Thirty years ago today I crawled out of bed – actually it was just an old mattress on the floor of my friend’s large old Victorian building in south St. Louis. I kissed my girlfriend goodbye, loaded the last of my “stuff” into my 1985 red Rabbit GTI with the crumpled right front fender (which is why I ended up buying it, but that’s a different story), and headed to Dallas to start the next phase of my life.
It turned out to be a fascinating phase.
Six months ago today I again left south St. Louis to head to a new, unfamiliar city. This time it was Pittsburgh. And this experience has again been fascinating.
Of course, I could just be one of those schmucks who finds life endlessly fascinating, One of those fortunate (or possibly unfortunate?) humans who appreciate life’s rich pageant: successes and blunders, horrors and all.
I ended up spending a little over two years in Dallas. My time in Pittsburgh may be less than that. I came here because a friend from college offered me a place to stay as I desperately needed to find a place to sleep at night and store my dwindling supply of “stuff”. I love the area—the skies are some of the most dynamic I’ve ever lived under—but I’m not landing a job. Never really been a problem before in my life, but now…not so much.
This move to Pittsburgh was the latest in many, many—it’s truly hard to emphasize exactly how many—moves. My early life in Johnson County, Kansas was notable for the constant churn and upheaval. By the time I had left the Kansas City area to join my mom on the other side of Missouri, in the St. Louis area, I had lived in nine different residences. I was sixteen.
Now I’m a worn and weathered old fart and my residential tally is in the high double digits.
I’m starting this blog mainly because not only do I like life, I like words. I like playing with them. I delight in finding le mot juste. And since the job search is proving to be mentally unsatisfying I thought I’d explore what I’ve learned and celebrated and grieved over the past half-century of actions and memories, dreams and regrets. The collection of places I’ve called home will play important roles occasionally throughout the posts on this blog. So will thoughts on history, culture, great art and pop art, politics, and just the rapid changes that I’ve experienced in the context of all of the technological changes that have occurred in the past hundred, hundred fifty years. Changes that have made my slowly evolving, curious and fearful branch of primates breathe in microplastics under nuclear skies.
Occasionally I’ll discuss cats. Maybe share a gif or two.
Allons-y!