New Basics
April 15th, 2007.
Previously…
I sat on the beach at midnight of March 11th 2007, sitting in the sand alone in the dark. The waves crashed on shore of Hallandale Beach, not too far from Gina’s new flat in Miami. My mum and I had taken a trip to South Florida, and I had snuck off by myself to just take in the fact that I just turned 30. Nothing changed, I felt exactly the same. No bolt of lightning to strike me down. No random death to sweep me away. It was another midnight. A smile slowly formed, as I realized that I made it. Let’s rewind a bit here.
More of the past. But more of the recent past. I was going to rewind back to 1982, but that was nowhere near as interesting a time as the recent past was. 2007 began like 2006 did. Full of the promise of change. It lived up to it, all right. Big changes, none of which I would have even predicted (save for one or two) to come to light. But first, I might as well break out like Shakespeare, complete with my own dramatis personae. Maybe later. Yes, definitely later. We’ll see.
And now…
Brave new world. Well, sort of. This is probably the most different kind of tomorrow that I’ve ever faced. Honestly, I don’t even know where to start. The recent past is what it is, but that doesn’t make it any simpler to explain. Maybe if I went through a normal day in the life, then things would make sense. The pieces that fell into, or in many cases, out of place would be made clearer. Clear as day or clear as mud? That was an excellent question. Of course, I’m still stalling, hoping that my grand talent for weaving the right words together would somehow save me. It worked in the past. But, let’s begin.
After returning from Baltimore, life went back to normal. Normal for me was watching my grandmother, occasionally babysitting my niece Sierra, and trying to find work that paid a decent wage. I was planning on leaving town as soon as my time in the Army was over. Basically spending a lot of time at home on the computer or watching English Premiere League football fixtures on Fox Soccer Channel. Oh, and dealing with crazy, TV-Movie level family drama. That’s when my writer’s block set in, dealing with all of that drama. And friends wonder why they’ve never met much of my family.
My 30th birthday came and went. I spent it down in Miami with my sister Gina, and our mum. Gina took me out with her friends, and we partied like crazy. Her friends practically begged me to remain there longer, or at least return sooner than I said. Miami is a great city. The people there work hard, and party just as hard.
Outside the house, I had my usual large circles of friends. The circles were diverse, interesting, and there was always a good time to be had with all of them. A little bit of everything. I had a new hangout over on Pine Street, where Alicia, Red, and I played pool, made fun of cars going down the wrong way on a one-way street, and just had a good old time. There was Super Jenn, who liked to get into different things, and was on the verge of leaving Orlando for good (more on that later). Lu, who would call me up on random evenings. Sabrina and her life of working for the Rat. And the whole lot over at I-Bar (Holly, the Johns, Big Rick, Tobias, Pat, Peggy, Jamie, Liz, Chris, James, Angel, etc.), where you could bounce off of 100 different people and never get bored. There were also the new folks at my National Guard unit, who I mixed in with pretty well. Everything was fine.
Fine, except for one thing. The unemployment issue was always in the back of my mind. Then something wonderfully serendipitous occurred. One day, while sitting in my pajamas, I got a call from a company called TEKSystems. They wanted to see me for an interview, which no doubt shocked the hell out of me. I had posted a resume on Careerbuilder.com ages ago (October 2006) and hadn’t heard anything from anyone, except for those lame scam artists whose intent were totally clear a mile away.
The interviews went well (due to pointers from Keary), and next thing you know, I got hired! An actual job! Finally! After 2 years of lounging, scrounging, and surviving due to a rather paltry scholarship, things were finally looking up for me. I was set. The only downside to it all was that I was pretty much rooted here in Orlando for a while. Sure, I could travel, but not on my own terms. But I had a job!
In life as in all things, people came and went. Russ and Meredith moved away. Annie returned, after spending a long time on the Left Coast. And Super Jenn, one of the people who I implicitly trusted with a lot of things in my life, was getting ready to move away. She was up for something new, so it made sense for her. In another time or place, I would’ve tagged along, but my new job was too good to up and leave again.
Every time I thought about one of my best mates leaving, I got a knot in my gut. The same knot back when I left my old mates like Charity, Ricky, and Fen back in El Paso, ages ago. Jenn was one of those unique people running ‘round the world, and it was going to really suck having her leave. Who else was I going to talk to? I spent a lot of time listening to people, but she was one of the very few people who listened to what I had going on, my troubles. And I listened to hers as well. She wasn’t leaving till the end of May, but still, it was too soon for me.
So, there you have it. The new status quo. The new everything, for that matter. Brave new world. Sort of. I’m still the same man I was before. The job changes everything, really. Everything feels like it’s falling into place, only I can’t see what’s at in the near future. What’s in store? I don’t know. I don’t care. I just want to live it all and take it all on as it comes. That’s life for me now, going with the flow and watching the dominos as they do their thing. Life hasn’t been this interesting in a very long time.
Next: Introducing Felix, as I survive a normal day at work! Lu and I at the Improv! Marion mixes mixers, a Mia sighting, and I finally run into the aforementioned Annie, as well as a plethora of other folks. And, what do I know about crawfish?