Mish-Mash

I apologize, but this is going to ramble. I'm just throwing thoughts up to get them out.

I finished another rough draft for a short story this weekend. This one doesn't have a plot so much as events. I'm not sure that's bad, but I've got to weave the events into a narrative structure. So, I have four of the predetermined twenty that I need. I'm really struggling to come up with the next one. I have absolutely no ideas. I'm looking at a couple of writing books I bought a few years ago. I'm going to flip through them tonight and see what comes.

Work is still hideous, but I think I have a handle on it. It has always been my practice to assume that if a situation was a mess I had a hand in creating that mess and it was my responsibility to determine what that was and fix it. That philosophy has caused me many, many difficult moments. However, with this situation I'm taking a different approach. Nothing is my fault. My only responsibility is not to do something that will aggravate the situation. It feels like I'm being judgemental, and perhaps I am, but the truth is I work with some genuinely hateful, evil people. I don't like thinking about them in those terms, but several of them are so miserable personally that they lash out, and because of my position within the company I'm an easy target.

The employment situation may change, though. I had an interview with another company on Friday. I have no idea if they'll hire me, but it was a very good conversation and if it comes through I'm going to take it.

The down side to a possible new job, and this one in particular, would mean that I'd have to buy a car. I've never owned one and I have some very definite feelings about them. At four dollars a gallon for gas, and the threat of planetary extinction -- not to mention the war for oil we're waging (and let us not forget the impending student loans that will need to be paid) the last thing I need is to buy a car. The car will be a major factor in my decision, scary decision.