It's getting Better All The Time

I’m in the new place and have started the new job. I won’t have furniture for another week which means I’m sleeping on the floor. The conditions I’m finding myself in right now remind me a great deal of the three years I spent living in Las Vegas in the mid 80’s. In the entire time I lived there I never had a bed and slept on the floor the whole time. I’ll grant you, things are a bit different for me than they were back then. Mid 20’s compared to late 40’s being the least of the differences.

When I first went to Vegas I had literally broken down completely. There wasn’t one thing in my life that I didn’t despise and would have welcomed being hit by a truck while walking across the street. I had just been through the one and only heartbreak I’ve allowed myself to suffer through and was truly confused about the what, where’s, how’s and why’s of life. Obviously four things I still haven’t come close to figuring out. I had a job and I had the sports book at the Palace Station Casino and, truth be told, I don’t think it would have been possible to handle anything else. I got rid of my car and rode a bicycle wherever I needed to go. If family came to town and wanted to meet at a Casino for dinner, I rode my bike and used the valet parking for it. It was kind of cool.

I got my first Walkman while living there and got heavily into the band REM and would listen to the tape of “Fables Of The Reconstruction” pretty much every day. I made a few friends while there, knowing that these were people I’d never see again if and when given the opportunity. At the time, people that lived there did little else but gamble and drink and I pretty much don’t drink. I did and still do like to gamble but I’ve always been pretty good at stopping when it becomes too much. I did have a roommate, someone I met at work, but he stole a good amount of money from me, quit his job and was never heard from again. That’s a pretty good example of the kind of people that populated the city back then.

The one good feeling I did have living there was the belief that things were gonna start looking up. Besides sleeping on the floor that’s the only other thing that’s the same as my life back then. I’ve made this huge, and I can’t stress how huge, decision to move down to the Detroit area instead of moving to Florida and yeah, it’s only been a week but I think it’ll be ok. I know I’ll have my down days and times when I’d rather be anywhere but living the life I’m living. There is, however, this feeling, this knowing that it’s going to be all right. I’ve still got the itch to leave, it hasn’t gotten any weaker since I decided to stay, but I’ve got a lot more holding me here than I’ve ever had anywhere else. More friends than I ever dreamed of. Yeah, it is getting better all the time. Thanks guys.