So here I sit at the keyboard, waffling back and forth about just how brutally honest I need to be in these electronic pages today. Standing over me with the “waffling” iron though is the “YOU MUST WRITE” troll that I created one day many months back. He has turned into a particularly large and brutish fellow and will NOT be ignored. So here I go, about to reveal the embarrassing depth of my scatterbrainedness. (You would too, if you could see just how large and how brutish this troll fellow is.)
Today, my husband and I decided to ride the train downtown, so I would know how the whole system works and what stop to get off for my temporary job. Now for a whole week, I have had it in my mind that I am supposed to work Tuesday through Friday of this coming week. So I thought I had one more day to get ready for my first paying job in over 4 years. Well, on a funny little whim I decided to get out the paperwork and look at the hours again, as each day I am supposed to work different hours. And lo and behold, there it was in black, gray and white. I am to start Monday, not Tuesday! So here I was, teetering on the brink of making a fantastically horrific mistake, first thing, right off the bat. And just think, I could have found this out at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning, that I was supposed to be at work 2 and a half hours ago!!!!
This is the VERY thing that I was afraid might happen ! My freewheeling, set your own schedule existence has become very ingrained and I may have lost my ability to remember what the heck DAY it is, where I am supposed to be, what I am supposed to be doing, and maybe even what my NAME is….. Ahrrrrrrgggggg!
But I DID look at the schedule, and I DID figure this out my husband pointed out….( the ever practical man that he is)…. But please, I tell you, don’t you think that was a little TOO close of a call for an already rattled newbie???
In any case, we got ourselves on the train and had a fairly pleasant ride downtown and it’s a good thing too, because the place we decided to get off turned out not to be the best. So we waited for the next train and rode a little farther on and found that the thing stops one block from where I need to go. And the good news was, since we just got right back on the next train home, our tickets were still good for another half hour. So we only had to pay the one fare for our trip.
The upshot is that I feel fairly confident that I know where to go and what to do at 6:00 in the morning. MONDAY morning. (Oh, I know for lots of you, these entries do not coincide with your days. Someone pointed that out to me not long ago, that they thought I had my days mixed up.) Hey, it’s a big wide world, and half of us are trying to catch up with the other half, what can I tell you?
We met some nice people on the train though and had a couple of pleasant conversations with strangers. I am learning not to be TOO afraid of them. I eavesdropped on a young woman who was giving a reading using her Tarot cards to a woman across from her. She told her that it would probably be a good idea to stop lying to some person she knew. That it would be a good idea to slowly extricate herself from the web of lies she had already told. “You don’t have to be too obvious about it, the young woman said, just ease your way out of it.” She made it sound so easy….I wonder if she might have some words of wisdom that I could use on my “you must write” troll? If I see her again, I MUST ask her.
We even got to listen to some impromptu rap performances by the local talent on the train. It seems that quite a few people that these young men know, engage in illicit relations with their mothers. And there must be something seriously wrong with being a white person from the lyrics we were treated to, free of charge I might add. I have made the decision to ride as close to the conductor as I can tomorrow. It’s one thing to listen to that with your strong and capable husband sitting next to you, and quite another being all by yourself.
So there you have it, not a word of fiction in the whole account.
(Well, except for the Troll.)
So much for candor. Now you know I am a certifiable ninny.
Please don’t hate me for it. Someday you’ll be 52 and losing your mind too and I promise to be kind to you.
If I can remember to do it that is…