The Day I Paid Off A Bad Debt

Wells Fargo lets you title your transfers between accounts. I imagine the overly organized people use labels like "For Groceries" or "For Rent" to keep track of where their money is going. I've never done that. I'm not all that organized. But today, when I transferred 3,460 dollars and 33 cents from my checking account to my credit card to pay it off completely for the first time in over two years, I titled the transfer "Fresh Air." 

I've known this all along, but it really only hit me today: Astronautalis is my favorite band. I have to thank my volunteer gig at KRCB for leading me to them a few years back. 

1. Astronautalis

2. Modest Mouse

3. Brand New

4. Mumford and Sons

5. Marcy Playground

Jake and I look like we're related. People are catching on. Today there was a flash flood of customers around ten or so and during that mad rush, with Airborne Toxic Event playing in the background, I couldn't help but laugh and appreciate the chaos. Jenny and a handful of other friends were passing through and for an hour there Old Soul felt like a sitcom episode and that's when I love my job the most, when it's at full speed, when I'm actually having fun. Of course by eleven I'm tired and start counting down the minutes to my afternoon nap, but at least the morning was a blast. 

Pre-Flight Lounge with Jenny, Meg and David, followed by the Backdoor and Petra's. The old jukebox, pondering the fate of Downtown Sacramento, night riding to Old Town, the lounge singer's last show, "You're supposed to start dancing at the beginning of the song," Greek food and French fries. 

Today my mom and her lifelong friends, Kathy and Rhonda, kidnapped me for Kathy's birthday and I was totally high when my mom called six times to wake me from a "nap" and I took them to deVere's to drink and cover my awkwardness with booze, which helped, and they talked me into going to Pizza Rock and drinking more and my mom talked about who would take Loren if my mom died (worried, suddenly, because her friend passed away yesterday from pneumonia) and Kathy turned 41 and acted like it was the end of the world and Rhonda told me about Ashley and her baby. Nice to spend time with people who love me unconditionally and whom I love unconditionally in return. You need to keep family in your life. These are the three women who raised me, more or less, not counting my grandmother. I owe them more than I can imagine. My mom loves Jenny, by the way. She's never been so positive. It was nice to hear. After Cedric came downtown to pick them up, I got dropped off and went home for a few seconds.

After that, Old Soul was having a Reading Partners Volunteer Party down the alley and so I went and mingled for a minute with Kelly and Daniel and Nick and Chris and Jack and Jason and Manuel, the principal of Peter Burnett. I picked an orientation day on the 24th, at Old Soul. I'd been drinking since 4, so the two little glasses of wine certainly added fuel to my social inhibition.

Then it was dinner with Jenny after she got off work. A romantic little Saturday night on the town. We only have so many nights left...

Yesterday marked my One Year Anniversary of living in this house. 

I'll miss my window the most. Second place goes to the backyard (and the bonfires, of course). Third, the eclectic qualities (the old toilet, the kitchen table, the jungle outside, the noises and the stairs). Fourth, the location (I really ought to be closer to Sac State, anyway). Fifth, the bragging rights. 

Not to mention all the memories, which have been obsessively documented in the past 200 blog posts. I wonder how many phases I've gone through. How many passions, thoughts, feelings and dreams I've gone through. How many people I've met and how many I actually know. I wonder if I had any inkling in the slightest that I'd end up where I am today. Did I know that Sac Press wouldn't pan out? Did I know I'd apply to the Peace Corps? Did I know I'd go back to school? Did I know Jenny and I were on a path to meet? 

No. 

So now Jenny's moving away. I'm moving out in October. I'm going back to school and I'm doing something new with my life. I have no idea where any of these developments are going to lead. I may end up going to South Korea next summer to do a little teaching before being shipped off by the Peace Corps. I might figure out that teaching isn't for me. I might publish a book (fingers crossed) and open an entirely different path that I can't even imagine right now. Maybe I'll still be writing in this blog in a year. It's bizarre enough to have 200 entries recalling the last twelve months in this old blue house. I can't imagine where this endless evolution will lead me next. 

All I know for certain is that my credit card is paid off.

And now I can breathe.

- Left to Fry