September 16

Today was one of those days that if you asked me, "How was work today?" I would most definitely not say, "Fine." Because it was purely comical.

I woke up early to pick up my Visa at the Consulate. Once I had my Visa--which is essentially a fancy sticker in your passport--it all became... real.

So real in fact, that my mind decided it would be funny if it checked out for the day.

Funny as in, what if Stephanie can't find stuff? Like drafts of stuff she's written? Or a paragraph mysteriously disappears? She'll ask herself, "Did I not save it to my desktop? What was the file's name?" THAT WOULD BE FUNNY.

So after a great deal of searching and sighing, I had no other choice but to rewrite. As a writer, you have no idea how unnerving that is. Because I SWEAR, I NAILED IT THE FIRST TIME. I really did. I'd prove it to you, but I CAN'T.

The truth is, I've turned into a nostalgic, forgetful emo with the attention span of a parrot. Did I mention emo? And nostalgic?

I find myself looking around my room, wondering what will be different when I return. Surely, the calendar hanging on the wall will still be tacked to September 2009. Maybe I'll find the flip clock whirring slowly, from faithfully ticking off time all these months. Or maybe it will have sputtered to a stop sometime in December because the batteries died and no one was around to change them.

Driving home from work, I take off my sunglasses to remember it all--the way the sun sets behind the Santa Susana mountains, the blinding California light that I wish could be bottled to take with me as a carry-on.

This is why I can't find files.

(photo via Melecwi)