A thief looks at a decade

"That November night, looking up into the sky, You said "Hey, wish that was me up there -It's the biggest rocket I could find. And it's holding the night in it's arms."

- Kate Bush, "Rocket's Tail"

As of today, November 5, 2006, I have been living in Seattle for 11 years. That realization slammed into my subconscious out of thin air this morning, and made me stop to think for a second. (After the second passed, I immediately resumed not thinking!)

What were you doing in 1995? What was your life like? Has it changed the way you wanted it to? Are you where you wanted to be, or has the script been entirely rewritten into a different movie than the one you thought you were directing?

In 1995 I had an epephany of myself never getting any further in life then "Fry Cook", or meeting a woman who had any more ambition for herself than graduating high school before she was pregnant. Twice. Now, I don't know what any of you may know about South Carolina, but it's not a bad place to live. It's still miles and miles of farmland interspaced with these hickey little one-stoplight towns where the biggest thing happening on a Saturday night is the spitting contest at Earl's bait & tackle qwik-stop.

Sadly, South Carolina is populated with South Carolinians, a race of people who can niether remember the past, nor figure out when exactly the future is. So they spend the majority of thier time arguing over when "now" is. It's like listening to the ramblings of an autistic zen master. S.C. was the first state to secede from the union during the civil war, a fact that will be flung in your face at every mention of the "United States". Nevermind that we lost miserably, nor could we have supported ourselves had we actually been granted release from the union.

Suffice to say, once you're born, you're screwed.

So one night I simply said "Screw this", clocked out and climbed onto an Amtrack leaving South Carolina in the middle of the night. Six days later, I stepped off the platform in Chinatown. And since it was 80 degrees in Columbia when I left, I didn't own a single shirt that had SLEEVES, let alone an actual JACKET.

And of course, it was freezing here.

I never planned on stopping in Seattle, and I sure as hell didn't plan on staying long enough to establish any roots here. But you know that saying, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans". Things have turned out okay. Truth be told, way better than I expected. But I can't help thinking...Where did all that time go? I mean, I just turned around and it's fucking 2006. I guess I better get off my ass & start getting rich like I always wanted. Also, I should find some love slaves, always wanted some of those as well.

Eleven years. And don't they go by in a blink.