Is this Washington state, or the State of Confusion?
Moving to Centralia was a difficult time for me. I struggled between secular and religious careers. I was effective in attracting finances in both arenas. Struggling to handle these sometimes opposing careers, while attempting to further my knowledge base by attempting to go to Centralia College and St. Paul's Free University concurrently, my family life began to deteriorate. After bringing three lovely children to this planet (Nathanial, Tabitha and Jaycie), my wife, Mary, and I ended up parting in the worst of circumstances. I further buried myself in my work at the Lincoln Media Arts Center and college.
Photo by Norman Claassen
Eternalight Studios
I found what seemed to be my perfect niche at a recording studio at Eternalight Studios. I was able to perform a wide variety of tasks. Producing, playing, doing over-dubs, track thickening, album cover design, back-up vocals, photography, etc... This made me a hot commodity. The beauty of it was, that I did get to meet some very famous (and in my opinion, legendary) recording artists. I loved to "trade work" with the artists. I would help on their recordings, if they would do a "bit" on mine. During my time there, I had compiled three professional albums, that I planned to release at a later date.
Photo by Roberta Henifin
Girl Trouble
I had always gotten attention from women while performing music, but now that I was single, I was having severe girl trouble. They came from everywhere. I didn't know who I could trust and who I couldn't. It was extremely difficult for me to sort through the lies. I would meet some girl, whom I thought was nice and I thought I could get romantically involved with, only to find out she was telling elaborate lies to her peers about us having a "realtionship." It seemed like so much HighSchool. Well, for all you girls out there who have a particular guy in your sites: Persistence pays off. One gal decided that she wanted me and she stuck it out. I fell in love with her, and I thought that she and I would be together forever.
Adventure
She was adventurous and romantic...and wishy-washy, too. In any case I got all caught-up in her whirlwind and we set off for Bellingham, Washington to continue our educations there. Relocation was also necessary, as increasing conflict with my divorce, entangled webs of deceit, and negotiating with the corrupt State of Washington over parenting issues, was placing undue stress on my relationship with our children and my ex-wife, Mary. (That's another story...)