55 Hours Of Living Fully: Part One

It's been a while since I recounted a string of my personal exploits in their entirety, but as I've said, I only do so when it seems especially remarkable. As my personal life develops, the bar raises ever higher, and simply doing two things in an evening no longer seems to suffice. Now and again, though, something more does happen. Just recently, something has happened. It stretched over some two and a half days, during which time there were few breaks from action and no respite from mental effort. I don't suppose that every hour of that time is worth giving a complete report on, but it's best to know that general thing. It shall take some time to tell, so I sincerely hope that it's interesting enough to hold your attention for the next seven days.

It began with an evening meeting which fell through. I had been invited into a sort of loose collective of actors looking to band together for motivation and productivity and consented. There had been meeting in the past, but I had missed them for some reason. Not having anything going on, and knowing I'd have something to do near there later that evening, I decided I'd go. I considered sending word, but found nothing in the message received to such the necessity of such action. It turned out to have been rather necessary. I arrived a bit late, but figured everyone would, as that's usually the way. I couldn't reach anyone, and couldn't get inside. Minute by minute, my concern grew. Finally, word did come of the meeting's cancellation. I was at this time walking away, but I and the meeting's planned host made the best of things. There was a costume we had discussed for another venture, but weren't sure how it would work, being meant for a much larger man than me. We determined that it would be funny.

From there, I set out on foot for my next engagement, but felt little urgency. It was then something like two hours before the thing, and I was little more than ten minutes away by bus. That bus would be coming in around an hour, and so I indulged my curious, carefree side some. I was in the very neighborhood I had moved out of just weeks ago, and so I had just the smallest amount of wonder about being there. Obviously too little time had passed for me to feel any real nostalgia, but I was struck by potent awareness of how my relationship to the place had changed. The neighborhood was no longer mine, and the apartment building I walked by was one where I was no longer implicitly welcome. It's an odd feeling.

It so happened that a greatly anticipated store was in the final stages of construction as I left, and I had received word while living in the new place that it had in fact opened. My memory was of building detritus spilling out into the parking lot, and was struck by the change when I laid eyes on the building. There were strings of little flags strung above the parking lot, and I felt as if this new store had taken over dominion of the shopping center. That's no small feat, considering the anchor stores already there. The new store was just closed,  however, and I left to go get the bus that would take me to my next engagement: bible study. Tomorrow, I shall report on all that transpired in connection to that.