Last Year: The First Year

It dawned on me as i was sitting on my terrace at 1 on this, the 15th day of June that roughly one year ago today i was informed that my job with LavaWorld International would be terminated and that my family's company, the one that we have owned since before i can remember was going to be sold. That day can be seen as one i can date myself in my mind. That day was the beginning of the end of my summer before Rome, after that day i visited the StL for two VERY eventful weekends, after that i worked with Jordan and John for a mundane but memorable summer job. It was on that job i began to understand what a full weeks worth of work felt like. It was on that job i got into talk radio, and began to understand top 40 and country and alternative radio for what they really were. It was on that job i first got to feel what giving your all and doing a great job felt like, and also what slacking off and just collecting a pay check felt like. It was the end of that summer when the US Basketball team showed me what it truly means to give your all as the favorite, as a team with little to gain by winning takes pride in the job and the recognition of the men around it. I am still trying to implement that into my life. It was the end of that summer that i stayed up all night driving around Wauwatosa and Milwaukee in the Scubado, the last time i would ever drive that wonderful part of my life. That semester was Rome. Since then, its been understanding true longing, what it feels like to get over a loss, the true joys of friendship. What it feels like to go to a bar every night for two weeks, because no day feels complete, and days without it get a little too painful. That semester introduced me to Yvain, Balmung and the view from the Terrace. It saw me come to grips with, and get used to a lonely life filled with friends. Class and jeopardy and cash cab every day. The lack of any type of woman in my life in the bro-thel. And since summer started, i have squatted, and slowed down, and felt useless. I have lost days to sleep and others to MVP Baseball 2005. This is truly year one of the rest of my life. No High school Graduation, first year in college, before and after i read Catcher in the Rye could compare with the stark difference in my life before and after i lost my job and my family lost a pillar of its identity. It's too bad i didn't have a count down to year two.