I�ve yet to discern whether it�s against The Law to combine two letters, but then again I�ve always been sort of a rebel so what the hell? Let them come and take me away (to the funny farm where life is wonderful all the time and I�ll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats and they�re coming to take me away!), at least I�m still in the game, hanging on by the skin of my teeth but whatever. You�re not interested in the trainwrecky soap operatics that is my life. Hell, it�s happening to me and I�m not that enthralled myself.

There are, however, two sort of curious things that have happened lately. Thank Dog, because it gives me something to write about!

First off, my writing has been coming to me in waves lately. I don�t know about anyone else, but agonizing over Every � Freakin� � Sentence drives me mad. I sit and stare and take off my nail polish and play with the dogs and eat and eat and eat and still the words refuse to come forth. There are a million other things I should be doing and my house is currently falling down around my ears and still I sit here, trying to pop the mental zit that is my writer�s block. And then one day last week, my fingers could no longer keep up with the words spewing from my brainpan. Nothing special has happened in my life to facilitate the opening up of my mind, either physically or metaphorically. It just came gushing out, not unlike water over the dam Black Jacques Shellack tried unsuccessfully to keep intact. I feel unblocked to a degree, and it is Good.

The next sequence of events only revealed its coolness in hindsight, something that occurred much later as I wasn�t in the best of conditions last Friday. But I�m getting ahead of myself here, sorry.

Last Wednesday, my friend Patti called to suggest going out on Thursday night for drinks at our usual pub. Since I�m in the middle of a cycle and full of drugs, I opted out. She then proceeded to call me three times over the course of the day Thursday, obviously betting that she could wear me down; she was correct. I finally gave in about an hour before I was meant to meet her downtown. I begrudgingly got dressed and grabbed a bunch of business cards before heading downtown. I got the last parking spot on Central, walked up to the bar and found Patti with our friend Lynne and her work buddies. I started talking up the business and they were all interested! The waiter then took me aside and asked for more cards for the staff, then proceeded to pull doggie pictures out of his wallet. It was supremely cute.

Then it occurs to me that Lynne works for a printer, so I make the casual comment over Lynne (and some killer nachos) to Patti that Lynne could have gotten me a job with XYZ Company months ago. All of the sudden we�re talking about how they need a proofreader on a temporary basis and could I bring my resume in Monday? After which Patti and I headed for the new deck for a smoke and she told me my old boss is trying to get me back in at the college for about the same money and Fridays off and I don't have to work on the counter. It's a job and I should be grateful but Oh My God I don't want to go back there. Still, it's nice to be wanted.

The whole evening turned into a pub crawl complete with $2.00 shooters and Friday was unkind to my being, trust me. You�d think I would learn, but once that Celtic music begins playing and I�ve got more than a few Guinness in me, watch out! I got a few tips from my posse on avoiding the hurt next time I choose to voluntarily abuse my temple, so that�s good.

I find it so very interesting that we make all these decisions each day, hundreds of them. Most of them come to nothing, but a handful can make the difference between success and failure, a good day or a rotten one, a smile or a frown. I could just as easily have blown off that evening, staying home with the television to rot my brains and some chocolate to rot my teeth. It might all come to naught, but at least for a night I had some fun and made some new friends, one of whom told me repeatedly that I smelled �like the morning after a good rain�. I�m going to take that as a compliment.

This entry shall be filed under Fortune, Good.

Posted at 8:29 p.m.