rise’s Neighborhood

Lots of new things this month.

• New girlfriend...well technically that's April news
• New eye-glasses...man I needed frames so bad. Super glue can only do so much mending.
• New tattoo...second one is getting done this Saturday.
• New digital camera...finally took the plunge into the SLR world.

Oops I forgot all about this site. I guess between microblogging over at Twitter or posting content to my own website I neglected VOX. Well here...enjoy this time lapse video I made a few weekends ago when I put up a rasterbated image of an owl in my office. Took a little over two hours to complete.

Kadence stared blankly at the divorce papers that laid infront of her. She couldn't believe he had actually gone through with it. He had threatened to do it so many times but always came running back to her. If she signed those papers, she would no longer be Mrs. Elliot Carlson. Could she honestly live with that?

Kadence set the divorce papers on the kitchen table. She had a long day working at the Candy Packing Factory and didn't want to take the time to worry about the divorce papers. She drew herself a bath and grabbed a few essentials. She slowly undressed and lit a few candles before climbing in. She rested her head against the back of the tub, the bubbly water just touching her chin. She began to relax and she couldn't help but think about all the problems in her life.

Her mind drifted to where her problems began. Her family, if that's what she could even call them.

Kadence couldn't remember herself ever being a happy child. Her parents only had three children, Kadence being the middle one. She remembered her parents spoiling her siblings to pieces. Kadence always felt it was her fault. Her parents never gave her any reason to think otherwise.

Kadence had always looked up to her older brother Aaron. She always wanted to be like him and remembered following him around so much that he just took her under his wing. When he was fifteen and Kadence was thirteen they began to get into trouble. Most of the time it was minor things and they got grounded for a week here and a week there, but Kadence remembered the time they did something horrible. Well, horrible to their parents. Only the consequences were different this time.

"Come on Kadence." Aaron whispered.

"Where are we going?" She whispered back.

"Shhh, do you want mom or dad to hear us?" He seemed agitated.

"No."

"Just follow me."

At this time Kadence was fifteen. She followed him out of the house and around to the backyard. They walked through their neighbors backyard and out onto the street behind their house.

"Aaron, where are we going?" Kadence was having a hard time keeping up with her brother.

"We're almost there." He reached for her hand and tugged her along. "Just up there."

He had taken her to his bestfriend's tree house.

"What are we doing here?"

"I just wanted to get away from the house."

"Why? What's this big secret you have?"

"This."

Aaron pulled a white stick resembling a cigarette out of his pocket.

"A cigarette? What did you do, steal it from mom?"

"Oh Kadence, you are so naive." He laughed. "It's weed. You know, pot, marijuana."

"Aaron, where did you get that?"

"Jason."

"So he said you could come smoke it in his tree house."

"No, but I didn't want mom and dad to find out. Besides, I just want you to try it."

"Have you already?"

"Yes."

Kadence thought about it for a minute but decided not to. Aaron and her fought over it for almost twenty minutes before he gave up and dragged her home so they wouldn't get caught by their parents. They snuck back into the house and into their respective rooms. And that was the last time that Kadence could ever trust anyone in her family.

The next morning Kadence went about her business as usual. She figured they had gotten away with sneaking out like they did every other time. When Kadence walked into the kitchen her mother, father, and brother were sitting at the kitchen table.

"I think you'd like to take a seat with us Kadence Marie." Her mother spoke.

"Sure." She was confused. "What's going on?" She looked to her brother for an answer in his eyes. He couldn't even look at her.

"We want to know everything you know about this." Her father placed the joint on the table.

Her eyes darted back and forth between the members of her family. She felt the blood rush to her cheeks. "Why are you asking me? What about Aaron, he's not innocent in all this, in fact, I'm way more innocent than he is."

"Oh you think so?" Her mother said. "Why is that?"

"He's the one that's smoked it before. He was trying to get me to, but I wouldn't."

"I wish you wouldn't lie to us." Her father said, disappointed. "We found this in your coat pocket Kadence and Aaron told us everything."

"And what is everything?"

"Don't raise your voice at me." Her mother scolded. "We found the joint in your pocket and asked Aaron if he knew what was going on, We knew we could get the truth from him and that you would deny it. It's horrible that you would try to get your brother to do drugs Kadence. I thought better of you. Now you're grounded for a month. No tv, no phone, no friends... nothing."

Kadence sat there in disbelief. Not only did her brother lie to their parents about her but her parents were taking her brothers' side without even considering hers.

From then on out, nothing was the same. Kadence got blamed for anything that Aaron did and her younger sister Brandy was just the spoiled little baby of the family. Kadence began spending a lot of time by herself and barely talked to anyone in her family. She had no friends. Everyday when she went to school, she talked to no one, payed attention in her classes if she felt like it and then went home and locked herself in her room. Her family always told her she was a bad influence on her younger sister and Aaron didn't seem like he wanted anything to do with her after that night. Kadence took it upon herself to stop eating with the family and noticed that after a few weeks, there wasn't even a spot set for her. Nothing in her life seemed worth living.

Kadence snapped back to reality. The reality she was in now and slid her whole body under the water. She stayed down there for a moment and then emerged her head above the water and took a deep breath. Drowning was certainly not the way she wanted to go. She was always a dramatic person. At least she always remembered being one. Especially when she met the reason she now lived for...

Elliott Carlson.

She met him a month before her brother left for boot camp and they fell in love immediately. She felt like she finally had something to live for. Him. They were inseperable until her parents caught them having sex and then they were banned from seeing each other. That didn't stop Kadence of course. She snuck out night after night to see him until her parents kicked her out of the house for not obeying their rules. She didn't care, as long as it meant that she could be with Elliott.
They crashed at his older sisters place for awhile and Kadence couldn't of been happier. Everything seemed to fall into place now. All she needed was him. He was what she lived for.

They had met at her job when she was seventeen and him twenty. He had come in to get his lip pierced and she was the one that sold the jewelry. After a three year relationship, they got married. And from then on out it was a downward spiral. They moved out on their own and lived off of him working construction and her working at The Candy Packing Factory. Her hours were always overnight and she would come home at 1 am. Her late nights would mean she would come home to a very drunk Elliott. And a very drunk Elliott meant a very bruised Kadence.

She never blamed Elliott for any of it and always felt it was her fault. She was so used to taking the blame. She was his punching bag but as long as he was still there for her, she didn't care. She loved him with all her heart. But their marriage only lasted two years.

Kadence reached her hand out of the water and wiped away the tears that were now flowing from her eyes. She never thought that Elliott would go through with his threats of divorce. But the papers had come in the mail earlier in the week and that made everything final.

They hadn't seen each other in two weeks and Kadence was shocked to have the papers come so quickly. He was really serious and this broke her heart. She figured he would come back before the papers ever came. But now she knew that he meant his threats and he didn't want to be with her anymore. He wanted someone else. Kadence drained a little water from the tub and ran some more hot water because she was getting cold. She began to relax again and the arguement she had with Elliott the last time she saw him invaded her mind.

Kadence quietly walked into her apartment. If Elliott was still awake, she didn't want him to hear her come in. Sometimes after work she would grab some food, just to prolong coming home and tonight was one of those nights. She was unsuccessful and Elliott began yelling before Kadence reached the living room.

"Where the hell have you been?" He screamed right in her face.

"Elliott! How many times do I have to tell you?" Kadence screamed back. "Sometimes after work I go get food!"

"Yeah right, food, is that what they call it these days?" His arm swung back and before Kadence knew it, her cheek felt warm. She brought her hand up to her cheek.

"That's what they've always called it." Tears streamed down her face. "I wish you would stop accusing me of cheating on you."

"I'm not accusing. I know." He pushed her against the wall.

"No you don't Elliott. Now will you calm down and we can talk about this rationally?" Kadence said this everytime in hopes that it would work.

"Too late Bitch." He pushed her again and this time she fell back on the floor. He kicked her a couple times and then began laughing.

"What the hell is your problem?"

"Looks like I'm having the last laugh. You've been out having fun with all your other men and so have I. Only I've found someone. Someone I love way more than you."

Her heart sank. Did he really mean what he was saying?

"Elliott, no, don't lie to me."

"I'm not the one lieing here Kadence. Forget you. I found someone so much better than you." She watched Elliott walk over to the couch and pick up his suitcase. "I'll be back when you're out with your men to get the rest of my things. I can't do this anymore. We're getting a divorce."

Kadence curled up into a ball and cried her eyes out. She fell asleep amidst her tears and woke up the next morning wondering what was going on. When she remembered it all she didn't believe it. But he had threatened divorce before and always came running back to her. She counted on that. She just knew it had to happen.

When Kadence came back from her thoughts the water was cold again. She noticed her skin was showing an effect from being in the water so long and her eyes were dry from crying. She couldn't do this. There was no way she could lose his name. He was the only one who loved her all her life and now he wanted to be gone from it.

Kadence reached for her towel and knocked her pants off of the chair next to the tub. Her box cutter fell out of her pocket. She must have forgotten to leave it at work. It was a sign. She took a deep breath. Now was the time. She knew it was long overdue. She reached for the box cutter and slowly slid the blade out into view. She was going to do this and she was going to do this right. She placed the edge of the blade against her wrist and pressed down. A virtical line of blood formed a trail behind the blade. Tears flowed from her eyes more than before and she brought the blade down to her other wrist.

When she was satisfied with her cuts, she dropped the box cutter into the water and laid back, watching the water turn crimson.

I've just been blogging on my personal website instead of double posting junk here.
Also I do more of the micro blog thing now via the Twitter.
I was always a fragmented thinker so this medium works nicely.

If you care check them out and subscribe to my feeds.
I've pretty much phased Vox out...but I do still read my Neighborhood in my favorite newsreader...Google Reader.

http://mademistakes.com
http://twitter.com/anotherjpeg

I bet no one on here went to work today, yesterday... or any day... and had your boss tell you that he was going to rip your face off and shit down your throat!!! Cause I sure did!!! hahaha. My boss is a kidder and treats everyone like family, therefore... joking around like family!

His daughter is the Office Manager/my other boss I guess.. and she goes ... "how does it feel?".. then "that means he likes you!".. she grew up with him joking around like that! hahaha. so hilarious!

The marketing buzz and hype did it for me. I broke down and bought Halo 3 on my way home from work today. I've never played a Halo game before and had to see for myself (so I can justify my reasons when I make fun of all the jerks who love FPS games) why everyone has gone ape-shit over this series. Gave into the hype for Bioshock (another FPS) which I absolutely loved for it's excellent art direction and story, so I figured maybe I'd love Halo 3 if I gave it a chance.

Well for starters I only played the first chapter of campaign and one deathmatch online. The graphics are nice but Gears of War it's not—sick of hearing that comparison yet?. So far I don't really see what is so amazing about this series, maybe I'll be proven wrong in later chapters. You run around, jump, and shoot at aliens. Oooooh never did that before. Gag.

From what I've read the story isn't all that involved, but I'm sure it's way better if you have an investment in the characters from playing the first two games—I don't. With that all said this game could be pretty fun if some of my friends pick it up and we do 4 player co-op online. I actually enjoyed my one game of Slayer because I dominated for once. I'm sure that'll be short lived once I'm paired up with the 12 yr olds who will proceed to PWN me.

The community aspects of this game might just hook me. When you pull up your friends' profiles in the Xbox blade, you see all kinds of new options. You can see whose in your friends' party, there game stats, there videos, and all kinds of other stuff. Didn't really monkey around with it much but bungie.net links up with your profile and has a wealth of stats. I think you can even view your high res photos and movies you post from within the game. That could really fun.

So who is going to pick this up and play with me?

Wahoo! It's my birthday! And It's already been the most amazing ever!! I can't wait to see what else happens!! :)

and most photogenic cat ever!!!

I tells funny jokes!

Gosh, you can't help but smile! I love that he looks like he's laughing.