The Novice (Ch. 1)

The second-story studio apartment had not been cleaned for months. The urine ring around the toilet was all the proof one needed, but the dirty dishes in the sink, the clothes strewn about, and the blob asleep on the hide-a-bed sofa added to the ambiance of the apartment. Stan is not in a happy place. His fiance' broke off the relationship in May, citing that he had "changed too much." It is now early August and unemployed Stan's Seattle apartment complex (along with nearly every other domicile in Seattle) does not have the air conditioning to combat the record heat wave scorching the Pacific Northwest.

Stan grudgingly wakes up a few minutes after noon on this forecasted record-breaking Wednesday. The shades are still drawn, but the heat is pouring into the room, and Stan is finding the sofa too sticky to stay asleep. He swears to himself as sits up on the sofa, blood and last night's whiskey rushing to his head. After a minute sitting on the sofa with his head in his hands, he manages to stand and makes a bee-line for the bathroom.

Between Stan and his porcelain throne sits Stan's faithful 20lb cat, Herbert. Herbert perks up at Stan, who for all Herbert knows may be rushing to fill his empty food bowl in the bathroom. Unfortunately for both human and feline, Stan does not see Herbert on the floor, camouflaged amongst the dirty clothes of the past month.

Herbert lets out a howl. Stan lets out a howl and a string of curse words as he crumples to the floor. Stan notices Herbert limping away and feels sick to his stomach. Sickness to his stomach, combined with the bile already forming in his mouth from his adult headache, causes his mouth to erupt like St. Helens.

When the World Ends

We both lead incredibly busy lives. Between all of the different hats each one of us juggles, we rarely have time to sit and contemplate life. Where are we going? Where do we want to be?

Sometimes I envision myself with someone else. What would my life be like today if Lisa and I had never broken up? How different would my kids be? Would my sex life be better or worse? Would I be happier? I don't tell you about these thoughts, because they are just day dreams.

Soaking in the hot tub with you, vacationing out at the coast with the kids asleep, finally gives us time to talk. No more talking about how our days went. No more talking about the weather or Matt's baseball game. Talk about us.

You really do want that job in California. I know you've talked about it before, but life always seems to get in the way of us talking about it. Yes, the move would be difficult, but if it is really what you want to do, I support you. I love your strength and desire. I do enjoy living here, but a change of scenery would be nice, and now that I know just how much you want this, I think we should go for it.

Bartender

I sit at the end of the bar, alone. I've been sitting on this stool for the last six hours. We broke up today, and I did not see it coming. Everywhere I look in this town, I see our ghosts smiling together.

I am drinking to forget, but every drink I remember another special moment we spent together. Sadness, anger, happiness... and now I'm at indifference. I wonder what you are thinking. I wonder what is next.

Writing Project

I am beginning a writing project based on the Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds "Live at Radio City" performance from 2007. There are 27 tracks to the performance, and I intend to use each track to create a 1,000 word maximum writing sample. I think each writing sample will stand alone, as each of the songs do, but once finished I may be able to compile them together. The title of each post will be the name of the song, which will also be the title of the writing sample. If I can find the tracks on YouTube, I will provide the performance at the beginning of each writing sample.