TOTU: Chapter Two

A life decision was made over the weekend. It was one that everyone has had to face in their time on Earth. It was one where the decision you make alters how the following time will come:

Do I have enough gas money to get there and back?

Oh, yes. This happened, and it was not a game. Now the easy thing to say is "Well, just get in the car with someone and chip in on gas," but I've long given up on riding in the car with people. I'm a team player when it comes to a lot of things, but in the words of a great philosopher "I live alone, I train alone, I win the world title alone." Okay, the great philosopher was Clubber Lang in Rocky III, but the point is I'd rather travel alone.

The event in question was the wedding of one of my closest friends, which was three hours away in Austin last Saturday. I was set to go, and even when I got a call late Friday afternoon to come out for a job interview three days later, I was still crunk...

...only the interview was out of town, as was the wedding, and not only were they both out of town, they were on totally opposite ends of the highway.

Now I had less than 24 hours to decide how I was going to pull off doing both. Time was ticking, I was running out of ideas, and I decided to make a decision that I immediately regretted. I missed the wedding, stayed home, watched movies all night, then drove downtown and kicked it for a homie's birthday. Oh, and the job interview, of course. I went to that.

Oh, and there was jury duty a couple of days ago. It was my first time being summoned by my great city to perform my service to the community, and when I got there, I saw at least 200 people sitting there as well. Some were on their phones. Others were reading magazines, and just about everyone kept looking at their watches. Court started late, and for people who were already agged about being there, it was especially painful.

I get there at 8:20, and I'm relieved at 9:20. That's right, one hour of duty. There were a limited amount of cases on the docket, but the court still made sure to select as many potential jurors as possible. Since I wasn't one of them, I, along with about 120 more people, were free to go.

We were paid a grand total of six dollars for our day at the courthouse, which I donated to a youth and family counseling organization. Shoot, once they said the checks (a six dollar check) would be mailed within a week, the decision to give it away pretty much made itself.

7/27/11 @ 12:44 P.M.

TOTU: Chapter One

In the past, I wrote a series of poems which eventually came together to tell a variety of stories. They were all personal in nature, all involved a woman, and all made me feel some kinda way. They were always centered around love, which as a man, can be a challenge to express publicly, while also maintaining a sense of dignity. This is when growing up with sisters is so valuable; they've shown me how to have a sensitive side without being a sissy, even if they don't realize it.

Well, since I have so much time on my hands, I'm going to try that again, except this time, they won't be poems and they won't be centered around love. They'll be more like snippets in my life at the moment, and once this particular part of my life concludes, so will the story. My goal is to write something at least once a week. Here goes, with chapter one.

5:46 A.M.

The morning started off abnormally early, despite the fact that I got the same amount of sleep as I do just about every night (roughly 4-5 hours.) I long ago decided that I stay up late because (a) my mind loves to work, (b) I always feel like I'll miss something by sleeping, and (c) for the most part, everyone else is sleep and for whatever reason, I just feel more accomplished by staying busy when everyone else is down for the count.

Once I woke up, the day went as most others do. I did some editing for the ETSF website, listened to The Morning Jones, and applied for jobs. Yes, the all-consuming task of applying for jobs. It's always an adventure to look at qualifications, my resume, the job requirements, my resume, and the location, and my resume again.

One of these days, my pride may get the best of me. Attempting to break into a field with not much experience is infinitely tougher than going into a field where I do have experience. However, I'd rather take the difficult route this time, and besides, if I was to go back and work in my previous field, I wouldn't make it through the week. I'll explain why in another entry.

Anyway, I did all that, and now it's past 9. It doesn't even feel like morning, but when you wake up so early for no apparent reason, that's the result. Who knows how the rest of the day will go; possibly a trip to 24 Hour Fitness, so I can workout and also chop it up with the old-school player who's been adopted as another unofficial mentor (he has no say-so in the matter; the man is 55 years old and likes to tell stories; I'm sure he won't mind.) Besides that, it's another day in paradise.

Be easy.

P.S. I'll share what TOTU means later.

Turn-around

Slowly but surely, things are turning around.

In the meantime, there's still plenty to be done.

7/11/11 @ 2:31 A.M.