Sunday, April 5, 2009

Regression is a Circle

It's actually kinda funny how life seems to move in a circle. I mean, they talk about it in pretty much every single new age-y book there is. The Lion King gets all the animals in the Serengeti to sing about it. Working in the hospice everyone is constantly talking about "the circle of life and death." But, as a general rule, they are talking about the fact that you are born, you live and then you have the potential to be turned into compost and grow plants to feed people but will, in actual fact, be buried in a big box or burnt and pollute the air just a little bit.

OK, so that's the big circle. I get it. Cicular. Awesome. But I wasn't aware until just recently that there's a lot of little tiny circles in that big circle, too. For example: my housing situation. I seem to be regressing in the housing world and doing it in a very,very circular manner (see visual aid 1). Or possibly a sideways bell curve. Or a straight line and now I'm just going backwards. I'm not sure, but for the sake of my first paragraph lets just go with circle. It's actually weird. Let me explain.

Step one forwards: I started out living in my parents house. That's normal, the average person lives in their parent's house when they are growing up.

Step 2 forwards: I moved to my cousin's house, then to the ranch, then after a series of short term things (Thailand, ranch one again, ranch 2)

Step 3 forwards: I moved into the dorms.

Step 4 forwards: After two years in the dorms I moved in with roommates.

The top of the circle?: I took off and spent a long time living in a random collection of hostels, Tim Horton's, Costco parking lots, TV rooms at Cambodian bars, kitchens and bus stations. Just for argument lets call that the top, the point of the circle where I start turning around. I know in the regular definition of living spaces (4 walls, you pay for it, it's generally safe and you have the ability to wash your hair) these might not have been what most people would define as the high point.....but it was fun.

And now it all starts to go backwards.

Step one backwards- I get a roommate again. But the second half of the circle is apparently not as much fun as the first half. This time, instead of a roommates that I can buy wooden "simple" signs for, who dress up like superheroes with me and bake tater tot casseroles, this time I get a girl who acts like she's 15, lets her dog shit on the floor and has loud sex that forces me to leave the house.

Step two backwards- I move back into the dorms. This time it isn't free. B does not live across the hall. Instead, across the hall lives a girl who spends equal amounts of time screaming at her boyfriend (SHUT UP! No, YOU shut up! I'm not doing that! YOU do it!) and laughing like a hysterical jack in the box. It's like living across the hall from a mental health case study and really I feel like there should be a PowerPoint on the wall asking me what medications I expect to be prescribed for this cut and dry case of bipolar disorder.

Step three backwards- I actually expect this one to be a good step. I think I may have maxed out the negative in 2009. So I'm going to move in with my uncle, aunt and cousins and look forward to it. I have nothing to rant about here.


THE FINAL STEP- I move back home. Actually another one I'm looking forward to ....but there's something anticlimactic about moving back home. I'm going to be an RN and my parents are still going to have to drive me to work.


Isn't that weird? I'm actually retracing my steps through time. It's like Father Time read my Dear John 2009 blog and decided to take me seriously, but accidently just set the dial on reverse and left it there.