First off...I feel really young this afternoon. That's because I went to a meeting of the Ogle Lee Retired Teachers. Enough said.
The rain is really quite interesting. It was raining and blowing so hard this morning, it set off my outside motion detector lights. I have never seen them on before.
Those lights are my first line of defense. Some of you may know me as a carefree, happy, fun loving individual. But some of you also know me as a paranoid, hypochondriac, manic depressive who catches every disease mentioned on tv. I hated watching ER (for you young people, that was a tv show set in a Chicago hospital that featured a young George Clooney) because I would catch the disease of the day. In one episode a guy showed up in the ER with a hatchet in his head and I got a headache!! Seriously!
And paranoid....I have been known to put chairs in front of doors in hotel rooms and in my house. You never know when someone will break in and a chair will maybe slow them down.
Now someone as paranoid as me might buy a weapon...and I have. I have a can of wasp spray. It sprays for 20 feet and there is no chance Jackie will use it on me, or vice versa, just because we are having a disagreement. Well, almost no chance.
I am obsessive compulsive. I check the door three times at night. I check the door three times when we leave. If we are going on vacation I walk through the house at least twice to make sure faucets are off. When I was teaching, it was not unusual for me to pull out of the Tilton parking lot, then turn left and pull in to check the gym door. Then I would pull out and repeat the process, for fear I accidentally unlocked the door while checking it. My record was four trips. That is true.
I am convinced one day I will go out for milk and be found 12 hours later in Intercourse, PA, mumbling incoherently and looking for my car while eating a shoe fly pie with my fingers. I can see the police calling and telling Jack they found me in Intercourse......course I will be senile and won't remember any of it.
Every time I ride the L in Chicago I am convinced I will be A: mugged; B: fall onto the tracks; C: be on a train that derails; D: all of the above.
And for anyone who is still wondering what to do in life.....I have a dream/nightmare that because I don't really pay attention to what is around me, I missed the whole start of Second City in Chicago and because of that I am not famous and John Belushi is. Course, he is also dead. But you get my drift. I was taking guitar lessons at the Old Town School of Folk Music when I should have been taking comedy lessons up the street. I thought I would be a Bob Dylan, or a Bob Wagner. Or Joan Baez, after surgery.
Final thought..... In May I am starting a regular column for the Rochelle News Leader. It will be an opinion column on local happenings. I am filled with dread. It's only once a month.....but for some reason having to do something puts a pressure on me I don't usually have. That may be a good thing,
I hope.
Maybe I am still trying to figure out what I want to do in life.
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