One Year

One day a few years back I was in my '97 Honda Passport bound for LA. I get to the Grapevine (the notorious hill that one must traverse to get to the valley -it's always a bad and good sign: bad-because its a huge hill and good-in that it signals home's near) when suddenly my car starts slowing down and the accelerator ceases to respond. So I pull over and find that the car is completely dead. We wait hours for the tow truck to finally arrive, we leave the car at the nearest shop and my sister comes to pick us up.

The initial diagnosis was a simple fix-a single part of the engine had been worn down and needed to be replaced. But upon further investigation it was later revealed that a bolt head had overheated, broken off and bounced around everywhere, demolishing the entire inside of the engine. Although the exterior looked relatively unscathed the inside was pretty banged up.

That may be the best way to describe my current state. Fine on the outside but all banged up inside. It's the way I deal with things. I internalize. I suppose I should let you know that I am an introvert..yes an introvert..I may seem like a social creature but naturally I’m all about the alone time. Anyhow I digress. It don't know how long it takes a mechanic to go in there and fix the engine; a few weeks, a month perhaps, but for me I know it will take at least a year. It will be a long process, one I'm not sure I've even started. So I'm making it official by declaring to the world today that "I will not date for a year!”. And world, you can all keep me accountable. So if today is the 28th of August in the year 2007 then it will be at least until the 28th of August in the year 2008 and if you think this is being too legalistic..well it is..somethings just need to be.