Friday, August 24, 2012

Chapter 64 - August 21, 2012

"You must work Mr. Brian.  You must not fool around.  You must work," he said with a heavy Japanese voice.  I used to work for the Japanese a lot.  I have one client in particular that didn't like me to joke around so much.  I used to love to play practical jokes.  People used to play practical jokes on me.  I figure it was a good way to loosen everyone up and just to have a good time.  One thing I did was I had a book of scares.  It was a book of photographs I did when the model was getting ready to shoot, I would lower a spider onto her shoulder or I would pull a fake snake out of the bushes.  Or I would use a fake rat.  The results were perfect.  The girls would scream and right when they would scream I'd do a polaroid.  These polaroids, if they were good enough, they made the cover of the film case we had.  It was quite a collection of scares.  Going back to the Japanese client, they once took me to Tokyo to do a photo shoot. It was unbelievable. I could go on and on with story after story.  It makes that movie, "Lost in Translation" seem simple. I had a good time though. I can't put any of the stories on this blog.  I might get in trouble.  I will tell one story:  I was in Los Angeles at a photographic shoot with this Japanese client. We were on our last shot and I was in a parking lot shooting around cars. When we got done, the sun set and I went "Yippee, we're done. Thanks everybody, it was a good day." Everyone but the client was cheering. I look over and I see the client with the stylist.  They had a garment bag and their heads were bowed.  They said, "Mr. Brian, you have one more photo for today."  I said, "Look man, the sun is gone, we're done."  He said, "I hear you, Mr. Brian, but you have one more photo, please."  I didn't know what to do cause this was a daytime shoot.  I had no lights.  So I said, "All right, let me see the outfit."  It was a raincoat, metallic grey, a 3/4 trench coat.  I thought for a second I said all right, get the girl dressed.  So the girl got dressed and I got every car we had and I surrounded her with all the vehicles, turned on their lights and lit her up.  I was pointing my camera to the setting sun.  I thought to myself, this is crazy, but you know what, the shot looked pretty cool.  Anyway, it was a little mini adventure.  Now I see where they got the term, "a deer in the headlights."

I'm gonna talk a little bit about Traumatic Brain Injury.  You know, this week was a mark of an anniversary.  It was exactly 3 years ago that I had a brain bleed.  I had 2 brain surgeries, 5 operations, 4 serious seizures, all in a row.  I've been in the ICU 3 times.  I've been to the emergency room 3 times.  I've gone through rehabilitation 3 times.  My friend says, 3 seems to be the magic number.  It's true.  The point is, I've gone through a lot, but you know, each time is different.  Even though I had a brain bleed on the brain stem, each time I had different results, so the point is, even if you're diagnosed with the same thing, you may have different results. They're all dramatically different.  Right now, it seems to be taking me longer to heal.  I've been getting better, no doubt, but it just takes a long time.  Oh yeah, having a divorce and having your kid taken from you doesn't help either.  But I'll get by.  You gotta keep yourself distracted, like my photo show I just did.  It went really well.  I'm going to attach a link to an article that was done on the show.  It's a pretty good article.  I hope you read it.  http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012308110049&nclick_check=1

I was sitting here trying to think up a story to tell you, but I got so many stories left, I don't know where to begin.  It's been pretty crazy up until now.  I had a remarkable life.  I spent pretty close to 3 years lying on my back thinking about things.  Thinking about stories and memories.  That will get you through the tough times.  So when you're in a bad way, think about something from the past.  Even something happy.  You know, I always talk about funny things that happened to me, my adventures, but I saw plenty of amazing things, beautiful things that I'll never see again.  You know, like amazing sunrises, amazing sunsets.  But, you know, you can go all over the world and look for beauty, but sometimes it's right in front of you.  You just have to take time to look.  Hell, I'm kind of forced to look.  I'm stuck in this wheelchair staring at a freakin' tree all afternoon.  It's a pretty tree though.  Anyway, that's about it for this week.  I'm glad I made it through the week without any problems.  It seems that whenever I have an anniversary, something happens.  So, maybe my friend here is right, it's progress.  And I'll see you guys next week.  Love, B. Nice

P.S.  Here's a drawing.  I draw a star, a heart for my daughter and a circle every day.  See you next week.

P.P.S.  It's official.  I'm one step above a corpse.  I was sitting in my parent's kitchen looking out the window when I felt a slight pressure in my left nostril.  Remember, my face is numb from the operations.  Anyway, I felt pressure in my nose so I got a tissue to blow my nose.  I blew my nose, and you know what came out?  A fly.  It did a loop T loop and flew away.  How depressing is that?

2 comments:

  1. My beautiful friend, I wish I could be there right with you to hold you, to hug you to tell you how much I love you, your friendship your laughter, just you you you. We have known each other so many years. I wish that you can feel my fairy wings wrap themselves around you to keep you safe and cherished. heartfelt blessings Sharon xxx

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  2. Sorry to learn what you have been going through Brian..thinking of you & of course remembering all the fun years in beautiful locations..with 24hr reggae tunes...wishing you a strong recovery xxx April

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