Little Toy Robot

I tend to hold my breath for the thirty days of April. I have a history of bad things happening to me during the month.

Years ago I spent it hospitalized in a bad way. After I moved up north I began to realize that the winters dragged me down, and by the time April rolled around, even if Spring and sunlight were coming, I was rubbed raw by the darkness and the cold.

Later years saw bizarre things happen. I quit a job, started a new job, quit the new job, and went to my old job, within a week. (Ah, the heady days of the dot-com bubble.) I had my wallet stolen on the subway. I lost interest in a few big projects I had drummed up to stave off winter boredom. And more. Fortunately not all in the same year. But all in April.

So I’m happy to report that this April went smoothly. Last April was OK, too, because I basically went underground and stopped interacting with the world in a drastic and pathetic attempt to get by. This year I kept low but didn’t act as if I was reversing a curse. I got settled in with my new job. I read a lot, watched a lot of DVDs, and of course managed my two fantasy baseball teams with a supremely nerdly passion. I spent some time with old and new friends.

I had no illusions that moving to Atlanta was going to change my life. It removed some obstacles that put limits on my happiness, such as (and I’ll admit it) not making much money and living in squalor, and probably suffering from seasonal affective disorder. Starting over really just leveled the playing field to allow me to deal with what comes up, new and old problems, in an honest way by allowing me to take responsibility for them. And so, the April curse is gone.

(Then again, the day isn’t over.)

This entry was posted on Friday, April 30th, 2004 at 10:29 am and is filed under general.