—MAYBE I’M JUST A MAN YOU MADE UP

   

…Please tell me I got here at the right time, please.

 

…One thing you’ll never see me doing is riding a hydrofoil, though I sure like watching other people do it. 

 

…AI—I don’t know. It sometimes seems like the individual’s search for the answer is more important than the answer itself. But maybe that’s just me.   

 

…It seemed like you meant it when you said it and so I’m going to trust you. 

 

…Was it worth all the trouble we started?

 

…“Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.” Ray Bradbury

 

…If you can worry, you can wonder.

 

...“A plane can drop a bomb or food. A syringe can deliver poison or medicine. A stallion can start a stampede or win a race. The same is true of our thoughts.” John Acuff

 

…I need a better place for my exasperation.

 

…I’ve been accused of self-sabotaging myself before, which is something I’m definitely guilty of.

 

…“We never really know what's happening on the inside. The stories we create come only from the fragments we can see on the outside. The narrative depends on the moment.” Jay Halsey

 

…What is resilience other than allowing yourself to start again when things don’t go your way the first time around?

 

…Nothing good is ever easy.

 

…I guess the question is: Do you want compliments, or do you want feedback?

 

…You can’t take back what’s been done to you.

 

…I’m still waiting for the whiskey to whisk me away, I’m still waiting for the ashtray to lead me astray.

 

…I’m just looking for forgiveness, or something resembling a wish list.

 

…I’ll tell you what that wasn’t—it wasn’t a walk in the park.

 

…If you have to ask yourself why you should care about it, you probably shouldn’t. 

 

…“All this fucking ‘self-knowledge,’ what the fuck has it gotten me?” Tony Soprano

 

…Sometimes it feels like a story one of us made up in the bushes when there were more berries than stars in the sky.

 

…“Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed.” Ernst Hemingway

 

…That’s enough of doing that. Let’s try something different and see what happens.

 

…What’s the opposite of criticism? Curiosity maybe?

 

…If you’re going to predict the future, you might as well pick something positive.

 

…“There is no opposite of trauma, because no single good event has such lasting impact. You can consciously recall happy moments from your past, but the ones that suddenly pop into your head uninvited tend to be unhappy.’ Roy F. Baumeister 

 

…Remember when you were a kid, pouting or perhaps throwing a tantrum of some sort, and adults would say, “It’s not the end of the world”? Well, nowadays, they’d likely be wrong.

 

…I’m not sure I like the way this feels.

 

…You good? What happened?

 

…Well, there’s a problem there. I assume you know about problems, how they often get in the way and make us overthink.

 

…Stuff can spook me a little easier than the next guy. Maybe I’m more scared, or maybe I’m more informed. I’ll let you decide.

 

…No, I can’t. That’s the answer to that tricky question.

 

…“We decided that, instead of divorce lawyers profiting from our mistakes, we'd profit from them." Lucille Ball, on how I Love Lucy came about

 

…There are too many people cheering. It has to be bad news.

 

…“Why are you so scared, man?” Landman

 

…“Okay, ah, well, this is a problem,” is something you never want to hear yourself, or your best friend, say aloud.

 

…One “yes” in a sea of “no’s” can sometimes make all the difference.

 

…You don’t get a rainbow without rain.

 

…It doesn’t always have to be perfect. Sometimes just getting it done is good enough.

 

…About the choices I sometimes make, I think: That’s just dumb. What’re you doing?

 

…It’s not so much about the taste as it is the food.

 

…Something can be really funny, yet sad at the same time. But it’s pretty rare when that happens.

 

…When I said I was done, I laughed to myself, because I knew I wasn’t.

…“Sometimes hearts have their own conversations.” Wild Robot

 

…Your message has been sent.

 

…I was going to say something. What was it again?

 

…Don’t you just sometimes want to say, Fuck all these people? No? Well, I guess it’s just me then. 

 

…If you ever find yourself saying, “This is probably not a good idea,” it’s probably not.

 

…Just go. Just go.

 

…That’s really easy to say to someone you don’t know that well, but it’s incredibly hard to say to someone you love, so you’d better mean it and not be kidding.  

 

…“l think when we talk about romance it's oftentimes within the parameters of what two people experience with each other in terms of joint love for each other. But romance exists in all sorts of love. I love my friends. Those relationships are romantic in their own ways. There's no romance better than loving without what popular culture labels as romantic.” Jay Halsey

 

…How often does that happen? Oh yeah, hardly ever, so you’d better fucking pay attention.

 

…According to the weather app, it’s not supposed to be raining right now, but I don’t care. Rain all you want. Rain all over me. My mouth is wide open and I’m thirsty.

 

…When you talk all the time, you’re going to repeat yourself a lot, you just are. 

 

…That’s a good way to call it what it was, so if that works for you, I’m okay if you are. I guess I can live with that if you can, too.

 

…You might be the best person I’ve never met, but if you like that guy, I’m never really going to like you. Nope. It's just not going to happen. 

 

 

 “It’s sad to think it’s the end of summer, and the end of civilization as we know it.”

 

…A long row of ducklings, scurrying across the lake in the early morning, or anytime really, is something to behold.

 

…On occasion, a random interference will happen during my day, and because I’m so superstitious, I’ll think, “Well, that has to be sign.” And the trajectory of my day will completely change, and I’ll never know for sure if I was right or wrong to pay attention to that. 

 

…I used to think it was strange that people talk to themselves, but now I think it’s pretty odd if they don’t.

 

…The thing is, you have to trust yourself first.

 

…“It’s your road, but you ain’t seen the mess yet.” Landman

 

…It’s funny how my computer disliked the word “ain’t”. I understood that thought-process, once upon a time.

 

…That’s great advice, but there’s a point, I think, in everyone’s life, where you don’t need any more advice, not from anyone, even the people you love the most.

 

…I hope you don’t think this is all sad. Sad can be profound. I’m not saying I’m profound. I’m just saying that, sometimes, when you’re sad, that’s when you learn the most about yourself.

 

…Have I told you lately how much I actually hate him? I still do.

 

…When the air-conditioning turns off in this room, it feels hollowed-out, almost like someone has died. It’s hard to explain, that leftover vacuum sound, when there’s no other noise.

 

…Okay, how about this: (…)

 

…“That was all family had to be, at the most basic level, someone seeing you, even if you didn’t know what they saw.” Kevin Wilson, Run For the Hills

 

…One way to get through the day is NOT to listen to Kathleen by Josh Ritter on repeat.

 

…I guess what you’re supposed to do—with technology and advancements today—is just lean into it a bit, embrace it, but I’m still like, Stay away from me, Bitch. I didn’t even look at you.

 

…“I don’t have to agree with you to like or respect you.” Anthony Bourdain.

 

…"My Uncle taught me something very important. He said that when things are going really well, we should be sure to notice it. He was talking about very simple occasions, not great victories. Maybe drinking lemonade under a shade tree, or smelling the aroma of a bakery, or fishing, or listening to music coming from a concert hall while standing in the dark outside, or, dare I say, after a kiss. He told me that it was important at such times to say out loud, 'If this isn’t nice, what is?'" Kurt Vonnegut 

 

…It’s funny how the little things are kind of big.

 

…“a woman unlike myself is running

down the long hall of a lifeless house

with too many windows which open on

a world she has no language for,

running and running until she reaches

at last the one and only door”

Lucille Clifton

 

…Hey, I’m glad you’re here with me, even if you aren’t.