Journey Inside My Mind ™

It’s not that I’ve just found this; it’s been sitting in our bookshelf collecting dust.

I’ve kept journals over the years, but the one I’ve held onto from high school – out of  all the ones I could have held onto – is this one from my junior year College Prep English class at Mount Healthy High School, with Mr. Burns.

Mr. Burns came into that class after first quarter of that year, replacing  a teacher that many kids and parents didn’t like. And he made us write. And write. And write some more.

One of the things he made us write was this journal. I always tried to figure out what to write, and he kept telling me that my entries were too much like a diary. As a teenager, and as an adult, I’ve used my writing as a way of searching out what goes on inside me.  This blog is called “Journey Inside My Mind”.

Finding and re-reading this journal provides a glimpse into who I was at 16-17, with all my insecurities and (although I wouldn’t have agreed at the time) immature thinking. But I see the promise of some things that have remained with me since that time.

One of the last entries in this journal is from Wednesday, May 20, 1987. We must have been talking about quotations, and Mr. Burns had charged us to come up with some of our own. Here’s what the young man I was at 17 came up with:

On bragging:

“We need more people who don’t open their mouths and put their “feats” in them.

On subjects:

It’s amazing that people are able to fail a subject in which our native tongue is taught.

On religion:

I have noticed that you pious people are always arguing. Why don’t you worry about convincing non-believers instead of each other?

On music:

Pleasant music annoints the soul and soothes the nerves.

On grades:

Grades are just labels which sometimes prove that school is not for learning. Too often a student would do anything to get a good grade, and sometimes that means not learning the material, remembering it, and being able to recall it.

On procrastination:

Procrastination is like acid. The only neutralizing agent is organization and timing.

On the opposite sex:

The perfect man / woman is an ideal. All men / women strive to be like him / her, but only a few ever succeed in the quest.

On the very last page, I found this quotation from one of my classmates:

To some a relationship is like tennis: after someone scores, it’s no longer love. — R. Combs

Image by danieljohnsonjr via Flickr

Whew! Ever feel glad the weekend was over so you could go back to work and rest? I almost feel that way. Here’s how last weekend went for us.

FRIDAY

Friday night after work, I stopped by the church building to pick Jennie and Keisha up from a preteen meeting. When got back home, I watched The Bourne Ultimatum while Jennie and Keisha did their thing.

SATURDAY

Saturday we went to our Weight Watchers meeting and then to the Baroque Violin Shop in College Hill to pick up a viola for Keisha. We then dropped her off at a friend’s house.

After this Jennie dropped me off at home, and she went to get a pedicure. I took a nap. When she came home, we watched TV for awhile and then got ready for my 20-year high school reunion.

The reunion was something that I and several others had been working on for several months. It was great to see all the hard work from everyone come together. But it was even greater to see so many folks that I hadn’t seen in 20 years.

SUNDAY

Sunday morning we woke up and went to church. I always get there early since I help run the sound. Yesterday we began a four-week series on Worship, and there were some changes in how the sound and lighting were set up. Adaptability is key in these situations.

It was a great service and left me feeling really grateful that I don’t have to worship God the way he commanded in the Old Testament and very grateful that through Jesus Christ God has come near.

Afterward, Keisha and I went to choir rehearsal for two of the songs we’ll be doing in the next couple of weeks. That has been something we both have been enjoying together.

After church we went to Winton Woods to join up with others from our class and their families. We had lunch and got to spend more time together and have more in-depth conversations than we were able to have the night before. It has been very cool to reconnect with these folks, and thanks to social media tools, we’re able to stay connected.

We hung out at the picnic for a few hours and then returned home to get a grocery list together. I got a phone call from one of the ministers from church, who asked if I could head back to the building to lock it up. The usual person who locks up was out of town, and he was in an appointment with another couple.

Since it wasn’t too far to drive, I offered to help out. I dropped Jennie and Keisha off at the store along the way. We eventually came home, put everything away, and still had a bit of time to relax.

It was quite an unusual weekend, and I’m really glad it was memorable.  How was yours?

This post originates from http://journeyinsidemymind.com

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The weekend is here and it’s setting up to be a busy one:

• Jennie works tonight.
• Saturday morning we have our weekly Weight Watchers meeting.
• After that meeting we’re going to call the pediatrician to see if she’ll see Keisha about her earache, the same one that’s been keeping her from wearing her hearing aids.
• Saturday afternoon I’m going to the New Media Cincinnati meetup.
• Sunday morning I’m singing in the choir at church, an a cappella song called “How Excellent”. It’s gonna be awesome.
• I’ll also be helping run the sound during the service. Come join us if you’d like.
• Sunday afternoon I have a 20-year reunion planning meeting with other classmates.
• Sunday evening I’ll be on The Pod 5 Live, and I hope you’ll join the party there as well.

Somewhere between we’ll be resting and eating and grocery shopping and somehow spending time together as a family. I guess I’ll be looking forward to getting back to work on Monday so that I can get some rest, .

—–
Check out my other blogs:
Daniel Johnson, Jr.
Get That Job!
Journey Inside My Mind Podcast
QuotesBlog
Twitter.com/danieljohnsonjr
Are we LinkedIn?

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Mood: nostalgic
Listening to: quiet
Reading: Who Let the Blogs Out?: A Hyperconnected Peek at the World of Weblogs
Eating: nothing – feeling hungry

I’m inside the main branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Being here brings back a lot of memories. The library has changed considerably since I was a child, but some of it is still the same.

I used to catch the 17 bus from home to downtown. I would sometimes come down here with my best friend David Mixon, other times accompanied by his younger brother Adam, and still other times by myself. This library was one of the coolest places to hang out. I even had dreams about things happening down here.

• I remember poring over the items in the Films and Recordings department. I recall vividly searching through the card catalog drawers to find some interesting music. Other times, I’d browse the LPs and cassettes – CDs weren’t around that much just yet. I remember testing some LPs on the record player they had set up, to see if I really wanted to check out the record.
• Another time I remember spending a lot of time down here was in my junior year of high school, while working on my English term paper on Miles Davis. I would spend entire days up in the Arts and Literature department on the third floor, poring over materials. I would often listen to music I’d put on cassettes in my Walkman.
• Yet another time I was reminded of just this morning was when I’d graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1994 and was looking for a job. I spent a lot of time at the Government and Business department back then. I remember, after learning of an interview I had with Alcoa Building Products in Sidney, Ohio, looking through scores of newspaper articles and other publications to find out anything I could about the company. Looking through microfiche and other materials, I’d print out and make copies of pages for my company research, back before the internet was really mainstream.
• And then again, after receiving a job offer, I remember coming back to the G&B department to research the kind of car I wanted to get, spending lots of time going over reliability reports and insurance information.

I’m really impressed by all the changes to the downtown library, especially as I look at all the computers and the addition to the building that was done several years ago. Films and Recordings is now on the first floor. The Mezzanine, which used to be a paperback book area, is now a snack area and gift shop. The card catalog has been replaced on the first floor by a bank of computers. The checkout is no longer right at the both exits, but instead in a more central area.

Yet as I walk through this building, I still see younger versions of me doing the things I used to do so long ago.

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A local Cincinnati high school was recently profiled on CBS for reforming itself:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvW-Ga9AX0Y]

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I’ve been in the newspaper a few times in my life, and fortunately all of them have been good occasions. Let me see if I can remember correctly (cue the harp music):

• Winning the elementary school spelling bee, which meant I got to go to the citywide spelling bee
• Going to Buckeye Boys State in high school
• Mentioned a few times in the University of Cincinnati’s News Record (after the ’93 elections, in someone else’s column, and in an article I wrote about continuing education)
• Being on the front page of one of the sections of the USA Today. Having been interviewed and picture taken while walking in a dumpster, working on a project to restore an inner city building so that people could live in it again.
• Being on the front page of the Christmas Eve edition of the newspaper, when I volunteered for the Salvation Army
• That time when we lived in Middletown, Ohio, and were with some friends, and both their daughter Rachel and our daughter Keisha wore overalls. I was able to pick both of them up at the back part and swing them around. The photographer snapped our picture and it, too, wound up being on the front page.
• Now, recently, in comments made during an online poll to select the Best of Borgman 2006. Jim Borgman is the editorial cartoonist for the Cincinnati Enquirer. Check out number 18 on the list. I know it’s minor but it’s still in the newspaper!

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I just found an old greeting card that the mother of one of my classmates in high school sent me. I received this in December 1987, which was during the first part of my senior year of high school. She wrote:

Danny, here is the newspaper clipping I told you about. You have a bright future ahead of you, and I expect to hear wonderful things about you. Keep in touch!

Mrs. Allen

The newspaper clipping is from a section of the paper in which they talk about what local kids are up to. It reads:

MOUNT HEALTHY HIGH SCHOOL
Senior Daniel Allen Johnson, Jr. held the office of bailiff for the Court of Common Appeals at the American Legion Buckeye Boys State at Bowling Green State University. He is the son of Daniel A. Johnson, Sr. of Dunraven Drive.

Finding this card today, it was like being encouraged all over again. I’ll have to blog about my experiences at Buckeye Boys State sometime. The local American Legion chose two incoming seniors to go to Boys State. I was honored to be chosen as one of them.

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While sorting through some old files and stuff tonight, I came upon a treasure: my junior year College Prep English class research paper, dated May 11, 1987. It was entitled “Paving the Milestones (Miles Dewey Davis III)”. The purpose of the research paper was to describe how an important individual has had an impact on society. I chose to do my research paper on Miles Davis because I was a jazzmaniac (I may need to get that word trademarked, by the way), and loved his music:

Little did I know how much my research into his persona, his “mystique”, if you will, would affect me as an individual. There I was, an insecure junior in high school, struggling to find myself. And what joy I found by learning about the man, Miles Davis, who lived his life caring so much less about what other people thought than what he thought of himself. I decided to imitate his “devil may care” qualities, and it showed.

Toward the beginning of our research we all were called upon to present some preliminary findings to the class. Our presentation would be videotaped, and our peers would critique us. I was unprepared, anxious and insecure, as usual. But my zeal, enthusiasm, and overal ‘jazzmania’ (there’s that word again), was definitely evident. I felt like the presentation was a disaster, but then again, I was the first presenter in our teacher’s little experiment.

When the time came for us to give a final presentation, I again was chosen to go first. This time, armed with my own “mystique”, I blew the class and my teacher away with an excellent presentation. First of all, I had purchased a toy trumpet. I began my presentation, with my back to my audience and played the tune most often heard at the beginning of horse races; it was the only one I knew how to play on that thing. Secondly, after explaining how Miles pioneered modalism with his album Kind of Blue, I played the opening riff of “So What” on my alto saxophone. My peers were, as I said, blown away. My teacher was impressed with my boldness. I got an “A”.

I remember this event as though it was yesterday, for that moment is one when I saw myself very victorious.

21 Feb 2008 Update: Check out this blog post for a video of So What: Miles Davis knew how to play