Archive for February, 2005
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28
Feb
2005
This is the last week of my writing class. I’m definitely going to miss it. The structure of having to produce something for class will be gone. I want something that will keep that requirment to produce there. I’ve been hunting around rather aimlessly for a website that needs freebie authors to produce regular content. That would require productivity and it would give me some experience.
I finished my last piece for class yesterday afternoon. It turned out to be sort of a hybrid between a travel piece and a story about the events of my next to last night in London last April. It grew out of a “Try this” exercise in the last chapter we covered. I had started something totally different for our last writing exercise and scuttled it after I wrote this piece. I may see if I can publish it somewhere. I’m sure I can at Boots-n-all, but it would be nice to at least try spreading my wings.
I don’t know if/when I’ll take another class. Well, I don’t think that it’s an “if” so much as a when. I know I want to again, but nothing Emory is offering in the next few months called to me. And I looked around and didn’t see anything else at area schools, so I reckon I’ll wait to see what is offered. I’m giving off thoughts to maybe taking a photography or drawing class down the road. The latter would totally be for enjoyment as I am not gifted in that arena at all.
The gypsy spirit has had me again. I’ve spent a lot of time researching how much trouble it would be to take a job overseas. I doubt that will happen in the short term. I really want to finish paying off some debt first, but it’s an idea that has more than flapped in my ear a little. I was looking at a job in Scotland last night, ironically in Stirling which I visited in December! I was qualified for the job and the pay was, with the rate of exchange, more than I make now. So, I thought about all the high apartment rates I’d seen in London and figured, yeh, right, I couldn’t afford to live. Well, wrong… out of curiousity, I checked out rents, and I could afford to live, probably comparable to my standard of living here. If I didn’t have debt left here weighing me down, better (of course that’s true here, too!). So, that’s something in the wings.
Hare-brained scenario #1023
- Mark spends the next couple of years wiping out debt still remaining and building a nest egg.
- Sells house and pockets proceeds.
- Concurrently finds job, applies for work permit/visa
- Moves abroad for a time.
Disclaimers: I don’t plan to STAY there. I just want to travel at my leisure on the odd weekends and holidays. I don’t believe I could leave kith and kin forever.
Is this all just part of my usual winter doldrums? Maybe? I don’t know… I know that every year since I’ve moved here as the gray days stretch out into infinity, the desire to move home has surfaced. This year, I guess, it’s being replaced by overseas? Why? I don’t know… It was darker and grayer there most days! Yet, I guess I found somewhere that I could enjoy even in that weather… Atlanta doesn’t seem to fit that. I feel like a caged animal most days here. When will the weather clear so that I can go out again…
Maybe then I’ll quit feeling this self-destructive need to shake up my life and see where the parts all land….
10
Feb
2005
Sinus infection is finally feeling under control. Saw the doctor a couple of days ago and got checked out. It was a sinus infection, as I suspected. Funny how I made it though around 27 years without ever having one of these, and in the time since I’ve moved to Atlanta, I’ve had four… still not often enough, I guess, to be considered a chronic condition, but my doc did send me to get x-rays of my head to review. My dad, who I heard this coming from before he said it, told me that the doctor won’t find anyting –
Still the difference between last night and today was palpable. Last night when I got back from class, my head was throbbing and I literally cried for a couple of minutes. I read e-mail, sent a fast reply to my cousin, Aimee, and then went to bed. I woke up (an hour late) this morning and felt like a human again. My head didn’t feel like it was giving birth to something large anymore and, I could, believe it or not, breathe through my nose again! Yayyyy!! Sometimes, it really is the little things in life.
As I mentioned, have heard from one of my cousins recently. We’ve all been growing further apart since the locus of the family ended with our grandmother. I guess Brian and I, living a short distance apart now, are probably the only ones who see each other much. So, I was surprised to get a note with pictures from her life in Massachusetts. Found out that she and her husband might move to Atlanta in the future. Wow, that would be something, like a third of the grandkids living so far from home in the same place. I’m the closest to where I grew up in geography, but it feels a million miles away from home.
I still struggle on a daily basis with feelings that this isn’t my place or life. I don’t know what to do with those feelings. Act on them? How? Would I really be happier? My job doesn’t kill me at the moment, which is a great change. I’m still doubtful that this is what I want to be doing as the years roll by, but even not driving me to distraction is an improvment. But there’s the side of me that really just wants a way, an excuse, a reason, to travel. I want to experience more than I am here. The ideal would be, of course, a job that either required or allowed travel. The first is self-explanatory, the second would be more along the lines of a job that didn’t tie me to a place but allowed me to work in a mobile mode. Suggestions welcome…
Another Doctor’s appt this afternoon – dermatologist, not connected to the days of sinus pain luckily.
6
Feb
2005
Okay, this was a craptastic weekend. About mid-way through last week, I felt like my cold was improving. In fact, by Friday, all the sore throat was gone as well as most of the stuffiness, but I had a THROBBING sinus headache all day. It felt like baby elephants were trying to erupt from my cheeckbones. I resolved if it didn’t improve by Monday, I’d call the doctor.
Saturday, it was MUCH worse. I have a feeling I understand why they use to think people were possessed by demons. I would have suspected as much about myself the way the phlegm was flying yesterday. The baby elephants had drills now. I didn’t leave the house.
I barely left the upstairs all day. The only thing I did accomplish was sitting on the floor with a box of tissues and a pile of comics to file. Now that I’ve sorted through the 2 years of issues, and merged it with the preceding 30 years of comics (dang close to that long!), I don’t want to do that again, ever. Okay, that’s pie in the sky, but it is a major hassle when you just want to file a few weeks of comics. So, I pulled out only the series that I’m currently collecting, which is still quite a few. I filed all the old series and minis in the big boxes and buried them at the back. Current series stayed forward in easier to handle boxes. Now, this is still a lot, when you consider that some of the longer running titles such as Action Comics and Batman, etc. still go back 30+ years… I guess I could have put a date cut-off for the current boxes, but I’ll try that some other time. At least it’s all done. For the first time, well, ever I think, everything is filed.
Today, I woke up feeling mostly better. The sinuses feel like they cleared. I was majorly worried that I had a severe infection, but I’m doubting it now. The drainage, though, has roughed up the throat again.
Today was a very leisurely day. After lunch, I did a tiny amount of shopping. Then I came home and did the taxes – I had the final form I was waiting for show up yesterday. I like how life works, I made more money this year and got even less back. Well, danged if that’s not incentive to work harder! I’d already upped my charitable contributions this past year, now I feel like giving more – I’d rather give it to charity than the government!
Anyway, that was about it. I went out one more time. I had to mail a package for a book that I sold on Half.com – getting rid of some college texts if I can (I’ll donate them to charity if they don’t sell). I’ve also started listing some comics on e-bay that I don’t want anymore. I’m am trying to clear out some stuff in my packed house, but what I’m selling versus what I’m keeping makes that statement laughable.
Clothes in the dryer. Until they’re done, I’ll be reading my assignment for class this week. Meant to go out and do some people-watching this weekend (one of our assignments), but it’ll have to be after work Monday or Tuesday. Yesterday, any people watching would have involved them watching me do gross things.
