Brief Update

In Mountain Town
Originally uploaded by BlackenedBoy

I don't have time for a full-length post at this exact moment, but I will try to get one up either later today or sometime tomorrow, after the Journals Section. You've probably noticed (or maybe you haven't) that August and July's sections are incomplete. I'm working on that. August is nearly done with and July will be coming along shortly after that.

The problem with journal entries from this period, from the summers of my childhood, is that they're often ungainly and maddeningly long. This is because, as a fourteen-year-old boy out of school and too young to legally work almost anywhere, I had very little to do, when I wasn't outside playing with my friends, but write in my journal.

This explains the lengthy descriptions given of War and Peace , which I was reading at the time and for the ridiculously detailed plot synopsis of which I apologize.

The truth is, the period that the journals are now entering was a very placid time of my life. From December of 2001, when we moved to Beautiful Town, to May of 2004, when we left, I was, save some bad incidents at home, a very happy and content person.

I opened up, blossomed, really came into my own as a person and saw my imagination soar as I reveled in my beautiful surroundings.

I don't think I've ever been as happy as I was then.

Beginning in May of 2004 the journals will begin to take on a very different tone, as that was a time of great upheaval and tumult for me and my family.

In the present, my job search goes on. I've driven out to Western City and scoured the mall there, but nowhere seems to want to give more than ten hours a week. It's the same story everywhere you look.

Later today I'm filling out an application for a coffee shop online, and recently I've applied to an ice-cream stand in town that needs someone to work about twenty hours a week. Given the price of gas, the proximity of the shop, and the comparatively great schedule, this looks like a very attractive option.

"Plus," my mother jokes. "You could get me free ice-cream!"

That momentary levity aside, my parents have hounded me viciously about my lack of employment, as if all of this is somehow my fault and I haven't been applying to every place of business I can think of since arriving home roughly ten days ago.

I have heard nothing back from the newspaper internship I've sought out, and I will have to contact them, along with National Coffee Chain (different from the coffee store whose online application I'll complete later this afternoon) and Local Restaurant.

On top of this, I'm trying to keep up with journals (both the archiving and writing in the current one), work periodically on my book, and possibly join a Congressional campaign. 2008 is the year to be a Democrat after all, and, apparently for me, the year to have a massive heart attack.

I have a big trip coming up in the middle of June that I'm looking forward to, but the onset of that welcome holiday only adds more urgency to the hunt for employment; if I don't have a job before I leave, it will be late June before I can start looking again and probably July before I can work.

God help me.