Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The day started simply enough. Well, early really. I got 3 hours of sleep. Awoken by Monica (at my request), but was too exhausted to make our 9am meeting.

I get my coffee, head to work (ahead of schedule/early), do the email thing, swallow pride to ask for the re-issue of a check, stress over some proposals that are late, head to the bank and get the first bad news of the day. Four dear ex-co-workers have their jobs moved to Dallas.

I have lunch with three high school friends and my roommate. Get invited to supper club with great friends. Get word that a prominent figure on the internet will be giving us an opportunity to become the agency to which he refers people needing design work — amazing significance for my small startup.

Run to meet a friend for a quick beer and boyfriend meet and greet. Good laughs. Promptly leave to get my cousin before his halfway home’s 730pm leave-by deadline. Grab some Thai with him, had some more laughs about enemas and poop. See CNN Haiti devastation over his shoulder on the TV. Though it didn’t click really. Second bad news of the day.

Go to a coffee shop where he recites his “30 second commercial” to me and we work on his blue collar resume for his job preparation class. His curfew had us leave around 9:45.

Drop him off and go to meet my fugitive friend (I’d politely declined last night on account of trepidation and busy). Hear that TEDx is coming to Houston (Great!) and that GoogleCN is at risk (Odd.) (thank you Twitter).

Finally meet up with my friend. He tells me me about being robbed on NYE by the boyfriend currently harboring him. He tells me about his new plans to skip town. He tells me how his boyfriend believes they’ll go one place, but he’s really planning to head to another (without the thieving bf). Anything’s better than 45 years in prison.

We head off to get cigarettes. I drive. No dice finding a store that’s open. A sheriff pulls me and my fugitive friend over. I explain that I have an expired license and registration and that my insurance card is not in the car for some reason.

I figuratively pee my pants. My friend figuratively poops his pants. The officer heads back to his cruiser with my passport.

I see the officer returning in the sideview mirror. He does not have a ticket in hands. I brace myself for a, “Sir, would you please step out of the vehicle.”

Instead I get a one sentence lecture on expired stuff and a, “Be safe.”

I drive off speechless. I drop of my fugitive friend at his hideout. I call my brother and recount the story. I drive home to write it all down and design something for my 3rd day of 365 days of design. Try to process it all. Figure out what it all means.