Wanderlust Strikes.....

The incident of May 30 (Blog Post: Whew!) has started me seriously thinking about a lot of things....

Mostly about how I've been wasting my time in this town. I can't believe it took an incident like this for me to see just how dangerous my profession can be. Someone can actually ruin my life and take away my freedom without even putting me in harm's way. All it takes is for some snobby, drunk college girl to holler rape and it may not matter whether I even said or did anything. If the cops hadn't had any sense (like most people in this town) I would have been locked up for whatever charge applied.

Fortunately, that didn't happen. But I have a whole new way of thinking, and a whole new plan. My taxi insurance and most of my permits are good until December or January. By spring of 2010, I plan to be ready to escape Charlottesville, or at least very close to ready.

I have really thought about this. I have a plethora of reasons to leave, and very few to stay.

In 1996, my world was turning upside down. My ex-girlfriend had a job opportunity that was going to take her 600 miles away or more. Because of tension towards me from her parents, I felt that it was best that she do what she had to do, without me. I never wanted for her to have to choose between me and her family, and I thought it might come to that.

Then there was the upheaval of parental divorce. No big surprise, I saw it coming.

Not to mention that I had friends here. Fast forward to 2009.

The majority of the reasons I had to stay here have in one way or another betrayed me. Most of the friends I had at the time have turned on me for stupid and (mostly) unfounded reasons, up to and including being errantly blamed for getting a couple of them thrown out on the street, which in turn made everyone they knew hate me for something I had nothing to do with. Not to mention these "friends" never paid back loans that I and several other people made to help them.

I hate to say it, but sometimes I even feel like my presence is inconvenient to family. I don't hear from them as often as I would like, and when I call them, if I don't get them directly, my calls may or may not be returned, whether I leave a message or not.

So, I bought a motor home recently. It runs and drives, but I am still up in the air as to whether it is roadworthy or not, and whether everything works. If not, I also have an old school bus that I have been using as a surveillance office, which has been paying for my studio time, and I think it could be converted fairly easily.

I think what pisses me off most about the time I have wasted in this town is that in 1996, I settled an insurance claim that would have been a big help in getting me out of this place. Now I am having to make my own luck. Come hell or high water, if nothing changes drastically for the better in my life between now and March of 2010, I will be leaving Charlottesville.