Bits and Pieces, Not Much of Anything

Photo by Michael Engelen

ONE:

As I was brushing my teeth this morning, I was musing about what I hoped to get accomplished this long holiday weekend. Let's see, today is the first - no, wait, it's the second - of July, already! Wow, how my life is fluttering by.

(Rinse. Spit.)

The second of July...now, why does that ring a bell, I thought. Ah, well, it will come to me I'm sure.

And, so it did, halfway through pulling on a sock. This is an anniversary day. The anniversary of the day I embarked down a path much like Alice's rabbit hole, only more disturbing. I have emerged at the exit much wiser than when I started, a bit harder of heart than I ever thought possible, but also more determined to make the time I have left count for something. Too bad it took 29 years to get here, but I'm here, and in the end, that's all that matters.

TWO:

I used to belong to a writers group here in Hanover. We were together for 5 or 6 years, then the group disbanded. A few years later, I ran into Ann, one of the women who started the group, and she asked me to join her and Ida, the other founder, for lunch and writing once a month. So, the Tres Amigas was formed. We were together for about 10 years, until Ida died unexpectedly three years ago. Ann and I tried to continue meeting, but we each were going through personal problems (mine was the divorce from Ex-B), in addition to grieving the loss of Ida, and we lost touch. Until Ann found my email address and sent me a note. It was just what I needed, and we have started meeting for lunch every other week.

Two weeks ago, we ventured over to Gettysburg, to check out a new (to us) writers group. There, I learned about flash fiction, what we old-timers used to call short-short fiction. There is a growing market for fiction pieces under 1,000 words. After reading several articles about flash fiction on the web, I decided I'd take a couple of my unpublished short-shorts and try to produce something coherent from them, then submit to one of these flash fiction sites. Sounds like a good plan, yes?

I can't find a single one of my story files on my computer, nor on the thumb drives I used as back-up, nor on any of the dozens of CDs lying on the desk and shelves here in the office. NOT. A. SINGLE. ONE!

I'd written nearly a dozen short-shorts, started twenty or so more, have notes on characters and plots, snatches of dialogue that seemed priceless at the time...and all is gone. In an invisible, silent puff of digital smoke - pffooophhh! Twenty-five years of work!

I probably have rough drafts in boxes or in rubber-banded manila folders somewhere in the house, but I'd have to call in the people from one of those hoarder make-over television programs to help me search for them.

Hmmm...maybe I could write about that...yeah, about the treasure found in the stacks of crumbling National Geographics...or, the dessicated bodies of long-lost relatives or door-to-door salesmen who stumbled on their way out, knocking great piles of stuff onto themselves, their cries for help muffled by all that garbage. Yeah, that's the ticket!

THREE:

Remember my adventures with the OVR? In early May, I received an e-mail from AS asking me if I was still interested in their services.

My reaction was "???!!!????!"

My response was, "Yes, of course, but since you guys told me, TWICE already, that while I qualify for your services, there was nothing you could do to help me, I gave up asking. So, just what can you do?"

Let's meet, she said.

Uh-hunh.

Well, meet we did, and AS asked me what was it I wanted from OVR. I reminded her that I had answered that question, in detail, both with her and the woman I first met, over 18 months before. Nevertheless, I told her again that what I hoped for was perhaps some career testing or guidance in selecting a field of work I could enjoy, something that would make me glad to go to work each day, since I will be working until the day I die. If possible, perhaps OVR could help with retraining me, or adding to the skills I have already acquired?

Yes! she said, apparently relieved. I can set you up for the career and aptitude tests this week. I'll email you with the details once the appointments are finalized.

What do you know?

So, I've been tested over a two week period and am now awaiting word from Ashley, which likely won't be until sometime in mid-July. It will be interesting to learn just what it is I'm best suited to do for a living.

FOUR:

I'm feeling ambivalent about the Fourth of July this year, probably because I spent more time, than the usual five or ten minutes on picnic planning, thinking about it; about the promise that independence held for the nation's citizens, that was codified in the Declaration.

Did we keep that promise? Ask me in twenty years. I'm still mulling it over.