Random Thoughts

- Today I watched last night's The Rachel Maddow Show and, once again, regretted not becoming a doctor.  My father is a doctor.  I'd thought about it growing up.  If I could wave a magic wand, and change my life all together, I would've gone to medical school and become an abortionist.  But I can't, so I sit here in the library, typing on my computer.  (I got sick of blogging with my iPhone, long and tedious.)

- I watched the third installment of The Black List on HBO.  I'd seen it before, but I always like the experience of listening to successful African Americans just talk.  When Hill Harper and Whoopi Goldberg spoke, I again wondered what would have happened if I'd taken performance classes with my tech classes in college. I wonder a lot about the path I've taken in my life, probably too much.

- I haven't attended my writers' group since November.  I knew work was going to dry up, so I passed on the meeting in December.  I keep getting the emails, because I haven't officially left the group.  Each time I read that someone else is submitting, I feel a twang more of doubt in my stories, in my writing style, in my dreams.

- So I know I waited til the last minute to write this post because that's what I do.  I put off just about everything until I must do it.  I know they call this procrastination, but, in truth, it's closer to laziness.  On that point, I recently wondered what my life would be like if I gave up television all together.  Without cable, I would be free to do all the things I say I'm going to: my multiple novels I've started but yet to finish, my multiple knit & crochet projects, all the books I want to read but are currently sitting on the floor in front of my bookshelf.  How much better would my life be if I had the will power to turn off the box?

- My meter is about to run out, so I'll end with a poem I wrote last month during the latest iteration of Snowpocalypse:

Frustration is

Hearing about the snow that's started to fall outside

Getting off work at 6:30pm only to be greeted by three and a half hours of accumulation

Seeing two of your buses parked on the side of the road, surrounded by cars

Learning neither bus will be moving any time soon because another one is stuck on the hill ahead

Walking to the Metro stop, three blocks away, snow flakes whipping against your face, fogged and iced over glasses barely showing the way

The long trek down the stopped escalator into the station, one foot after another, just trying not to fall

Riding the train from one end to the other with the knowledge, on any other day, your bus ride would have taken ten minutes

Trudging up and down hills, from the station to home, seeing yet still more buses, and a salt truck, stuck in the snow

Green lightning streaking through the air, signaling impending doom

Conformation of your fears when you see you indeed don't have power

Soggy socks, heavy boots, and a pile of wet coat, jacket, and pants

No hot water, no heat, not being able to open your refrigerator

A dinner of pineapple slices and a Nutrigrain bar

Waking up to the low battery beep of a smoke detector

Going to work out of boredom and the desire to be warm

Clearing off your car and, in the process, cracking the windshield

Driving to a friend's home just to take a shower

Three days later, still no power, with little hope of that changing

The possibility of more snow in a few days

~ 1/28/11