The Runup to the Rundown, Part 5

The decision was made for me, as so many others have been. I just had to accept it, and that day of acceptance was when I drove seven hours over two days in winter traffic, solely commuting to and from work. The act of submitting an application was not painful. Indeed, in keeping in line with my casual nature, it was the only place I applied to, or visited, but it was also pretty impressive (i.e. it did not require taking interstate four-ninety-five to get to work). Also an expensive pho restaurant nearby, which is better than nothing, I suppose.

Wednesday of that week, I needed to take in some papers to complete the application process. I decided to take them during my lunch break, and to drive on the toll road. Now, because of the age of my car (almost ten years), plus all the salt and snow on the ground, the exhaust mid pipe on my car had rusted through, to the point where one part of it fell off, creating a horrific grinding sound. This at sixty miles an hour freaked me out. I got to the apartment complex as quick as I could, then called for a towing company. Yes, I could have driven, but with those sounds, and the strong possibility I was trailing sparks, why should I have risked it?

The car was fixed just fine. My wallet gently weeps, but the car is fine again. I even returned to work that night, only five hours later, to put in an hour so I could work a nine hour day the next day, instead of a ten hour day. That more or less brings us up to date work wise.

Yesterday, I talked with a friend of Aunt K.C., W.X. It was a nice dinner at the R.S., though I wish I’d not ordered the oysters. Why didn’t I go for the crabcakes? When in doubt, get the crabcakes! The talk was enlightening, and further affirmed my conjoined twin desire to pursue a doctorate of philosophy in literature (or a masters of fine arts in creative writing) and publish a novel (or at least get a short story published nationally). This leads us to today, which has been inundated with me writing, aside from two short breaks, one to take a run, the other to drive for an hour and a half. This is how far I’ve gone off the deep end, that my day wasn’t complete until I went and drove for an hour and a half and just thought about stuff. Like restarting the blog, and people.

Is this going to be a regular thing, again? Probably not. Definitely not for a while, as the move is upcoming. However, shit is starting to happen in my life again. I’m starting to forge a new path, take new chances, do new things, meet new people. Unlike the past three-and-a-half insular years, focused on surviving law school, now I can work on thriving in this personal space of my own making. The story I was working on this morning, oh Lord it felt so right. I hope it reads as well as I thought it did when I applied pen to paper. I think it’s got legs, and once I get it typed and edited, might post some parts of it. Short story length, definitely. Novella, possibly. Novel? Well, we’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?