Nine Months of Unemployment and A Retort to a Comment

This is my first blog that I am writing in the moment on my almost brand new laptop in Panera Bread. Actually this is my tenth month of unemployment really but who's counting. I feel like I have a whole new life and that there is so much more out there than just a job. Just a job. Words come up like: shift, transition, opportunity. Other words come up like depletion, poverty and hunger. But I tend not to pay attention to those words. I have learned to make use of my time everyday doing something creative, artistic and of course, another nook or cranny that needs cleaning. Even small one bedroom apartments get dirty, who knew? But who knew they could get dirty so often. Perhaps being at work all day left me unawares of how much dirt can really accumulate after a short period of time. Luckily, I have all the time in the world now to see that things are ship-shape, top to bottom. Sigh.

All I can say is thank god for bookstores. Small ones and big ones. And there aren't many small ones out there and they don't offer discounts but by golly I buy from them anyway. Come to think of it, I buy books all the time. Most of my savings depletion has been from the purchase of books. Here's the thing, I used to buy books three at a time at bookstores and still have them unread years later. Now, I buy two or three at a time and read them promptly, even the heavy, long, literary tomes. I read everybody! You on the bike! Do you have a book out? Can I read it? I recently read a book about reading books (yes, it has come to that). And in this book of essays about books, the author has an essay about reading anything just to read when there isn't a book around. I could understand this perfectly. She says, that she read a whole catalog of hunting equipment that wasn't even her husband's or hers but came in the mail just because she wanted to read about all the different types of things you could use for hunting. Sounds sordid to me, like reading a catalog of serial killer ideas but hey, I understood. I have done the same thing. I peruse almost every catalog I get in the mail. I will make an evening of it and sit on the couch (I have one now so I can do that) with a glass of wine or a cup of tea and settle in to look at every single picture and caption. You never know where the big idea is going to come from by golly and it just might be in that random catalog that made its way into your mailbox.

I also had the pleasure (ahem!) of a comment from someone, I don't know who, because they were chickenshit enough to sign it anonymously, who read my current (8/13) blog about visiting Michigan. The comment was hardly readable and not even proofread. Really. And it ended on that word and I don't even know what it meant. Apparently, the commenter read my 8/13 blog and thought it was a rant about how I hate Michigan. I read the blog again and realized that to my chagrin that although I wanted to make it clear that I hated Michigan, the blog did not make that clear at all. In fact, the blog didn't even mention or come near to being about hating Michigan. I'm being facetious but I found it amusing that someone could read what I wrote and infer only that from the blog. I do not hate Michigan. I love Michigan even though it's a mostly Republican state. I grew up on the southeastern shores of Michigan and the eastern portion of Detroit, yes, really in Detroit (Jane Street, Hamburg Street, go ahead, look it up!). I merely was annoyed that so many people I meet when I go back there automatically assume I shall be returning to live there as if I've had enough of my wandering around the world and could only be happy there. I think Michigan is a great place to live if that's where you want to be, I don't. I never felt at home there and I left. It's at times a difficult place for me to be and I also don't care for the "smallness" of some of the communities steeped in religion and racism still to this day. It's odd to me that the poster also commented that he/she was from Michigan but not living there but didn't want to elaborate. So if you're going to comment on my blog, be intelligent and state your case and I'm happy to either read it or reply or both. Make a point and make sure you actually read my blog and not read into it what your insecurities are and don't be gosh darn! defensive about a place you don't even live anymore. It's not utopia for cryin' out loud and I can hate it if I want to...in fact, Mr./Miss Poster, it is a "shithole" in some places. Have you actually been through different parts of Michigan and not just Bloomfield Hills? Nnnnah.

I shall return to the work I came out here to do, my solo play. I'm stalling on beginning. Like stalling on most everything else I'm doing...perhaps like, going back to work? Hmmmm.....
Hmmmm...
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