October 2: Where do I Go?, Dizzy with Anticipation, Dreams and Hope

Now that I have reached the end of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the question remains:  Where do I go from here?

In the past, before I started retyping entire published novels into my blog over the course of a year, I hand-picked passages that went along with the themes of my daily posts.  I could do that.  I feel like I pretty much know Hitchhiker's backward and forward, having lived with it for the past ten months.

Or I could start quoting from the second book in the series, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.  That, however, is an endeavor which would take longer than the three months I have left to devote to Douglas Adams.  I really don't want to spend the next five years of my life in the Hitchhiker's universe.

My third option is to abandon the novel for these last months and go rogue--choosing my subjects willy nilly.  As appealing as that prospect sounds, I work better with some kind of framework--a guide, if you will.

Having thought about it for most of the day, I have decided to go with the first option--apple picking passages for my blog posts for the remainder of 2019.  It is the choice with which I feel most comfortable.  I've done it before.  Here is today's selection, spoken by a whale plummeting to its death on the surface of the planet Magrathea:

Never mind, hey, this is really exciting, so much to find out about, so much to look forward to, I'm quite dizzy with anticipation . . . 

It is going to be a crazy couple of days for me, although I am a little dizzy with anticipation.  Tomorrow morning, early, I get in a car and drive to Calumet, Michigan, to be in the Red Jacket Jamboree at the Calumet Theatre.  It's something I really enjoy.  It combines everything I love to do--reading poetry, acting, doing improv, writing, and singing.  And I'm surrounded by talented, creative people.  It's truly a blessing for me.

I don't suppose a lot of people get the opportunity to be a part of something they love.  Neither do I.  I don't get to write full-time.  Don't get to do poetry readings full-time.  Or act full-time.  Or teach full-time.  I dream about it every day, and there's nothing wrong with dreaming.  Dreams are the only things that can get me out of bed some days.

I've always attached dreams to hopes.  Most people who've been reading this blog for some time know how important I think hope is.  It's what reminds me, on bad days, that something better is possible.

And tonight, I have hope in my heart.  I get to be around artists I love tomorrow.  And they're good friends who value me. as a writer and performer.  It's an amazing feeling.  For a few hours, I am who I want to be.

Cool father.  Loving husband.  Friend.  Poet.  Actor.  Artist.  Radio personality.

Now, if he can just get himself canonized, Saint Marty would have everything.

Some people who fill me with hope . . .