So my "2-3 times a week" thing has taken a fall since my laptop was stolen... But we all know I kinda like it that way, right? A la St. Croix Falls...
I'm getting over The Robbery, as I've started to think of it -- in caps. It's maybe a little like getting over a breakup: the first week you feel like your insides just got ripped out like pages of your diary and strewn all over Times Square... Then the next week you're kinda sad about it but you know by then that you're not gonna die so you'll have to just get on with your life -- at some point... And then after a few weeks or months or whatever you start realizing occasionally that you haven't thought about it in a few days, and then eventually you decide you've gotten over those vulnerable feelings enough to replace your mp3 player. ...Or start dating again. Whatever. I think in either case you get new shit and start dating at around the same time, because you know your life isn't over.
Yesterday, though, just when I thought I had discovered everything they'd taken, I realized my Bourbon St. flask was also missing. Travesty. Fortunately I am no longer in college. Plus, I am going back to Nawlins so I can acquire some other paraphernalia from the Big Easy.
Anyway, I'm feeling a little more steady on my feet these days, so I'm starting to collect cool items to build and furnish my new lifestyle. On Wednesday I rode the bus to this Downtown Visions networking event (not completely aware that it was a networking event, or that just about every other person there was representing some downtown business). Anyway, I walked in and scoped out the scene, feeling out of place, but then introduced myself to two younger-looking women at a table in the corner. Turns out they are both AmeriCorps VISTA workers with the Delaware government, and one of them also graduated in May, from the University of Alabama.
After the event she and I stopped in at a display in an artists' loft around the corner, an opening event for the Wilmo Fringe Festival. She paints for fun, and she loves spoken word. Unfortunately she lives and works in Dover, so she had to get back, but I went back to the World Cafe Live at the Queen for a Fringe Preview Party. It was actually the perfect event to go solo, and I was laughing by the end. Worried that I didn't have enough cash for a decent tip, I wrote a note to my waiter on the check (I always loved that as a server) and told him he's the bomb. He shot me a nice smile later. Makes the world go 'round.
I also fell madly in love with one of the performers -- unbeknownst to him, of course. His name is Slash and he is chiseled and self-deprecating in the way of someone who could never quite figure out how to be cool when he was 13, but now that he's (over?) 30 he realizes it doesn't matter. Sadly the Fringe is a little out of my budget, but at least I got a preview.
I'm starting to fall into a groove at work. I'm useful. This is good. I am also quiet, so everyone just takes cracks at me about being this earthy kid and weighing 25 pounds. (Not true.) (Mostly not true.) Yesterday they took us out for lunch at this new (very expensive) restaurant up the street. I was intimidated by the menu but it really was beautiful, and the food was delicious. The coffee was also delicious. The discussion was wild, touching on what seemed like every possible controversial topic from President Obama to the institution of marriage to addiction and the social conditions that often accompany drug abuse. Those who know me and my characteristic silence in politics might laugh at the hilarity of finding me in this situation. I found myself on a few occasions tempted to drop into the debate, "Well, I'm skeptical of everything." But I knew the outcome of that would be even more agonizing as they grilled me on my hypocritical and inconsistent jadedness. Plus how I can possibly justify widespread skepticism as a naive, 25-pound 21-year-old fresh out of college and with an entire lifetime ahead of me.
But now I have a YMCA membership and I'm starting to line up the bricks that will build my Wilmo lifestyle: a fulfilling job and work environment, cash flow, exercise facilities, a cool person in-state, plans to visit my brother in a few weekends -- plans in general! And, I have successfully ridden the bus now so I don't feel totally cloistered in Stanton. Marvy. Now on to lifestyle interior decorating...
Plus, I have good friends nationwide (worldwide!) who are sending me earrings and music and text messages and facebook messages and phone calls. And I'm learning to keep in touch. And I'm friendly and cute and resilient and I can learn how to trust new people and a new city, and I believe in love again.
I'm getting over The Robbery, as I've started to think of it -- in caps. It's maybe a little like getting over a breakup: the first week you feel like your insides just got ripped out like pages of your diary and strewn all over Times Square... Then the next week you're kinda sad about it but you know by then that you're not gonna die so you'll have to just get on with your life -- at some point... And then after a few weeks or months or whatever you start realizing occasionally that you haven't thought about it in a few days, and then eventually you decide you've gotten over those vulnerable feelings enough to replace your mp3 player. ...Or start dating again. Whatever. I think in either case you get new shit and start dating at around the same time, because you know your life isn't over.
Yesterday, though, just when I thought I had discovered everything they'd taken, I realized my Bourbon St. flask was also missing. Travesty. Fortunately I am no longer in college. Plus, I am going back to Nawlins so I can acquire some other paraphernalia from the Big Easy.
Anyway, I'm feeling a little more steady on my feet these days, so I'm starting to collect cool items to build and furnish my new lifestyle. On Wednesday I rode the bus to this Downtown Visions networking event (not completely aware that it was a networking event, or that just about every other person there was representing some downtown business). Anyway, I walked in and scoped out the scene, feeling out of place, but then introduced myself to two younger-looking women at a table in the corner. Turns out they are both AmeriCorps VISTA workers with the Delaware government, and one of them also graduated in May, from the University of Alabama.
After the event she and I stopped in at a display in an artists' loft around the corner, an opening event for the Wilmo Fringe Festival. She paints for fun, and she loves spoken word. Unfortunately she lives and works in Dover, so she had to get back, but I went back to the World Cafe Live at the Queen for a Fringe Preview Party. It was actually the perfect event to go solo, and I was laughing by the end. Worried that I didn't have enough cash for a decent tip, I wrote a note to my waiter on the check (I always loved that as a server) and told him he's the bomb. He shot me a nice smile later. Makes the world go 'round.
I also fell madly in love with one of the performers -- unbeknownst to him, of course. His name is Slash and he is chiseled and self-deprecating in the way of someone who could never quite figure out how to be cool when he was 13, but now that he's (over?) 30 he realizes it doesn't matter. Sadly the Fringe is a little out of my budget, but at least I got a preview.
I'm starting to fall into a groove at work. I'm useful. This is good. I am also quiet, so everyone just takes cracks at me about being this earthy kid and weighing 25 pounds. (Not true.) (Mostly not true.) Yesterday they took us out for lunch at this new (very expensive) restaurant up the street. I was intimidated by the menu but it really was beautiful, and the food was delicious. The coffee was also delicious. The discussion was wild, touching on what seemed like every possible controversial topic from President Obama to the institution of marriage to addiction and the social conditions that often accompany drug abuse. Those who know me and my characteristic silence in politics might laugh at the hilarity of finding me in this situation. I found myself on a few occasions tempted to drop into the debate, "Well, I'm skeptical of everything." But I knew the outcome of that would be even more agonizing as they grilled me on my hypocritical and inconsistent jadedness. Plus how I can possibly justify widespread skepticism as a naive, 25-pound 21-year-old fresh out of college and with an entire lifetime ahead of me.
But now I have a YMCA membership and I'm starting to line up the bricks that will build my Wilmo lifestyle: a fulfilling job and work environment, cash flow, exercise facilities, a cool person in-state, plans to visit my brother in a few weekends -- plans in general! And, I have successfully ridden the bus now so I don't feel totally cloistered in Stanton. Marvy. Now on to lifestyle interior decorating...
Plus, I have good friends nationwide (worldwide!) who are sending me earrings and music and text messages and facebook messages and phone calls. And I'm learning to keep in touch. And I'm friendly and cute and resilient and I can learn how to trust new people and a new city, and I believe in love again.
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