car. One of the, the bottom falls out and one of them hits the concrete and smashes spills everywhere. And I'm like, Nope, I'm not gonna go get one.
That was for Destiny, that one's hers. And so I went inside, or I came home and I drank one, and I reached out to friends and they were like, do you wanna meet up? And I'm like, I really don't. Like, I really don't. I really, really don't. And I just kind of just chilled on the patio that day and I told people it was gone and the next day Sunday, I had to go back to work.
There were things that I had to [00:40:00] do and I also wanted to be there for my team who I, they don't, I wanted to be there for my team. The hardest fucking thing I had to do that day was go opening the door, going behind that goddamn kiosk. I just was, I remember driving home from that shift and like I'd given her a ride to work the other day.
I just remember looking in the passenger seat. You were just here the other day. You were in that fucking seat. Yeah. I remember that. Mm. Mm-hmm. Talking to my team and trying to cover shifts, like trying to cover destiny's shifts. And I remember reprinting the schedule 'cause I didn't want people to have to look at the schedule and see her name.
I reprinted the schedule and I just cut out the line that had her name and her schedule on it. And I taped two together and I took that little strip of paper home into my journal for that period. Mm. Had to do the same for the next week. But, uh, this all goes back to she loved butterflies. When I was at Mount St.
Helen's the one year anniversary, um, I went to display [00:41:00] this au gift shop called North Fork Survivors, the North Fork of the Tule River North Fork survivors. And I went there the year previous and I got talking to the guy and I told him how I had this vial of ash that my grandparents had. And like the week before I was coming home from a trip and I found something on the ground.
I don't know how it got out in the living room, but I stepped, I saw something on the ground, I stepped on a popped. And when I looked at it. I looked, what I stepped on, it was that vial of ash that I'd had from my grandparents. And I was like, and my cat runs over to it to start sniffing the ash right from there.
I'm like, not mad at her, but like, you don't want your animal to be inhaling the sniffing ash 'cause it's gone good. No. And so I'm at this mom paw shop and I talking to the elder's like, were you able to recover it? I'm like, A little bit, but the, uh, the vacuum cleaner got the rest. He's like, hang on a second.
He goes into his back, comes out here, he holds me a vial of ash. I'm like, oh, that's, that's, that's ash that was collected from this area. I was like, oh, [00:42:00] thank you. How much is this? He was like, no, no, no. That's a gift. That's a gift for you, sir. I was like, wow. And so we went back there in May, 2023 and we went there and outside the shop there's an A-frame that you'll see an A-frame house that you'll see that's famous from the eruption photos and.
They had that house outside that mon pa shop. And I was like, you have got to be kidding me. This is so cool. I've only seen this in pictures. It's right there. And, uh, we went there the next week, we went there the next year and he had like new cars out there, like not brand new cars, but cars that weren't there their previous year.
And one of the cars was this photographer named Reed Blackburn. And he had taken pictures, taken pictures, and then stayed until it was too late. He went inside his car to try and survive and just the ash and everything, he phy, he asphyxiated inside his car, but the guy who owned the shop was able to pull out some of the [00:43:00] stuff that was in the car.
So he's unwrapping this stuff that he got, like Reed Blackburn had a mix tape that was. Slightly melted but not completely melted. I'm like, what would, what did Reed Blackbird listen to? I would love to hear what was on that mixtape. But anyhow, he opens up one of those old timey cigar boxes and all the stuff from the car is wrapped in a paper towel.
One of those old ones that has decorations on it. And the decoration on this paper towel was a butterfly. No way. Yes. And so I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. Like Destiny was. Destiny was there. She was there. And I remember shortly after she died, like days after she died, I took a day off and I'm running around.
I get in my car, I turn on the music, I turn on the, I turn on the car, radio starts playing, and it's the Killers. And the first lyric I hear, the first line I hear is, destiny is calling me. Oh. [00:44:00] And I'm like, okay. And. Like earlier that morning I had applied for a job at CVS, and CVS wanted to interview me for a position at a store in Kansas City.
Like that makes, no, that makes no sense. Destiny lived in Kansas City for a short while, but I'm not from Kansas City. So that email and then that song to come on the radio, I'm like, um, and then I go to the post office and spray painted on the side of the post office was a star, and then the name Nova, which was Destiny's daughter's name.
Mm. And I'm like, I don't know what to make of this. This is, this is something, I don't know what to make of it. I never made anything of it, but there you go. Well, I like to call them winks from people I've lost. So whenever I see anything that ma reminds me of someone I've lost, I call it a wink from them.
Well, good. So you can think of, I got a wink as winks. You, you got multiple [00:45:00] winks from her? Yeah. During that time, that day. Yeah. And how many, um, how long after your dad died did she pass away? Because it wasn't five, let's see, September is, is the ninth Four months? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, four months. Wow. And then, yeah, and then the day that, uh, my dad always wanted his ashes to be scattered off to Santa Monica Pier, which is illegal, but Nah, you do it.
I finagled some stuff. I finagled some stuff. So yeah, I went to Santa Monica and I grabbed a rock off the beach and then I got some cheesecloth and. I wasn't gonna scatter him because it's just gonna land on the surface and be blown back. The GI wanted something to weigh it down, but something that wasn't gonna damage the environment.
Didn't wanna cheese cloth. You didn't want a lebowski moment. Right, exactly. Exactly. So, sorry, I had to throw that in there. Of course, I pour the, uh, I poured the, he was pre mated, so I pour the, some of the remains into this and then there's a little bit left on the counter, which I don't just wanna [00:46:00] like wash down the drain.
So I pick him up and now I have him in my hand and there's this cactus that I have on my patio here, this cactus garden that I wanted to show him that he never got to see. So I just kind like and scattered him what was left on my hands. So my mom flew in and one of my cousins who lived out here, we went to Santa Monica that day to do this.
And I'm waiting for people out there and I'm waiting for people to meet me up. I'm at the spot and I'm gonna remind you that this is Santa Monica and as I'm waiting this monarch butterfly flag right by overhead, I was like. There you go. Yes. Yeah, she was there. She was there. It was another wink. She was checking in.
It was another wink. Yeah. Checking in on you. Yeah. I feel like as if she's like, making sure you're okay or something, you know? Yeah. That's, that's definitely nice to think. Yeah. And uh, this year [00:47:00] for his death anniversary, I went up to Reno and I hung out with my brother and his family. And Do you do anything on his birthday?
Um, I can't remember. His birthday is September 6th. I can't remember doing things like, his favorite sandwich was the peanut butter and jelly. So like, maybe I'll make a peanut butter jelly sandwich, or I'll have a glass of Kellan 12. Yeah, because that was Cheers. Cheers, dad. Definitely. Yeah. So for Father's Day, I'll watch Jaws two in Indiana Jones with the Last Crusade.
'cause I'm like, I can't figure out which is the best Father's Day movie because in Jaws two at the end, Brody's like out on the water putting himself between the shark and his young son Sean. And the last crusade is just, you're going on an intervention with your dad. Yeah. So watch those on Father's Day.
I mean, they're both great but, and have that father, I don't know what to call it neither, but they, [00:48:00] but very d in very different ways. It's the father. Mm-hmm. Adventure. And then it's the father being protective. The protective. Mm-hmm. Father, sorry. Anyway, I didn't know what to call that though. The father, you know, imagery, the father, I don't know, but, uh, uh, yeah, figure I, I know.
Yeah. I can't think of, but I, where and what did Father do you know, almost, do you know what you wanna do next year on his, the anniversary of his death? Probably like his favorite, the meal he was famous for making was a flank steak with uh, Gorgon, Zola butter, garlic, salt and pepper. You roll it up and put it on the grill.
How yum. So make something like that. So do you think you'll do Yeah. Different every year? I don't know. We'll see. Yeah, I know. Who knows? You can't plan that far ahead but, right. Yeah. So since, so we'll move on unless, is there anything more about your childhood upbringing? I know we went like 5 million different ways, but [00:49:00] there's nothing wrong with that at all.
I love it. No, I think, I think, I think that about covers it. Yes. Definitely. So where There's two things I wanna go into, but I think this makes more sense. You mentioned living in la. When did you go to LA and why? Um, I moved to LA in on August 1st, 2003, and I actually forgot about it last week. My mom had to remind me, you've been in LA 22 years this year.
I was like, holy shit. You're right. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Uh, because you never left, right? You've been there the whole time. Yeah. Okay. I, we haven't told people how we met. We met in 1996, I wanna say, when a OL was in its infancy and we just, uh, started instant messaging each other. And by then when I met you, then I was in film school and then I went to master's.
I went, went and got my master's degree, and I got a master's degree in screenwriting. [00:50:00] And the first time I took my, uh, first time I went before my board, I didn't do too well, and so I had to come back and do it again. And my ma my thesis script is. A horror story. It's a modern day adaptation of the legend of Sleepy Hollow set in rural Nevada.
And instead of a headless horseman, it's a spectral Native American who's like out for revenge. They liked it. I passed, I moved to LA and everybody's like, so how did that work out for you? Well, I'm currently working for Ralph in Starbucks, so I haven't got to my, I haven't got to the point I wanted to be at yet.
And I realized getting my master's degree that as much as I enjoy screenwriting, I like writing prose more like short stories and novels, although I haven't really written anything a substance in a long time. Mm. And this is something I go over in my journal and I'm making a list of like 10 projects I have in my head that are at various points of [00:51:00] starting or completion or this and that.
Um, there's no reason why I haven't done it. There's no reason why I haven't started them or don't, I just don't. And why? I don't know. Why don't I take more time to draw or paint or like people like my art enough to buy it. And so I don't know why I don't do that. Like, uh, my bestselling series is called Simply Naked Women Drinking Coffee.
If you search that hashtag on Instagram, all that art is mine and people buy that. And when I say people, women, not a single guy has bought any of that art. It's all been women who just, I think what I try to do with that series is there's a vulnerability you have in that moment when you're just taking a moment on your bed or wherever you're comfortable and just taking a sip of coffee.
There's an element of emotional vulnerability I think of that. Mm-hmm. And women see that art and they look past the nudity. They're just like, oh, I recognize, I recognize the [00:52:00] vulnerability. That's, yes. How much could that 400 no problem. Yeah. And for artistic quality too. So a woman looks at that and doesn't see it as sexual.
It's, it's the, it's the form, it's the body and it's the art in itself. And I'm not saying men wouldn't do that either, but that's probably why it, women look at it and go, oh, I want that. And maybe it reminds them of themselves too. Mm-hmm. That's probably a big part of it too. And that's the vulnerability you're talking about.
But I totally, because I've seen your artwork on, uh, social media and I could see why a woman may see herself in that or, and or enjoy the vulnerability of it, but the artistic quality as well. 'cause you're good. You're really good. Thank you. Yeah. So you went to LA for screenwriting, but you've realized screenwriting iss not what you, is that correct?
Yes. I, I like, I like writing prose more. I like writing short stories [00:53:00] and novels. And for like 10 years I did this thing called National Novel Writing Month. Oh yeah. You have to write a 50, you have to write a 50,000 word novel between November 1st and November 30th, which is legit. If you stick to it, it's like three pages, three Microsoft Word pages a day.
Mm-hmm. And the first time I did it, I went 93,000 words, or 91,000 words. So like, it was a great, it was like a frill ride. It was like, that was like legit drugs. 'cause you get home from work and you're like, I need to fix, I need to fix, instead of injecting or drinking or smoking anything, you're like on your computer typing.
And the second year I, the second year I did it, I got to 93,000 words, but I didn't finish the novel. And I was kind of bummed about that. It was an idea that I got when I was in high school, um, called The Legend of Joe Midnight and the time of day game. And I, when I was going to my master's program, I wrote a few different script versions of it.
And people respond to those, they kinda like it. But I was like, this isn't what I had in mind. So that second year I'm like, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this. [00:54:00] And like I said, November 30th, I was at 93,000 words, but the story wasn't complete. So I took a break in January, started writing in December. I finished it in June and it was 210,000 words for a total of 615 single space Microsoft Word pages.
Whoa. Wild. It's still my, it's still my favorite thing I've ever written and I'm in the middle of editing it. 'cause I know that's, nobody's gonna buy that length of a manuscript from a first time author. So, but you could self-publish. I have self-published before. I have a, uh, I have a, I still have to edit it, but there's a memoir of sorts called Scrambled the Rise of Taco Bell on Amazon for Kindle.
And it's got some good reviews. The nicest one that's from this. An international review and she's just like, I got it for free in a moment of boredom. I picked it up not knowing what to expect, and [00:55:00] sometimes I found myself crying and another time I found myself spewing coffee on my desktop. She's like, she was like, if you don't read anything else this year, read this book.
And I was like, oh my gosh. Wow. Wow. Yeah. That's great. That's like, but yeah, you could keep that up. That's, you don't have to like send it to people and have them decide you could do it yourself. Yeah. You know? Anyway, just a thought. Yeah, thank you. What were you gonna say? Sorry. Uh, if you do that and then you find a review, if you do that and you find an agent or find a publisher who wants to publish it.
Oh, you self-publish it? No, we don't take stuff that's been published already. So you run that risk? No, totally. Yeah. Which, but if it ends up becoming like this massive hit Oh, I've heard of places. Picking up books like, like, uh, Aron By By Christopher Paulini. Mm, okay. Yeah. That that book was self-published in Yeah.
I think it, if if it's huge, they don't care. [00:56:00] Right. Probably. I'm guessing. I'm guessing, but, uh, yeah. Okay. So you went to LA and you've already mentioned you work at Ralph's slash Starbucks, but you are now a, what is it, what is your role now? Because you now don't work at one, right? Yeah. My role, my role doesn't have an official title, and because it doesn't have an official title, that means it's not an official role.
So even though I'm kind of in charge of 10 different stores that have Starbucks in them. Because it's Nonofficial role, I still get paid for my last official role. And so like I'm, even though I'm kind of in charge of 10, I'm only being paid for what you would be in charge, like being in charge of one, which is a minor sticking point for me.
Yeah. Oh, I'm like, wait, minor. Sorry, I, yes, in my head I had major, yeah, minor, slight sarcasm there with minor. Okay, good. I'm glad it's sarcastic. Sorry, go ahead. They, they pay me mileage, which [00:57:00] is great. Point 70 cents a mile and I'm like, that pays for my gas, so that's cool. It gives me a little bit of extra spending money, but I'm like, um, what can we do to make this an official role?
Yeah. And when I took this job, the union was negotiating with the corporation and there was a potential strike about to happen, so HR was not gonna be like, I didn't even bother asking them 'cause it was just, would've been like, we don't have time for this right now. We're trying to figure out. But now that that's been settled.
It might be time to hit up HR again and be like, all right, what can we do to make this an official role? Because the guy in does my role in district one, he makes more than I do. The guy in, he gets, he gets paid for his last job, which was a receiver. The guy in district three who does my job, he makes a way different salary and we don't know what his job code, what you don't know what his job code is.
So yeah. Might be time to revisit that. I think so. And I was, I was fully ready to quit. Like my boss, one of my regulars, whose name was [00:58:00] Erica, Erica Holiday, and she's a psychiatrist, so she's a doctor. And I didn't find this out until like, wait, wait, wait, wait. Are you serious? You're doc holiday. Ah. She's like, so, uh, like my, my store leader, Bobby really pissed me off one day and I was just, I had it.
I was like, that's it. I'm done for the you, you've pissed me off for the last time. My last day will be this day. Mm. And it was, my last day was gonna be April 13th, and then he pissed me off again and I was like, that's it. I'm quitting on April 6th, my 50th birthday, I'm quitting. I have had it up to here.
And so that was great. And, and that was, uh, that was great. And then I was like, all right, I took two weeks off. I step into this job, what's the pay rate gonna be? And it was kind of discussed previously, but not to the extent where words were actually said, where they would say, it's not an official position, so there will be [00:59:00] no raise.
Mm. Because had I known that going into it, it might have Oh, changed the, oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's where you are now. Right? So that, that's what I'm doing now. The, the, uh, this is where I was trying to decide which I was gonna bring up first, but because screen, the screenwriting thing of in LA of course, like to me, leads to movies and something we both have in common is our love of movies.
Yes. So I would love to talk about that, not just like what movies are our favorite movie. Not like that. But I would love to, uh, one thing I've never asked you is what brought on your love of film and movies? And then we can talk about our favorite, the movie we both love so much. Yeah. So at some point, but, uh, just my love of started, your love of it.
My love of movies started because of my love of Jaws and when it comes [01:00:00] to any other movie. Why do you like this movie? Why don't you like this movie? I can, I can quote, I can give you a detailed list. When it comes to Jaws, I can't, jaws is just. It's an absolute much like Joker in the Dark Knight. We don't know his organ store.
We don't know there's that. He's just an absolute, for me, jaws is just an absolute, it is like, do I like sharks because I like jaws? Or do I like jaws because I like sharks? I don't know how to answer that question. And so Jaws and the egg, chicken and the egg right there, right? Yeah. Yeah. For me, jaws just is.
But I remember watching movies with my dad as a kid, um, growing up. Not every Saturday, but there were more than a handful of Saturdays that we would go to. We'd go check out Saturday matinee. And I think that's why my preferred time to see a movie is a matinee. Like a date at a movie is kinda like, do we have to go so late?[01:01:00]
But I know there, remember there's something, oh, sorry. Go ahead. Go, go ahead. Oh no, I was just gonna say there's something about coming out of a movie when it's still light out. I don't know why. I love, I love that too. Sorry, go ahead. Yeah. Uh, I remember when Karate Kid part two came out, there's this old movie theater in Vegas called the Syn Dom six.
It had six springs if you couldn't guess. Um, but uh, they were given away, like anybody, whatever, Saturday or Sunday, the first however many people until the theater was full, got in to see it for free. And my dad's like, boys, do you wanna go see this? Yeah. Okay. But I'm gonna tell you, we will have to get up early if we're gonna go see it.
Okay. He's like, are you sure? Yeah. And so the night before, we still going to see this movie tomorrow. Remember? You have to, yeah. So we went there, we were the first people in line, and by an hour or two later, the line stretched. I don't know how far back I remember this one guy coming up. [01:02:00] Just out of curiosity, what time did you get here?
I could've, I don't remember now if we got there at 6:00 AM or 7:00 AM But it was early and I think the movie, I think the movie started at 10. But we saw Karate Kid part two years later, years later, I'm living in la I'm waiting tables at a Red Robin and everybody's freaking out. 'cause the guy who played the bad guy from Karate Kid part two is at one of my tables and I look him up.
I know him better as one of the Asian brothers that only speaks Howard Cassel from the movie. Better Off Dead. Oh yes. So I'm walking by that table and I turn to my friend Dave and I'm just like, so you tell me which is better speaking. No English at all. Or only speaking, Howard Cassel and the actor, he's like Language lessons, which is one of his lines from the movie.
Yeah. So that, so I just always remember like it started with Jaws and then having, you know, [01:03:00] going to see movies with my dad. That was definitely kind of fun and as. Like, I remember starting like around sixth grade or so, learning names for movies, like it was with an American Tale that I remem that I realized James Horner did the score for that.
And he also did the score for Aliens. And I started being able to put things together. And so by the time I got to high school, I was like, okay, this guy did this, he did the music for this, this guy was also on this, this guy directed this, this guy wrote this. It came, and, and in high school we had to give like a presentation and I did a presentation on Hitchcock and I read a book called The Dark Side of Genius.
And I found him to be much more interesting as a man, as a person, as a director than I did his movies. And I watched, I did this presentation on violence in movies and I took it back from like, uh, Hitchcock in Psycho where your mind is the thing that [01:04:00] you never like in, there's a bunch of cuts, like 70 cuts or so in less than a minute.
It's only in your head that you see the knife actually going into the flesh. 'cause you know, it doesn't really, and that was, that was violence then. And then I ended with like the beginning of jaws, which is terrifying. But then we go to the end of Jaws and you see the blood spreading out of Quint's mouth to the point where at that time we look at home alone and the violence in the scene, it's the violence is now played for less.
So like we're kind of desensitized to violence as a society. And my teacher was like, you're a movie. You're a movie aficionado. Has anyone ever told you that? Never even heard of the word aficionado. Ms. Lane. She's like, that's what you are. Well, wait. And how old were you when you did that presentation? I wanna say it was between sophomore and senior year.
Okay. Because it was high school. Okay. Yeah, high school. So like, and I legit had her for three years as my English teacher. Yeah. So that, and, and is also why I came. When did you see Jaws? Did [01:05:00] you see it in the theater for the first time? Don't remember The, don't remember the first time. Okay. No, I would've been, I would've been slightly older than two months old when it came out in the theater for the first Oh yeah.
No, I don't mean like when it came out. I just meant, oh, did you see it like when it, no, like, I don't remember the first time I saw Jaws. Oh, that's so, I really don't, I've seen it. You weren't clearly a person who remembers all the dates and Yeah. So it's funny that your favorite film of all time, you don't remember when you saw it, but it's probably 'cause you've seen it so many times by now.
Yeah. I don't remember. Like, I have since seen it in the movie, the first time I saw it on the big screen was at, uh, um, not in the Dome, but at, at the whatever that theater was called in Hollywood, where the dome was like, I saw it there and I saw it with a coworker of mine who was just knocked out.
Beautiful. She was a former 49 ERs cheerleader for a while, and she went on to be a Lakers girl and. We just got, she was like, I like that movie. You want to go? Yeah, let's go. I was like, I mean, [01:06:00] it's not a date, but it was like walking in the movie theater and I get all these heads turned towards me. I was like, yes, yes I am with the absolutely hottest woman in the room watching my favorite movie.
Like this is kind of cool. Right? Right. So what a great, that was a good time. It was, it was great. Um, that's great. Like a handful of years later, it was playing at the Alex Theater in Glendale and I remember I had like $5 on me and that was it. And you could buy, uh, raffle tickets, three for $5. So I spent my last $5 in cash on three raffle picket.
You wanna know what? I won a a, a cover of the facsimile script of jaws signed by the screenwriter and the production designer, Joe Alvez, who will go on to direct Jaws three. Awesome. And then I won it and I'm like, Hey, you guys personalize this. And so they each wrote two bill on it. So cool. That's so cool.
Best $5 I ever spent. Yeah, definitely. That'll go down in [01:07:00] history. Best $5 right from that bill ever spent. So, okay, so we don't need to talk about Jaws anymore, but, uh, why, what is it about films that you love so much though and you love scores, like you mentioned, and I, I like scores because they are the closest thing you can do to replicating seeing the movie again without actually having to see the movie.
When I really, really like a movie, I have to buy the score like right away because, so like the summer that Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning part one, as it was called back then came out. I could not love that movie more, but I couldn't go see it every day and spend two and a half hours in the movie theater.
So I bought the score and that was great. Spider-Man. The spider verse, I loved just as much, so I had to buy the score for that. So I created a playlist called Mission Spider Verse, and it was those two scores [01:08:00] playing back to back. And it's a fun, it's a fun playlist to listen to. Um, yeah, yeah. But what is it about movies that you love so much?
So, I'm gonna steal a quote from one of my professors, Francisco Menendez, who, who actually died on February 29th, last year, about a month, right? Like, I went to Vegas, I saw him, I gave him a drawing, I did for him. It was a drawing of a still shot from Godzilla minus one where the shark is chasing the boat or the Godzilla is chasing the boat.
Watching that scene, I was like, this is totally like jaws chasing the, the, the boat at the end of the movie. And I'm reading something about it, I'm like, oh, the director was inspired by jaws. So I have, and the, the drawing I did, it was God villa chasing the shark, chasing the barrels, chasing the orca. And I gave that to him and.
Dying a month later. But I liked what he said about movies. He's like, you used to go to church to have this sit in a room with a bunch of strangers to have this [01:09:00] communal, emotional experience. Now you go to movies. And so it never occurred to me until he said that. I don't think I would've ever been able to, I don't think I would've ever thought to have put it in those words.
But yeah, you pay money to go sit in a darkened theater with a bunch of strangers to all laugh, cry, cheer, jump at the same time. And that's what I like about movies. You're, you're, you're getting these communal experience with a bunch of strangers that you wouldn't get otherwise. Uh, my roommate and I saw a naked gun last weekend and everybody laughing at the same time, like that was just great.
Everybody's laughing at the same dumb jokes, and it was just great to sit in a room, stranger in the darkened room with strangers and laughing at images and dialogue on the screen. Yeah. And that's what I love about going to the theater. The, you know, I'm so worried that going to the theater is going to die out, but it's such a different experience.
People need [01:10:00] to be around strangers. I, I, you're right. That's just such a great experience. So, so you said it really is. Yeah. Sorry, go ahead. It really is. Yeah. And so you mentioned Naked Gun. What is your favorite movie that you've seen recently? Let's see. I really wish I could say I love The Dead Reckoning as much as I did the first one, but, but it's like, it was good, but it's like they forgot to put the fun in.
So the best movie I saw recently, naked Gun was funny. Um, Jurassic World was not a good time. Mission Impossible was fun. Uh, fantastic. Four was perfectly serviceable. I think I have to go back to dead reckoning part one and the cross, the spider verse. I can't think of a movie going experience that tops those.
A movie that I love so much and couldn't wait for the next part to be out after those. Um, alien [01:11:00] ro man. You liked Superman, right? Oh, that's right. I'm so sorry. Yes, you're right. Superman. I really enjoyed Superman and I knew I was gonna like it. I assumed I would just think it was okay, but I really liked it and it's like I liked it coming outta the theater, but the more I thought about it, the more it sat with me, the more I started to like it.
And it's a great time. And yes, I bought the sound, I bought the score for Superman when I got home that day and the other day I was driving. How question? You did get it the other day? Yeah, I'm driving around and. The Iggy Pop song, punk rocker comes on on the radio. I'm like, yes.
Got so excited in my car by myself sitting at the stoplight. I'm a punk rocker. Yes, I am. That's awesome. Okay, so, uh, I mean, we're gonna wrap it up pretty soon, [01:12:00] but what's next for Bill? Do you have any things that you want to do or aspirations or are you ever gonna leave la Do you think you'll be there forever?
I don't know. My, my mom's getting older. My roommates folks are getting older and he is like, I'm gonna have to move back to Vegas at some point to take care of 'em. And I have this in my head when my mom goes, it's gonna be quick. She's not gonna be, whatever gets her, it's just gonna take, she's not gonna be having to move back to Vegas and take care of her.
So, and I wouldn't want to move back to Vegas anyway. I am. First off, I'm over those summers just over them when it gets to 90 degrees here in North Hollywood. I'm like, please yeah, make the thing in the sky stop. So, ugh. Yeah. But, um, my ex, my most recent ex, she had [01:13:00] said, what keeps you in la? I was like, well, first off, I, I like to, I like that I'm four hours away from my mom, so if anything happens, I can be there right away.
I don't have to deal with plane tickets or this. I can just get in my car and go. And she's like, well, I'm gonna say you can do better than that. She wanted to move, she wanted to move to the Pacific Northwest, to Washington. To live where? With her parents. Mm. Like, why, why do like, well, we can look for an apartment, but we can look for an apartment.
Why we live with our parent, why we live with my parents. And I'm like, I. No, I've been on my own for like 20 years. I don't want to go back into living with somebody else's parents and living under somebody else's rules, because if you live under somebody's house else's house, you do get to play by their rules.
That's one of the laws. You, you, you don't get to break that. So yeah, I didn't wanna do that. And then that's one of the things that led to our breakup. And, uh, so I don't know that I'll stay in LA [01:14:00] forever, but I have no plans to go elsewhere at the moment. Okay. All right. As far as far as what's next for me, um, like I currently on the hunt for another job, but I've had lots of interviews and I've had a few second interviews.
I had never gotten a job. And I think part of that, and I'm starting to ask myself this recently, is like, you don't really want a job working for yourself. And so your most recent episode was about how knowing. How to or when to go all in. And I'm like, is it time to do that? Is it time to do that? And just say, just go.
What do you want to do? You want to write and paint and draw? You want to create? Okay. Is it time to go all in with that and just, all right, I'm gonna paint. All right. I'm gonna draw like it seems as the reactions I get from my art. [01:15:00] Seems like perhaps there's a chance if I really win all in, maybe I could do this.
Maybe enough people want to buy my art and writing could be like my hobby and I would love that. All right, so I haven't done this in a while, but I'm gonna ask a couple of final questions that I didn't do it in like my last one. I don't know why, but, okay. Keeping with the, the kind of the movie theme.
I've never asked this anyone, this one, but I've heard it recently. If. If your life right now was playing on the screen, what would the audience be yelling at the screen? I thought you were gonna ask what actor would play you. Well, you can do that one next if you want. Although I, I saw your doppelganger the other day, but I don't know his name.
Sorry. Go ahead. Um, let's see. What would the audience be shouting? Yeah, probably, probably like, [01:16:00] quit the job. Quit the job. Just quit. Just quit. Yeah. And then who would play you? Uh, Zach breath. Zach breath. Oh, that's right. You love scrubs, right? That, and I found out that he and I are born on the exact same day.
The exact same year. No way. Yes. And so I wrote, I wrote this script years ago, called My High School Crush about. A normal dude from high school who's, you know, now he is at, he, he still wonders about his high school crush. Google's her name basically. She's like an international super spy. So I wrote the script and my pitch is like, it's, there's something about Mary meets Mr.
And Mrs. Smith. Zach Breath is the guy, and Angelina Jolie is the woman. Awesome. I love it. I love it. Alright, so one last thing. As you know, I love to ask people, what is something you either want to stop doing or start doing almost immediately or [01:17:00] as soon as possible to get you closer to your authentic self?
I want to start writing more. I legit want to start writing more, right? I want to stop drinking as much as I do because. My brother is like 19 years sober, I think now. Mm-hmm. My uncle was an alcoholic. It skipped my dad. So every drink I have, it's in the back of my head and I've known for a while I can cut back.
And so I want to start cutting back and stop drinking as much. Um, I do it now, so it's like, all right, Monday through Thursday, nothing. Nothing. Which is about 90% true. There's some days I'm like, I just want a little bit. And yes, it's a little bit like, not even a shot, just something, but yeah, start. Those are the two answers.
All right. And how, what are you gonna do to start writing more? [01:18:00] That is a, that is a, that is a harder question. 'cause I don't know. I was talking about this in my journal. I journal, like on the daily, uh, I have 2 192 page books that I will fill out in a year's time. Like the first one is volume one, the second one is volume two, so I'm on volume two now.
I'm like, I was asking myself, why don't you write more? It's not like you, you come home. I started running. So I run for like 10 minutes and then I sit down, I journal, I'll make dinner, and you have the time. What do you choose to do instead? Scroll on your tablets. Scroll on your phone. Why? You can use this time to write.
So I just have to make a habit out of it, you know? You just have to be like, you do anything else. Don't, don't make excuses. Just do it. Yeah. So say, so you were talking about this on your previous podcast, when you're talking about your step count, your aim is 10,000, but your [01:19:00] safety net is like 8,500.
Mm-hmm. I think was what you said. And so like, Hey look, you don't have to write a whole chapter. You don't have to write a whole page. Write a paragraph. Write a sentence like, 'cause like if you sit down to write a sentence, you're probably gonna write more than a sentence. And so, yeah. So, and if you tell yourself, well, sentence is my baseline, then you Yeah.
That's what, that's the word you were using baseline. But then anything beyond that, you're, you're, you're happy 'cause you're just doing it, right? Yeah. So like, yes, that's just what I need to start doing. Put the tablet down. Or since I tend to write on my tablet instead of my desktop anymore. 'cause my desktop is just old enough to where it's not working.
Like, okay, put your tablet down so that you can write on it. Mm-hmm. There you go. I'm gonna hold you to it, bill. You know what I say? I wouldn't mind if you did. You'd be like, did you write today? No. Okay. Well, what time are you going to bed? You [01:20:00] have this many hours. Yeah, I will. Right. She's right. Well, and then I'll give you something to check in on me with.
So, 'cause we all do it. It it's all, it's not like you're the only one. Clearly all of us do it. Especially Right. Especially a slave to our screens and things like that. So it's very much, mine is still making sure I get movement other than walking in, in at least three times a week. That's my big thing.
What kind of, uh, sorry, what kind of movement? So what kind of movement are we looking to get in? Besides what, like, uh, lifting weights or doing Pilates. Okay. But some kind of strength. Either strength training or Pilates. Uh Okay. That kind of thing. So for me it's three times a week is my. Well, four times a week is my ultimate goal.
I run, I run after work four times a week and I just run for 10 minutes. And if I do it longer than 10 [01:21:00] minutes, I'm gonna burn myself out. So I keep it at 10 minutes so that I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna run for 10 minutes. And then I inherited this chair from my dad. I think it was his grandpa's or grandfather's or something.
But I used that for pushups and I want to do that three days a week. I didn't do it at all last week, I can tell you that. So I, I want to like pushups on the chair. Like I, I looked up chair workouts and I'm like, well that's great. Yeah. And I'll do 'em for like two weeks and then I just stop. So. Yeah. And it's so true.
It to become a habit, you have to do it. I think that people say 90 days for it to stick or something. I don't know if that's something like that. Yeah, I think it's like 27 days is I think is what it was. I think. Oh, really? I'm way off. We can both look that up. Thank you so much, bill. This was really great.
Is there anything else you wanna say or, okay. Since, since I teased this earlier, I don't like the killers and now I'm gonna tell you why. Oh yeah. Um, so back in the day, my roommate [01:22:00] was in a band. They went through several different names, but him and my buddy Brent, who actually died just last year, he was a year younger than me and Brain aneurysm or something.
But, uh, they played on many stages in Las Vegas. And when many local bands, one of whom was The Killers, the Killers always showed up only to play and left immediately after their set was over, which is like rude. You always support your other artists. Never once did they say Stick around. There's a lot more bands coming up.
We gotta break bands. You gotta hear. They would show up to play their set. They'd say, thanks were the killers. And then they leave. And so I'm like, I don't like the killers because of that. I don't like the killers. What makes me like them even less is how their songs are so catching and I catch myself singing them.
I hate you, you guys. How dare you do this to me. I'm supposed to hate you. Right?
Oh, that's funny. [01:23:00] Okay, well, thanks so much. This was great. You're welcome. I love being a part of your podcast. I, IL legit as I'm driving around between all my stores. Ooh. She's got a new podcast out. I can't wait to listen. Ooh, this one's a long one, so I'm not gonna put it on her short one. I'll go from this store to this store 'cause I have a store in like Encino and another one in Castaic, and that could be a good 45 minute plus drive.
And I'm like, oh, well we're gonna, we're gonna do that today. Well, I appreciate it. My job, my job doesn't know that sometimes the stores I visited are dictated upon the length of your.
Well, thanks so much. I really appreciate that. You're welcome. Yeah, and thanks again.
