I took the train to the city because my car is getting repaired.  Perfect sun sparkling on the Hudson with mid-autumn leaves as far as the eye could see.  Then I enjoyed sunset on the river, seeing a friend, and walking around Harlem, admiring the architecture beneath the moon and stars.

This morning I was woken an hour early at 6 am by a bus parked beneath my window.  The alarm was on, the door was open, and the driver was off getting food somewhere, and took seven minutes to get back.  Then it took him another minute to figure out how to stop the alarm.

Later I was ready to begin a new session at work.  I was showered, fed and dressed in newly cleaned clothes.  When I stepped out of my apartment I kicked a sneaky cup filled with some sort of yellow liquid, hopefully lemonade, which sprayed on my pants and shoes.  I was 15 minutes early though, so I shook it off.

When I got to the train, hordes of passengers were waiting on the platform.  Some incident, power off, trains crawling at a snail's pace.  The whole car was quiet except for two loud women who talked the whole way, and this the morning I didn't bring headphones.  Of course, I was 10 minutes late instead of 15 minutes early.  Same thing happened a couple weeks ago.

Then the classes were great and life was good.  Nice challenge in the morning with advanced students, and in the afternoon the usual for 2018 since they removed me from advanced  listening and speaking: enjoying smiling faces but straining to once again teach the same freaking level 3 curriculum on an eight week cycle for the fourth time this year.  The smiles though.

Sometime in the afternoon I remembered it's my 5 year anniversary working for my company.  Go figure. I am a richer man for this endeavor

17 years ago I was 17 years old, and writing about a personal experience that had transformed me.  I was going to use this writing for my university essay.  I was writing about being thankful to still be here, that is, in existence, with the living, after the events of that holiday.  The first night I'd put my heart on the line for the first time, and although we'd been flirting for a month, I was disappointed.  The next night I watched tough guy westerns with my friend to feel better, drove him home and avoided a deer on the way, dropped him off, drove toward home and avoided two deer on the way but this time hit a telephone pole, which caused my air bag to deploy, the car to fill with dust, Led Zeppelin music to warp, and the telephone pole to break and fall, thankfully, to the right of the car and not through the windshield.  So I am always very thankful on this day, above all, that I am still here and getting to do all the amazing things I do, while always reminded that others who have done much for the world aren't here anymore, so I have to share something every day in a way that improves how we play

Welcome!  You will enjoy trust, love and pleasure sweet one