strange cousin susan

Except for the unexpected two and a half hour nap this afternoon, today was one of the fuller days I’ve had in over a week. I didn’t mean to sleep for that long, really, I didn’t. I finished watching part four of “The Invasion of the Daleks” and closed my eyes for what was only going to be ten minutes or so. Imagine my utter surprise when I woke up and it was almost half past six. Well, so much for today being the day to get back on my normal schedule.

I’m quite pleased with all I accomplished today, the two most important tasks being submitting paperwork for unemployment and making calls to people I knew through my former employer. It would be fair to say that across the board, everyone with whom I spoke was beyond puzzled about the turn of events and wondered if the company was up against more than just simple cutbacks. I sort of dished with one of them, the wife of a customer with whom I’ve always had a connection. Actually, she wanted to dish more than I did and so I did, but very cautiously, never forgetting what I said could get back to the factory. Not that I think she would do that, but strange things are known to happen with gossip. All in all, it was strangely uplifting, to speak with these guys I’ve known for almost four years, to hear their bewilderment, their total dismay I lost my job and in the process, lost the one person they could count on to get things done and done correctly the first time around, in most cases.

Inspiration struck me while talking with one of them: I very honestly told him the (wo) had taught me a lot in the time we had together and that we had a great run, but in the end, the universe was telling me in its own mysterious way that it was time for me to move on, because in the end, the universe and its plan for me, for you, for the guy down the street is much larger than any of us can begin to fathom. It’s so much more than a job, a relationship, how much money is in the bank. It’s more than all of us in the world combined.

Yeah, I know. It’s mumbo-jumbo, child of the universe crap and all that, but I sincerely believe it’s true, despite the cynical and more practical side I show to the public. And although I don’t think Max Ehrmann, the author of The Desiderata necessarily had in mind the picture I’ve used to accompany this post, but I really dig it much more than the frou-frou examples I found. This was found at 8images; click on the image for a larger version.

One of the guys actually asked me if I would be moving to be closer to Star and Bar and I answered him more honestly than I thought I would. My options are so open right now that it would be quite easy for me to pick up stakes and get out. As of tomorrow, I’m two years into my five year plan and time, she’s not slowin’ down. I’ll confab with the sister while I’m there and see what she thinks honestly about the pragmatics of the scheme, the express wish we lived closer notwithstanding. One of the big roadblocks is the real estate market and how fast I could unload my condo. Bettie P has suggested renting it out; the sister’s expressed the same idea. But with all the painting I’ve just done and finally liking the villa again, I’m not sure that’s the thing I want to be doing at the moment.

So, I’ll leave you with two lines from Glenn Frey’s song, “Part of Me, Part of You,” which I’m slightly obsessed with at the moment, sort of like when I heard it for the first time in “Thelma and Louise” and then a few years later, when it was, very briefly, the song that * and I considered ours.

We can never know about tomorrow
Still we have to choose which way to go