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2002-11-06
11:55 a.m.

Instead of being late to work this morning (again), I decided to just call in sick. I'm calling it a personal mental health day. I'm planning on taking myself out to lunch, see a movie, and read a book in a coffee shop this afternoon. It should be nice.

I wish I would feel guilty about my lack of direction at work, but the truth is I simply don't. I have this position where it seems like I have a good amount of responsibility, but I really don't. So, there is not much for me to do. The most difficult thing about my job managing a library is that I have to pretend to look busy and work. Now, that's a hard job.

I remember when I was 20 (I act like it was years and years ago) and I felt like the world was mine and I could do anything.

Once, in my 20th year, I was sitting at a coffee shop in Toledo, doing some homework when I overheard a group of women talking. One woman was giving another lady props for an article she had just written for Ladies Home Journal. My ears perked up a little, since magazine writer has always been my career goal. Then, later in the conversation, I heard a woman say, "Yeah, well I just talked to him today and he said he just really needs a 20-year old music writer."

I couldn't believe it. I knew I was meant to hear that sentence. I took a moment to figure out what I would do next, and then went up to the woman and told her that I wasn't eavesdropping, but did hear her mention that someone was looking for a music writer, and then I said, "so, who's looking for me?"

Long story short, she gave me a business card for an editor starting up a new alternative weekly in Toledo. I called the next day, and got the job. I wrote the music column for about a year. One summer, I went away to Europe and when I came back, the paper had folded. I guess Toledo, Ohio is just not a two alternative weekly paper town.

But the point of my story is that I had some sort of direction and I wasn't afraid to follow my dreams. I would like to think I am still that way. I guess another point to the story is that it is good to be in the right place at the right time.

Maybe when I am reading at a coffee shop later this afternoon, I will do some eavesdropping, too...