Finally

I worked in construction for the summer when I was sixteen. My first job.

A year later, I lasted two weeks in a Ben and Jerry's. I was fired for wearing my hat backwards.

I was a soldier for three years. I was a bass player. A buss boy. A bartender. I worked at Marks and Spencer for a while, taking plastic off hangers, getting electric shocks every few seconds. Some people have been doing that for years. How insane is that?

I was a temp. A warehouse worker. I was a security guard. I worked on the queen's security team once. She was riding in a chariot and doing her back-hand wave like on TV. Even though I was supposed to face the crowds with my back to her, I just had to see that frickin' wave. You only live once.

I was a mover. A phone salesman. A relocation consultant (they have a name for everything nowadays). Worked in retail for a few years. In a horrible bookstore managed by pseudo Liberals who wore a "International Terrorist" with a picture of Bush t-shirts but were also arrogant, ignorant, and of course, one doesn't have to be anti-Semitic to be a proud lefty, but so many are, so I guess it helps.

I was a state employee, working in a booking station. Saw some crazy shit there. Then, I became a stay-at-home dad. It breaks my heart when he cries, but when he laughs, I feel happiness I never knew existed.

And now, I can finally call myself by another name.

Because after... I don't even want to think how long... After years of postponing and procrastinating and delaying and giving up and knowing at the back of my head that I should, but still didn't... After years of going to sleep angry because I didn't and waking up the next day and--see, it's so easy to postpone it for another day... You know what I mean. It's easier to read than to write. It's easier to play, to watch Lost, to eat, to sleep, to surf the web, to have sex, to surf the web and have sex at the same time, to clean the house, to organize the bookshelves, to play with the dogs, to play with the baby, to download music, to rate movies on Netflix, to jog, to collect how-to-write books than to actually write.

But finally, after all these years, I have a first edit.

Finally, I can call myself a writer.