Been a while.
Life got kinda crazy for a minute. I'll try to give you the short version, though, even the short version is pretty long.
working:
Since September my job has been to throw tires into trucks. It's a very nice, physical job where I make a good buck. Several good bucks actually. And then as soon as I get them, I turn all of my good bucks over to the evil credit card companies that own me in a sort of nouveaux slavery arrangement.
One day back in December my boss told me that he was going on a vacation in March and asked if I'd like to be the boss while he was gone and collect his salary in addition to my regular pay. That was a no-brainer. Wasn't anything I could afford to turn down even if I wanted to.
As the vacation date in mid March was approaching I kept trying to ask questions and make preparations and figure out if this was all still happening and whether or not we were properly prepared and how things were going to go and all. Everyone seemed pretty non-chalant about it so I figured everyone knew what they were doing.
Um,... no.
The DAY BEFORE the scheduled vacation everyone starts calling me on the phone in a huge panic trying to stress me out and get me to join their freaking-out party. Not only was my boss going to go on vacation, but the tire factory decided they were going to increase production just as he was heading out of town so we had the same number of employees, way more trucks to fill and my boss was going to go on a cruise and totally turn his phone off. The boss of the whole truck loading company that I work for was calling me and offering to come up and load trucks personally if we needed it. I still wished that people would have prepared more ahead of time, but I wasn't really looking to get all freaked out about it. I told everyone that I would do my best and that I suspected that my best would be plenty sufficient.
So, it wasn't easy. I put everything --almost everything-- in my life on hold and made ready to load trucks around the clock if I needed to. I started calling all of our loaders and letting them know our situation. I started getting familiar with the schedule and looking for ways to get more loading out of the crew we had.
The tire factory didn't increase production by near as much as they said they were going to. Through the first weekend we were keeping up with them just fine. The one thing in my life I didn't put on hold were the performances I mentioned in my last journal entry (way back when) because I really felt like I needed to get in front of an audience and let loose.
performing:
So I have this new poem/song called Color Inside the Lines that's really fun to do. I was scheduled to perform it 3 times in four days. The first performance was at my friend Liz's poetry event. I performed it well, but I really didn't feel good about it. Like maybe that was the wrong venue for it. I was glad to have gotten it out without messing up any words, but I was more excited about performing it the following night for my activist buddies at the Subversive Theatre play.
So, after performing I went into work and all hell had broken loose. We were way behind and people were freaking out so I called in everyone I could call in and I loaded as many trucks as I could load (had time to load). I ended up working a 17 hour shift (which included a 3 hour nap in my boss' office). I loaded 5 and a half trucks. Throwing tires for 14 hours with only three hours of sleep is very physically challenging, but honestly I could have done more. I probably would have done more to give us a little cushion but it came time to perform again.
I was dead tired, and dirty and stinky. But hell, I've given some great performances dead tired before. I was very eager and excited. All of my activist friends showed up. And then... there was no time available for me to perform.
I saw a really good play, but it was super frustrating not to get a chance to get on. I went home and went to bed with a lot of pent up performance enrgy waiting to burst out.
The next couple days at work were much the same. Frantic. Taxing. Unpredictable. But I was handling everything that was thrown my way. Refuse to lose. Find a way to get it done. Etc.
Wednesday rolled around and I was feeling like I had my second wind. I had a few good meals in me and had experienced some nice hot showers. I had made it more than half way through my boss' vacation. Things were looking up. And it was the day of the M.A.P. open mic. My favorite venue to perform at.
I got to MAP Open mic and there really weren't many people there. Hardly any. That was somewhat disappointing. But I've always said that I will throw everything I have into it whether it's 1 person or 1,000 in the audience. So I just tried to do that. And I really got after it with the performing and had lots of fun. There was a lot of opportunity to perform multiple times and as the night wore on more and more people showed up. Several great musicians were there to the the Mass Avenue Orchestra fired up and let people pass the mic around. The band hit a really good groove and I sang The Life by Mystic and just really, really felt the music. It was awesome. I even messed up most of the words and it was STILL way awesome. It really all fit together. By the end of the night I was having such a good time.
And then, seemingly out of nowhere, I was dancing with a most beautiful woman as we were all cleaning up at the end of the night. Not just dancing, something was happening. Like, feeling like I'm totally falling for some really beautiful woman is an almost daily experience in my life and neighborhood. But, woah, feeling like someone was falling for me back?? That's new.
Loving:
So there's this woman. Natural, beautiful, happy, smart, fun, compassionate. The whole everything. I just wanted to spend some time considering the possibilities before we get to the part where I have to tell her aout Heather and she runs away. I didn't have much free time, because I had to finish being the boss at work. But a few days later that was all over. I had succeeded in keeping things from falling appart and they were going to pay me buttloads of money which would halp me keep my precariously balanced financial house of cards from collapsing. All was good on the work front. Oh, except that my boss broke his ankle while on vacation and wouldn't be able to fully return to work. But that wasn't really MY problem. I did my ten days of blood sweat and tears.
So, about this woman. Things just went super fast. Before I could even get my bearings it was already time to tell her about Heather (and watch her run away). Only, I told her about Heather and she didn't run away. She just said 'take it slow.' And what could be more perfect than that? Slow is like my favorite setting.
And so Heather was coming home for the weekend that weekend even. And by the time the weekend rolled around I was so into everything about this woman and so eager to have her meet Heather, and...
And that's what happened. Easily one of the highest highs of my last 365. A most fantastically incredible weekend of the three of us getting to know each other and asking questions and looking at things through new eyes, and... and there was snuggling. Memories of the variety that don't go away.
It seemed too good to last. It didn't last. And now I'm sort of sad. But also pretty Happy that Heather is almost here. And I felt like I got a glimpse of the future. Some woman(en) or man(en) will get us there again. That happy place is meant to be a big part of the rest of our lives. Just is.
Will be.
Felt nice to journal again. Thanks for caring.
-Alex
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