... for feeling so incredibly excited, my ability to put it into words is remarkably calm. I think I have a lot to say, but... I'm not entirely sure where to start; there is a whole lot.

Have you ever had something happen to you, and when it did, the whole world just seemed to click over to an entirely new perspective, and you had no idea you could have ever seen it before in the way that you do now? Have you ever found something... the byproduct of whose function you could have never even guessed, but has effected every corner of your life?

Ladies and Gentlefurs,
I]
HAVE
A
CAR.

I can say, entirely positively, that everything has changed, and that the magick of sacrificing old self has worked. I have become a new person again--but that's not because of the car. The car is not the cause; it is the effect. It is, however, the most obvious effect.

I have done some things in the past seven days that I have not dreamed to do since more than six months ago. I have accomplished so very, very much... Let us evaluate, step by step.

I put my foot down, and said "life has to change NOW. I am not going to take it anymore." I took a walk up Brambleton, which was quite a journey, to see a Mercury Tracer that was on sale. The mechanics who were selling it painted a glum picture of a troubled car, and I realized I can do better than that. As I walked away slightly scared, I made two calls out to two other cars for sale, a corolla and a camry.

I test-drove the Toyota Camry, and realized that the car would be perfect for me, and was in fact exactly what I was looking for all along. We talked prices, and I was pleased to have this opportunity. They said I had a week. I decided they had even less than that. I officially forgot about the corolla and the mercury.

I saw in the paper an ad for a job that did not have any information except "General office duties, Apply In Person", and resolved to do something about it
I worked on my resume. Then I walked to the library and bought four color printings, and then to the barber shop for a rather nice haircut (I'm pleased with the result!), and then the Hamrick's (a clothing store), both next to my Kroger, and bought two dress shirts and a tie.

putting on that dress shirt and its corresponding tie for the first time... I felt like a completely different person. I felt a strange power that wasn't my own, the emotional attachment that others made in relation to clothes like these, and felt the perverse joy that the kind of slob I am would now be looked upon with respect and adulation by old people, and resentment and envy by my actual peers. This shirt and tie, these black slacks, this damned haircut, were the vestiges of an entire reality that I had no rightful access to, and to pervert this world with my presence... felt amazing.
My roommates sounded thrilled, if a little bewildered. I was both amazed and frightened at the image in the mirror.

On Saturday, the wire transfer completed. I received a sufficient monetary boost to buy the Camry, and on a sudden whim of fancy, Den-Mother and I took a taxi up to Blue Ridge to fetch the car and write a check. We drove home and she helped to christen the car with a cigarette. Don't knock it. I respect it. The car is officially "No Smoking Except Den-Mother".

I drove to work for the first time... and that very morning, I drove Crazy Dave to Covington to see his girlfriend. You saw that in my previous journal.

The morning after that, I drove Zack home; he lives in Floyd, a place that even Nowhere calls Nowhere, and though I only changed at three intersections, the last two roads were frightening, twisted morasses of dwindling pavement and rough gravel, until the final stretch... a veritable intestinal knot of dirt path down an extremely steep bewooded mountainside, where a blink could've sent me and my beloved car, and our oblivious occupant, straight down at least forty feet.

Tuesday... and some VERY big things happened:
1) I bought the supplies for the den's Roast.
2) I went to the DMV, which killed my time :D
3) I could finally get to the office job that had advertised
4) I successfully cooked the roast...
but by the end, I was too tired, and had to call out from work last night so I could sleep...

Today... I called two architectural firms and sent my resume to a mechanical firm in lynchburg--fifty miles away, but gods in their heavens, i'd drive it for a job like that. I went to the library and printed seven more generic office job resumes, and four more drafting/design resumes. Also, the cover letter to aforementioned lynchburg firm. And on the way there... I got a call from Branch Banking & Trust about a job application I sent in...

...

Tomorrow... I have a job interview.
Look out.
Stand back.
Be advised...
I'm taking off.