Cleaning out some old files I come across correspondence for a job that would have required moving to Naperville.
“You’ll like it, it is practically like living in Chicago.”
That conversation took place on the east coast in the corporate headquarters of the company I was interviewing with in a room with a VP I didn’t trust.
It was the final round of interviews and though I wasn’t going to report to this particular person they made me uncomfortable.
I wasn’t an expert on Chicago, or Illinois in general but I had tons of family there.
My grandparents grew up there as did my mom and my dad had lived there for a chunk of years.
No one talked about Naperville as being part of Chicago and my cousins didn’t describe it that way either.
Ultimately didn’t matter because things went a different direction but if some of those twist and turns had been different my kids would have had a different life.
So would have I.
Got a hell of a week lined up and I don’t know yet how “hell” will be accented. Could be really good, could be really hard, could be a combination of them.
Going to put in a 100 miles or so tomorrow and will be outside for a big chunk of the day which could be pretty nice, even if it is pushing 100.
Already threw a hat into the car because now that my native Jewfro doesn’t grow as it once did I try to keep things covered if I am out for extended periods.
Haven’t ever burned my head, but don’t want to find out what that is like.
Meant to shave it tonight, but forgot and don’t care enough to make the effort to do it so we’ll let it go until it bothers me enough to do something about it.
Kind of funny to me thinking about it all, came this close to staying in LA, this close to moving to Illinois and ended up in Texas.
It is a tangled web we weave.
So decades later there is some mild interest on my part in considering what would have been different and how that might have impacted life and writing etc.
Thought about it a bit during that last trip to Chicago. Walked down Michigan, looked around and made a note to come back with addresses.
Wanted to see where it was family came from, still need to do it eventually.
Went to bed after 2 and expected to sleep until around 10 but nature decided I needed to wake up earlier than that.
I wasn’t ready to be awake so I sat on the couch with a cup black coffee mindlessly watching the end of Keeping The Faith.
Hadn’t watched it in a thousand years was surprised at the end when I recognized the karaoke song Ed Norton was performing.
Guess I know more of that artist’s songs than I realized, kind of funny because I haven’t intentionally ignored him but I haven’t really tried to follow either.
One of the members of my high school FB alumni group started working on a list of “those we have lost” that starts somewhere in the late fifties and goes through the present.
Shocked me a little to see how many names I knew. Some I had heard about and others were surprising.
Cancer got several, drunk drivers took a toll too and a variety of other things played their role.
Just another reminder that sometimes luck of the draw plays as big a role as anything else.
Got to take advantage of our time when we have it because you really don’t know what lies around the bend or how long that may be.
