Until We Say Goodbye

Yes, the rumors are correct today is my birthday. The Christian Laettner memorial birthday to be exact (which followed the Shane Battier memorial birthday but precedes the Grant Hill memorial birthday). I’ve got to thank everyone who has called, email or gone out and celebrated with me the past few nights. I really ended this past year on a high note and want to keep all this positive momentum going. I just have this feeling that I have a lot of good things going on in my life right now and I want to take advantage of them while I can. But thanks everyone.

(Oh, and I can’t believe I forgot to write this on Thursday but congratulations Renee. Hope Saturday was a perfect day for you.)

Ok, I’ve promised this next part for several weeks now and I feel that today would be a great day to post it. Because the only way I can accomplish anything is by setting a schedule and a set deadline so I am going to make this promise in front of the entire interweb: I will finish my novel by my next birthday. This story has been called “My Life as a Sitcom” for about a year and a half worth of outlines but I’m going to change the tentative title to “Until We Say Goodbye”. Here’s the prologue, which was first written about eighteen months ago when I was in a very bad mood. It might not be good from a mental health perspective but it makes writing a lot easier. Enjoy.

“Until We Say Goodbye”

Prologue: I Always Wanted to be an Astronaut

I never intended for my life to end up this way.

When you’re a kid and someone asks you what you want to be you always answer something glamorous like football player or doctor. Cubicle drone never enters your mind.

And I don’t care how your life is in your early twenties, no matter how much you enjoy the single life and can’t even imagine settling down with the wife and the dog out in the suburbs you are lying if you don’t envision yourself getting married at some point in the future.

You certainly don’t expect to find yourself spending New Year’s Eve 30 and alone, staring at the four bare walls of your apartment. Not even bothering to go out because it will just be couples and it is too dehumanizing to be in a room where everyone is happy except you.

That’s it in a nutshell. My life in twelve lines. No one to love, a job that diminishes my soul, and a horrible feeling that every day will be more like the last for the rest of my life. It doesn’t matter how many degrees you have or the fact that you’re a nice guy or even that people like you. It’s this belief that life has past you by when there is an entire lifetime ahead of you. And it’s not a fun feeling.

But sometimes things change. Life can take you for an adventure. The world can show you things that you never imagined.

Like I said, I never intended for my life to end up this way. But it makes for an interesting story.




The five random CDs for the week
1) Freakwater “Feels Like the Third Time”
2) Freakwater “End Time”
3) Nirvana “MTV Unplugged in New York”
4) Iris Dement “The Way I Should”
5) Victoria Williams “Musings of a Creek Dipper”