Bloomington: The City Where I Never Sleep

It's good to be back here. Eric and Maddie visited today, and I'd like to issue an apology. In spending most of my week at home and hearing about everything that's been going on in and around Seymour from a particular member of my family, a combination of what I heard and how it was told to me gave me a very wrong impression of my brother Eric.

As I should have remembered, not only can one say that there are two sides to every story, there are definitely two radically opposed sides to stories told by certain people.

Eric is someone ready to break out and do something with himself, but several factors (almost completely out of his control) keep him from it. One is his job. Traveling on sales calls for the radio station sounds nice in theory. It isn't really. Another is that he's living at home, though in seven months after he and Maddie get married that won't be an issue. Then there's the pressure of planning a wedding. By all accounts they seem to have it all in order...but the meddling of a third party* makes it genuinely stressful.

All of these combined factors would take it out of anybody. (Any of you remember the tone of my blog during the summer of 2006?) His approach is not my way of doing things, but neither the way I would do it or the way he is doing it is the "wrong way." Our limited interaction during the previous week made me feel a little slighted, but between work and in Maddie's case night school, they barely have free time for just the two of them. Once all this was explained to me today - and a long update about Nick and how he was doing - I felt a lot more at ease.

Just driving around town today felt nice...it was pleasant and sunny; there is nothing in Seymour I would ever miss if I never went back there. Throughout high school I had what I call "future nostalgia" for the town, thinking that in college I would dearly miss it. Freshman year of college I did indeed miss the house, though the town obviously paled in comparison to Bloomington. That didn't keep me from missing certain things, I suppose.

But then all the ugliness transpired in the summer of 2006...thus inspiring my firm decision to never rest my head there any longer than I have to. With the apartment next year - which I recall naively asking in October if it closed down for breaks, to two "Are you serious?" stares from the properties manager and Graham - I can keep it to weekends only. And major family holidays. I say family holidays because, well, New Year's Eve has not really ever been a triumphant occasion around our house.

Which reminds me: I'm in the process of searching for jobs in town. I need to start building a nest egg for myself. Since my parents are going to spring for rent (something for which I will always be grateful), this means I can put 95% of my income into savings. Of course, the first dollars I earn will be recouping the losses that my parents still owe me, but that's not the point.

No responses yet from the places at the mall. Guess I need to apply en masse to places all over town. I've got standards, though:
+ No factory work
+ No fast food
+ No job where I'd have a uniform

That leaves retail, casual/fine dining (which when I wear my black button-up with a tie and beige khakis, I could totally be a waiter at Grazie! or some such place), maybe pizza delivery?

All this on my list of things to do tomorrow...I don't think that 700 page novel for my Czech literature class will be read, unfortunately. The book is a riot. Then again, every piece of literature I've read from the Czech lands has been great. It irritates me that in my pre-college years I had to read Homer's Odyssey in three different grades. The mainstream Anglo-centric stuff I had to read meant no Tolstoy, no Zola, no Hasek, no Dos Passos...what matters is I'm reading it now.

Anyway, if you like literature with a dark sense of humor (when I read it, you could say I'm riding in the ROFLcopter) and wittily delivered...let me know, I could steer you in the right direction.

Alex

*If you really have to guess as to the identity of the "third party," then you are officially an idiot.

PS - Sorry this wasn't the most interesting blog entry...it was written out of tired insomnia. My favorite type of insomnia is where I'm nowhere near tired though I'm supposed to be ready to pass out. That's what yields 30 hour days for me.

PPS - This ought to make up for the lack of interesting content: