The Occasional Blog of Jonah Weiland

Uncle Eddie, my Sister Sharon and myself.

Within our lifetime we all experience moments of great import. Signal points, if you will, which your mind will wander back to time and time again. They’re usually filled with strong emotion and can be caused by the widest variety of things you can imagine. The death of a loved one. The birth of a child. A life changing experience. Or simply a special night. I had one of those tonight.

My Father’s memorial is tomorrow, January 21st. His wishes were to be cremated and have his ashes dispersed at sea, which we’ll be doing in the morning. Tonight, we got all the family who came in from out of town and had dinner together. Amongst the many family members who came into town was my 82-year-old Uncle Eddie, my Father’s Brother.

Eddie and his son Larry were running late due to Los Angeles traffic, so the rest of us were already seated when the arrived. At one point we saw two men coming into the restaurant and my Brother-In-Law Randy had the best view of the door. My sister Liz asked, “Is that them?” Randy responded, having never met Eddie or seen his picture before, “Yeah, they’re definitely here.”

In walked my Uncle. He pushed his way into the restaurant with his walker and suddenly my entire family was overwhelmed– the similarities my Father and his brother share in appearance took our breath away. In fact most of us got rather teary eyed as we ran over to greet Eddie and Larry. It was a powerful moment that included a connection that I can’t properly explain.

I’ve only met my Uncle Eddie once before. Eight or ten years ago he and his wife flew out to Los Angeles to spend some time with my family. We went out to dinner that night and my Father, Eddie and I sat at one end of the table and Eddie regaled me with stories of their youth and how much respect he had for my father. I found I rather liked this man instantly. But, at the time, I don’t remember he and my Father looking that much alike. Sure, there were similarities, but not like tonight.

I got to spend some time with Eddie tonight and I look forward to spending more time with him over this weekend. It was really incredible listening to him talk about my Father and getting the chance to tell him about the man I loved and admired. Oh, and getting to hear him talk about his time in World War II was incredibly special. I became emotional a number of times while talking with him, noticing the similarities between he and my father. It’s not just that they have a similar look, but Eddie’s mannerisms, his sense of humor, his body language, it’s all quite remarkable how alike they are to my Father’s.

Eddie and my Father drifted apart in their adult years. In my lifetime I only know of two times that my Father saw his brother in person. Once during that time I mentioned above, another time when my Father went home to Cincinnati to spend some time with his Sister and Brother. How is it two men, who spent so much time apart in their adult life, can still have so much in common?

I guess this is all a long-winded way of saying I had one of those moments tonight. I’m absolutely elated that my Uncle Eddie came out for my Father’s memorial. It means so much.

Well, I didn’t watch the Golden Globes tonight. I didn’t even TiVo them. I instead opted to have dinner with people I like than watch the awards show that people usually make fun of. Plus I already have two hours of “24″ to watch and really didn’t need to add something else to the TV watching schedule. That being said, I always am interested in the results.

Right out of the gate, big congratulations to Steve Carell of “The Office” for winning the Globe for “Best Performance By An Actor In A Television Series – Musical or Comedy” (big breatttthhh!). This is a well deserved win for the actor who, against the odds, made the character his own after having to follow in the big shoes of Ricky Gervais of the British version. Carell’s start has risen in a fantastically unexpected way, but I think those who have been watching him on “The Daily Show” knew he was capable of this. The last episode of “The Office,” where in he Foreman grills his foot, was another in a long line of winners for the show.

Going down the list (and skipping over the categories I don’t care about or simply didn’t see anything that was nominated), I’m please to see “Walk The Line” take a handful of awards. Nice to see George Clooney get some recognition for his unbelievably hard and outstanding work as of late. Also very pleased to see “Munich” not win anything as it’s just not a good movie (good performances, but quite poor direction and script. The ending, my God that was bad.). “Lost” winning “Best Television Series – Drama” is also well deserved, although the competition really wasn’t there (I can’t believe “Commander In Chief” was even nominated).

Geena Davis winning “Best Performance By An Actress In A Television Series – Drama” over Glenn Close’s performance on “The Shield” is simply retarded. Close not only kicked ass, took names and shoved them down the throats of perps on “The Shield,” she raised the level of acting amongst the rest of the cast. Stupid foreign press jackasses clearly don’t get the FX cable network.

I’m pleased Hugh Laurie won “Best Performance By An Actor In A Television Series – Drama” for “House.” While I’m not a huge fan of the show (the formula bored me), his performance is great. Even if it means Matthew Fox of “Lost” got snubbed, but there’s always next year.

I would have liked to see “Weeds” win for “Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy,” but instead it went to the category’s #1 show, “Desperate Housewives.” Mary-Louise Parker winning “Best Performance By An Actress In A Television Series – Musical or Comedy” for “Weeds” makes up for it, though. What a phenomenal show that is.

Finally, while I didn’t expect they’d win, I really was hoping Kelly MacDonald and Bill Nighy would win the “Best Performance in a Mini-Series or TV Movie” categories for “The Girl in the Café” (which I blogged about here in July). Nice to see them both get some recognition, at the very least.

There you have it. Man, am I glad I didn’t watch it. There’s a full list of the nominees and winners up here.

Saturday afternoon I returned to Los Angeles from a fantastic two-day business trip in Montreal, Canada. It was a quick trip that involved little sleep, but very much worth it.

Right before noon on Saturday, Air Canada Flight #797 from Montreal landed at Los Angeles International Airport. I got off my plane and made my way to baggage claim eager to pick up my luggage, hop on the shuttle bus to the Parking Spot and make my way home as quickly as possible. I only got three hours sleep the night before, so a nap was high on my priority list.

I arrived at baggage claim and the carousel was already running. “Great,� I thought to myself. “This means they’ve already started to unload bags and I should be out of here quickly.� Twenty minutes go by and my bag is no where to be seen. Not only am I missing a bag, but so are about 15-20 other passengers. The begin asking each other, “What do we do now? Did you get any of your bags? Where do we go?�

This one French-Canadian lady and I kinda palled up and decided that we were going to get to the bottom of this. I led the way to the Air Canada baggage claim desk. There were two old ladies sitting there, who will from here on out be referred to as Old Grumpy Bitch #1 and Old Grumpy Bitch #2, both of whom clearly didn’t want to work. They didn’t acknowledge us as we walked in. It’s not as if they were hard at work on anything else because one was reading a magazine while the other had some romance novel shoved right in her face. So, I say, “It appears my bag and a whole bunch of other passengers bags didn’t show up.� OGB #1 says, looking up slowly from her Fabio covered Pulitzer prize winner, “Have you checked the oversized baggage carousel? Sometimes bags show up over there.� Fine, the French-Canadian lady and I made our way over to the oversized carousel, with every other passenger with missing bags in tow. The bags were no where to be found.

About 45 seconds after we left the Air Canada baggage claim desk area we re-entered the room and I said to OGB #1, “Well, our bags definitely haven’t showed up.�

“Have you checked the oversized baggage carousel? Sometimes bags show up over there.�

I wanted to say, “Bitch, exactly how much do you hate your job? You just told me to do that 45 seconds ago!� Instead I responded, “Uhhh, you just told us to do that a minute ago and we’re telling you our bags haven’t shown up and neither have the bags for a whole lot of other people.�

Suddenly the OGBs woke up from the reality nap and OGB #2 said to OGB #1, “I suppose I could check upstairs.� You do that! YOU DO THAT!

We soon discover that all the bags have been offloaded and the plane has pushed back from the gate. The bags never arrived. Suddenly the OGBs who clearly hated their jobs, and their lives, began to fill out forms as the room filled with 20 angry passengers. This one Asian woman was quite irate, concerned she was going to miss her pick-up at the airport, screaming about how she had a meeting at 8:00 AM Sunday morning, then was off to China on Tuesday and what was she expected to do. Now, the right way to respond in that sort of situation would be, “Ma’am, we’re so sorry for the delay and the problems this has caused you. Let’s fill out some forms and see what we can do to assist you tomorrow.� Naturally, that’s not how they responded and OGB #2 said, “Ma’am, it’s not as if I lost your bag. It’s not my fault.� At that moment OGB #2 earned the title of OGC and no, I’m not going to say what that stands for. If you can’t figure it out on your own, you’re just not a bitter enough person to understand..

As of Saturday afternoon I have made the decision to never fly Air Can-A-Duh again and the once fine nation of Canada has been placed at the very top of my Top 10 Most Hated Nations list. You should know, getting off that list isn’t easy.

UPDATE – There just happens to be a Hollywood ending to this story. At 6:00 PM Sunday afternoon, my lost luggage arrived at my home via courier. My favorite pairs of jeans, my phone charger and some dirty underwear found their way to the comfort of my home. Air Canada will no longer be referred to as Air Can-A-Duh and the nation of Canada has been removed from my Most Hated Nations list. The Chad is now at the top of my list, simply because any country with an article before its name is to be hated (except The Netherlands — because they have Amsterdam — and The United Kingdom — because I love the British).

Since late November, I’ve been desperately trying to find myself a maid. Wait, scratch that, house keeper. I’m told calling people who clean your house “maid” is no longer polite. House keeper is the new vernacular. What’s so wrong with maid?

The search for a house keeper has been interesting one. I first asked amongst my friends for recommendations, but that was a no-go. So, I checked out the listings on Craigslist. The listings there were an odd assortment. I was surprised by the number of men listing their availability to clean house … nude! Clearly their cleaning service comes with, at the very least, additional scenery for those who might find it attractive and/or a happy ending. This client wasn’t interested.

I specifically didn’t want a professional cleaning service as it usually costs 30-50% more than if you just go with an individual. You can tell from the writing styles on Craigslist which ads are for services and which are individuals. After some considerable searching I found a woman named Jenny that seemed suited to my needs (i.e. her good English more than made up for my almost non-existent grasp of the Spanish language). We spoke and made plans for her to come out and clean my apartment.

On the day Jenny was to come out to my house, she called to reschedule. I was disappointed, maybe even slightly annoyed, but she was available the next day and that would work OK

The next day she called me to say she was running a little late and would arrive at 10:00 as opposed to the scheduled 9:00. That pissed me off because I knew she wouldn’t be able to finish my entire house before noon, the time she told me she’d have to leave to go to another client. I told her to come anyway and do what she could. Sshe showed up at 10:15, finished the master bathroom and the kitchen and then left at noon, leaving her sweater behind. At least she got something done. We made plans for her to come back the following Friday.

The following week my my father died, so I cancelled the appointment and told her I’d reschedule. She understood and that was the last I ever spoke to her.

I called a week later to reschedule and left a message, but she never returned my call. I called a week after that, thinking she might be on vacation, but there was no answer and another message was left. Right after Christmas I called her again, reminded her that she left her sweater here and informed her that if I didn’t hear from her by the new year I’d call someone else. She never called, I gave her sweater to Goodwill and moved on. The flakiness annoyed me. I should have known from day one she wasn’t going to work out.

I started to scour Craigslist again, dodging the weird “I’ll clean your house nude and lick it for you” ads. I found another woman who seemed nice. In her ad it said she went to my part of Los Angeles. I called and left her a message. We ended up playing phone tag went for two days when finally she reached me. We talked price, time and size (of the apartment, you dick weeds) and made plans for her to come out the following Friday. She asked for my address, I gave it to her and she said, “Ohhhhhhhhh, you so farrrrrrrr!” Her reaction was as if I lived in the Saharan desert and I expected her to commute all the way from California. Annoyed, I hung up and went back to Craigslist.

I sifted through another 10 or so “I’ll clean your house nude and sift through your ‘garbage’ when I’ve finished” ads and finally found a nice woman named Letty. She and her husband clean homes together, which means the job would be done that much faster. Great. We talked price and made plans for her to come out Monday at 2:00 PM.

By 3:00 PM there was no Letty. I called and another message was left. Seems she got held over at her day job (she works at a grocery store) and couldn’t call because she left my number at home. Fine, no worries, but now there was the issue of LA traffic. She was going to leave Marina Del Rey at 3:30, which meant she had an hour to 1.5 hour trek across LA in traffic to my house. She said she still wanted to do it, so off she went. At 5:00 she finally showed.

Two hours later Letty and her husband finished up and were on their way home. I liked her. She was sweet, professional and very contrite (the number of times she apologized for being late became silly) and both she and her husband did a fine job. She told me she’d been at this house cleaning thing for a year, now. She’s worked at the grocery store for five years and when the SoCal grocery stores all went on strike at the end of 2004, she suddenly found herself without any work or money. So she and her husband started cleaning homes and decided to keep doing it well past the strike, just in case. She said the contract she’s under is up for renewal in 2007 and she’d rather not be caught in the same situation twice.

It looks like I have finally found a house keeper I can rely on. I think. I just want a clean home and don’t have time/want to do it myself. Is that too much to ask?

There’s no other creature in the ocean that makes me crap my Jockey’s quite like the octopus. It’s one of most alien looking creatures in the world and I’m not entirely convinced it’s meant to be here.

Science Fiction writers like to entertain us with stories of alien invasions with weird looking creatures sent to earth to destroy mankind. We all know its just fiction and the likelihood of an alien invasion anytime soon is slim, but stop for a moment and consider the octopus. Eight tentacles with little suckers on ‘em. Weird looking bug fucking eyes. They creep and crawl around on the ocean floor like the undersea hoodlums they are. Can we really be certain they’re native to our planet? I mean, look at those things! They’re scary ass bitches!

Now, go watch how this octopus eats a fucking shark live.

Next time I have sushi, I’m totally ordering octopus. I have declared war on the eight-legged alien invader one order at a time. I’ll probably get the giant clam, too, cuz it’s good eating. Oh and some halibut. Unagi’s always good. Maybe a specialty roll or two. And plenty of ginger and wasabi, you gotta have that.

I pray the octopus doesn’t sprout legs and come after me anytime soon. That would suck.

I realize this is posted a little late, but I’ve been busy.

I’m not one to keep a personal journal. As livejournal and blogging have taken off, so has journaling of ones life, but I’ve never gotten into that. I have no hard and fast rules about it, I just don’t do it. I actually like reading the journals of people who spill every little detail of their life on the Internet. All the minutiae and scandal. The voyeur in me loves it. It’s just that I don’t do it.

But it’s at a time like right now where I wish I did keep a journal of my day-to-day activities as I sit down to write this short reflection of what 2005 was like for me. Now, keep in mind, I’m a rather private person in many ways. Sure, amongst my friends I’m an open book, but I’ve never felt comfortable sharing every intimate detail of my life with the people “out there,” nor have I really felt people would or should be all that interested. With that in mind, I offer the following.

2005 was a very mixed bag of a year for me. It contained some unbelievable highs and almost unbearable lows. It was a year of flux, in many ways, in that I didn’t really make any plans or set any goals for 2005. The end of 2004 was tough for me (my father’s health started a deep decline in 2004 which affected my every move) and thinking forward to 2005 was something I wasn’t really capable of doing. I simply wasn’t in the right headspace for that to happen.

Let’s deal with the negatives of 2005 first so that we can end on a high note. The most tragic moment for me in 2005 (and in my life) came on December 8th when my Father died. I’ve never dealt with significant loss before. In high school a guy I knew died, but I wasn’t too close to him. Five years ago an old co-worker of mine died, but I wasn’t that close to him either. I’ve known friends who’ve had to deal with loss on this scale before, but never knew how to relate. I always felt uncomfortable saying anything, feeling anything I said would simply be ponderous under the circumstances. Now I have a distinct understanding of what they went through and understand how even a quick phone call to check in goes a long way in the– while it’s a cliché, it’s also very true– healing process. The e-mails, phone calls and condolence cards all really meant a lot. Before now, it never even occurred to me to send a condolence card. It’s amazing how a simple handwritten note reminds you that there are people out there thinking of you at a time when you’re at your lowest.

One of the other big negatives of 2005 comes with some huge positives. On December 6th, two days before my Father died, my Mother went into the hospital to have exploratory surgery– her cancer was back. She had cancer three years ago and successfully beat it, but as is often the nature with these things, it returned. The great news, though, is that it was caught very early, exists on a microscopic level and she’s already undergoing chemotherapy treatment and all indications are that it’s very treatable. She may have to go through this again, then again she may not. We don’t know. What we do know is that it’s being addressed and the Doctors are very positive. So, some good with the bad there. What made it all worse, especially for my Mom, is that my Father passed away during all this, further ratcheting up the emotional response we all had and continue to have.

Outside of those two events I can think of only one other moment that resulted in my wanting to exact severe levels of pain on something, someone or anything in the world. As most of you know, one of the two businesses I run is Comic Book Resources, the largest comics magazine on the Internet. This past July saw the annual Comic-Con International take place in San Diego, of which CBR would be providing coverage as usual. On the morning of the fourth day of the convention, the CBR server took a dump. You can read all the nasty details here. It was one of those “perfect storm” type situations. The timing was just awful. It was a painful 24-48 hours or so, but ultimately both I and CBR survived.

Outside of those three events (the third clearly being of less importance in the face of the other news), I can’t think of anything else that was a huge set-back for myself. There were your general ups and downs, but nothing I can of that’s worth mentioning.

On the other hand, there were some great moments for me in 2005, most of which involved travel. I think it’s clear that travel is something that really should be a regular part of my life.

In February I flew off to Montreal to visit the set of the upcoming Darren Aronofsky film “The Fountain.” You can read CBR’s coverage of the visit here and here. While I’ve visited the sets of sitcom’s before, I’ve never visited a feature film set before and absolutely enjoyed every moment of it. The experience was a great one. Not only was this the first time I’ve visited a feature film set, but this trip also included a number of other firsts for me:

• This was the first time I visited Canada.
• It was the first time I experienced snow fall. I’ve visited snowy regions before, gone skiing in its icy coldness, but never have I seen the snow fall from the sky. My first night in Montreal it snowed and all those things I’ve heard about snowfall were proven true: the quiet, serenity of a new snowfall is a wonderful thing indeed.
• It was the first time I’ve ever flown on a plane that needed to be de-iced. Going through de-icing is equal parts calming and stress inducing. It’s nice to know they’re removing the ice so as to allow the plan to fly, but of course the question comes to mind, “If there’s ice on the plane, should we really be flying at all?” This of course is coming from a complete novice in the “flying during snowy weather” camp, so that’s simply a first reaction to something that’s rather common place in today’s world.

Later in the year I flew to London for another set visit, this time to check out the March debuting film “V For Vendetta.” Unfortunately those reports are embargoed until the end of January, so I can’t discuss the set visit itself, but the trip was fantastic. I had my trip extended by a couple of days so that I could spend some time in my second favorite city in the world. I got to return to Camden Town for some shopping, explored London via the Jack The Ripper walk, took in a great many sites and visited with my friend Rich.

Now, some time ago I had contemplated the idea of moving to London for three months just for the hell of it. I work the kind of job that allows me to work from almost anywhere, as long as I have a broadband connection. I fell in love with London during my 2003 visit and figured spending some more time there would be a great idea. But the trip in 2005, done completely alone, pointed out to me just how alone I would be in that city were I to move there for three months. Sure, I’d probably make friends quickly and know some people there already, but I really would be alone and I’m not quite sure I’d be into that. One day I’m sure I’ll spend some extended time in London, but I don’t expect I’ll be doing it alone or on a whim. There needs to be a purpose to it other than “just to do it.”

The other huge moment for me in 2005 had to be my recent visit to China. China wasn’t on my list of places to visit, but when my younger sister Sharon asked me if I’d like to go with her, I couldn’t resist the opportunity. It was an amazing trip filled with long-lasting memories. It’s one of those trips you’ll never forget and I’m glad I got to do it with Sharon.

All told, my travels in 2005 were a lot of fun. The cities I visited include Montreal, San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, London, Hong Kong and Beijing. The sad part is I had to turn down a trip to Australia and a second trip to San Francisco. In 2006 I plan on increasing my travels, hopefully making a trip down to Australia and New Zealand, as well as a return trip to London at some point. We’ll see how things settle out.

Outside of those trips, the rest of the year wasn’t too bad. Both CBR and my hosting businesses had their ups and downs, but by years end everything was positive and there are good things to come on both fronts. Personally my life is well, having fostered existing friendships, made some great new ones and culling a few that no longer fit right.

One thing I learned about myself this year is that I need to get back to a more creative place in my life. Six years ago I left radio to work for myself. It’s not a decision I regret, but by leaving radio I found myself in more of an administrative position compared to my previous creative position as Producer of the Phil Hendrie radio show. While working with Phil wasn’t always flowers and candy, it was the most creative time of my life and one of the most personally rewarding. I think back to those days of creativity and know I need to return to that level of fun and excitement again. I lost some of that wonder and need to rediscover it.

Naturally there were a great many other events that occurred in 2005, but either they’re of a nature too personal for me to share, or I simply can’t remember them anymore. Any way you look at it, 2005 was a mixed bag for me. I’m hoping 2006 is filled with more highs than lows. Now it’s time for me to plan my method of attack in 2006. I’m confident it’ll be a good one.