Journal update
The notgood link below is a 7 second clip of flooding, if you see that you can probably just skip all of my ramblings below it. You will get the drift…
Fetishcon was this past weekend. I skipped out because I don’t really shoot for other companies anymore and I don’t like to shoot for my site in that hotel room so it would have been a very costly summer trip to Tampa and irresponsible but as luck would have it I promised the fella from girdlebound that I would hand deliver the goods to the event which he always has a booth at and that I would provide someone to set up and take down the booth (as I am under contract to buy him out) because he still wanted to attend the event and pedal the goods to his model model friends even though the event loses money for the company. It was an agreement we made when I decided to buy the company. So I didn’t go but I was still obligated to send 300 lbs worth of lingerie there and pay people to set up the booth, oh and all of the items had to be priced and then taken out from inventory…so this was still a very costly and time consuming event for me, even though I was not in attendance. When I decided to take over the company I had planned on going for a great party and networking, but things changed after the studio flooded last month. It was a reality check thus we fixed a leaky roof, had the brick in back tuck pointed, new gutters, a cement slab, asphalt to ease the water away from the building, new block windows where some had broken, new sump pump installed so shit got expensive and fast after an already costly year.
I wanted to be at Fetishcon and was determined not to work so I took off late Friday night to to our boat and planned to return Monday am. It didn’t work for two seasons, July of this year was our first time really out on it. There was a great event called the Muscamoot Bay Raft Off. I had a great time hanging out with my friends from my previous life in the automotive industry (who oddly enough didn’t abandon me the way my childhood friends did) and the weather was spectacular. When we left there Monday am I was kind of happy that it was cool and rainy to ease back into all of the work that I had skipped out on over the weekend. I even got plenty of sleep. I think sunshine and then the waves lapping on the boat were extremely relaxing to my usual tense self. It poured the entire 45 minute ride back in the car. I was happy that all of the repairs we made were holding up beautifully when we reached the studio. My friends phoned to check in on the situation, but much to my dismay that ended abruptly when record breaking rain backed up the city sewer systems. At first we just started trying to block off the water from going into the finished area from where it was coming up. That didn’t matter….within two minutes there were 5 mini geysers rushing into our newly fixed basement from the sewers/ storm drains. At one time the fittings under the bar sink were spewing water too. It flooded fast and continued to rise for 6 hours, finally tapering off at where you see Tony standing in the water in the 7 second video above labeled not good (you don’t have to be a member to see it).
I had never stood by and watched something I love get destroyed like that. I stood there with it rising up over my ankles yelling, What is happening, what can I do? Of course there were no answers. It was overwhelming and confusing to watch. A 3000 sq ft space pushing up water from 5 places in the ground for hours… It is 7am now, 12 hours after the initial flooding and 34 thousand gallons of water down there haven’t drained much at all. I’m still awake and sitting at my desk dumbfounded.
I’m having a very shitty year.
My assistant came to my aid very calmly and helped me get stuff out of there that needed to get out of there (although very little has been replaced and or returned to the basement after the last issue). Eric Cain was on his way over anyway and quickly diverted to the hardware store for another pump and hose, but all those pumps going didn’t change a thing. They were both trapped at the studio until 1130pm when the highway to their cities opened back up.
Call me crazy but I love Detroit and the people and culture I found here in my mid 20s and so do most people that come to visit and do the right kind of visiting (hey I got Eric Cain, Tony/ gotcuffs, and Dixie Comet until she fell in love with an LA man to move here afterall…. ) I’ve spent time in A LOT of places over the years but I always miss it and come back. One of my favorite things (besides the super obvious you can live like a millionaire on 100 grand a year) has always been that we don’t suffer earthquakes, hurricanes, natural fires, tornados etc, etc….That changed today. I’ve never seen anything like it…the hospital in the town I have my home was flooded on its first floor, emergency room and they had to shut it down. It still hasn’t drained yet either. My home which is inbetween said hospital and the bank (studio) / new home has zero water in the basement, luckily. Based on my vanilla facebook account I see loads of other basements are flooded, peoples cars flooded out, or people started floating down the street in their cars, huge geysers in the middle of streets shooting up 30 feet oh and it goes on and on.
I guess I’m lucky. I’m trying to be optimistic. I am safe, my beloved vehicle is safe, my pets are safe, my family is safe etc, etc but I’m pretty tired of how shitty everything has been this year. Something has really gotta give. I just can not get ahead, let me rephrase that- I can not catch up. I can’t remember what it is like to wonder what I should do next, or to feel boredom, or to have moments that are not penciled in. I’m not one of those people that excel at being overwhelmed. Basically I’m just doing all things half assed. Nothing is the way I want it to be and I have zero other resources to fix this problem which is disconcerting because if I had to describe myself with 5 words resourceful would be one of the words.
Now to really sound like a girl….because I’ve taken on an unconventional career as a fetish porn person and show my boobs on the internet I’ve been abandoned by many of the people I’ve held dear since 2nd grade, especially upsetting is that many of them are very nearby. Most days it doesn’t bother me because I’ve made new friends since giving up my old life (resourceful) and they are all absolutely incredible. Somedays, like now when I’ve been up for 24 hours and I feel crappy I wish that those people hadn’t turned on me and that I hadn’t wasted so much energy on them over the years only to have been abandoned because I got tied up on the internet in 2006. I was honest with these so called people thinking they would be happy for me finding a new kind of happiness. It is no secret that even in my vanilla life I’m a little quirky and curious. Wrong-o I’m now a monster. I think especially because they are gone I wish I had other people with start up businesses, or businesses in general or such chaotic lives to bounce things off of, a peer group…but nope.
I’m certainly not suicidal, homicidal, or even depressed enough to warrant daily meds so no worries please. I have a very good grip on my own reality and I know that things could be a hell of a lot worse but they could be a hell of a lot better too.
Happy fucking Tuesday (fucking, which I accidentally said out loud on the telephone to my mother for the first time in my life Monday, oops)