The Fourth Cycle, Years 24-26.

DIARY

For almost everyone (anyone?) reading this, my journaling methods are a little arcane. It dates back to June 1991, when I was frustrated at not having a defined faith, and decided to invent my own, called Eventime. It's untimately more of a philosophical perspective, or even a chronicling method than a religious orientation, and does not conflict with my Catholic faith. Instead, through a series of rituals and evaluations throughout the year, I try to maintain a focus on the present moment and extract as much value as possible.

The oldest aspect of this process (dating back to 1990) is the naming of years... the typical year begins and ends around the Summer solstice. At this time the departing year is given a name on one night and the incoming year is welcomed through an all-night walk of many miles. However, years are also grouped in fours according to "cycles." The fourth year had (conveniently) aligned with major life events, so I'm in the habit of ending these years on the autumnal equinox. By this reckoning, the first year of each cycle is 9 months, the fourth is 15, and intermediate years are 12.

I welcomed in the upcoming year, year "28" last Wednesday the 21st by walking Broadway the length of Manhattan from 6:07 PM to 6:13 AM.

Tonight I will recall and say goodbye to year "27," listening to songs that meant something this year, giving the year a name at the end. Since tonight also marks the end of a cycle, I will give a brief overview of the other three years in the cycle.

Years 1 through 11: Undifferentiated Years

The First Cycle

Year 12
YEAR OF THE STELLAR FIRE

Year 13
YEAR OF SUMMERSEVE

Year 14
YEAR OF THE TRAMPOLINE (aka ROSEBUD)

Year 15
YEAR OF THE MASK

The Second Cycle

Year 16
YEAR OF THE STORYTELLER

Year 17
YEAR OF THE BROKEN MIRROR (aka CRACKED MIRROR)

Year 18
YEAR OF THE COUNTERFLOOD

Year 19
YEAR OF THE AGIT

The Third Cycle

Year 20
YEAR OF THE POWER SACK

Year 21
YEAR OF THE HUNTER DIVIDES

Year 22
YEAR OF DELVING

Year 23
YEAR OF CONJUNCTISYLPHISTRY

The Fourth Cycle

Year 24
YEAR OF THE HORIZON DIVIDES

The Year of Horizon Divides began approximately one week prior to my graduation from the University of Chicago and one month prior to September 11th. I was already involved with Jessica for a year at this point, and had moved into a 2-bedroom apartment on the West Side of Chicago (Humboldt Park) with Ben Buckley. It was, on the whole, one of the most wretched years of my life. After a promising summer of theater work, I started at Advanced Personnel, temping in some difficult departments, while at home our apartment was plagued by gangs outside and roaches inside. Instead of actively pursuing writing projects or theater, I got caught up in impossibly ambitious reading lists and spent hours writing fan fiction. There were bright spots, however, I familiarized myself with the Harry Potter series and deleriously looked forward to the occasional week I'd take off from work. All this culminated in judging the U of C scavhunt for the first time, which represented pure catharsis to me. After the rush of scavhunt, I terminated my assignment and moved back to Flint for the summer; my goal was to revise at least half of Urbantasm, the novel I'd started in 1996.

Year 25
YEAR OF THE BOSSY BIG TOE

The Year of the Bossy Big Toe began in late June. I'd moved into the basement at the Crawfords house and tried (unsuccessfully) to get a job in Flint. While I spent many hours in the basement and developed a very intimate knowledge of my story and characters, I did not progress as quickly as possible. Jessica and I also went through several of our most severe crises that summer, but these were important trials on the way to establishing a long-term relationship. At the end of the summer I moved back in with my parents and spent a week visiting Sam in the UP. It was the refreshing start I needed to get going in Chicago. I shared a small K&G apartment in Hyde Park with Jess and her roommate, and applied to several hundred jobs in two months. Gemma, however, had recruited me to replace a lost actor in her UT production, Tales of the Lost Formicans. I agreed, and this rekindled my passion for theater, which I stepped up by directing Hallie's Play Produciton Workshop. After which I returned to my parents' for two months to save money and plan a new theater group: the Nocturnal. In winter I moved back to Chicago, crawling back to an assignment at Neurosurgery through Advanced, and subletting from Talia, then later subletting another place on 55th, and spring was again dominated by Scavhunt and the Nocturnal's debut production of All is Fair in Love and War, a response to the Iraq war, which had just launched. Finally, Jess and I moved to Flint for the summer, leasing a house on the Eastside.

Year 26
YEAR OF THE SYNCHOPATED SAILOR

The Year of the Synchopated Sailor began dramatically when I took a harrowing all-night walk around the city limits of Flint. I worked at Angelo's Coney Island in a miserable dishwashing job parttime, and spent the week working on my novel and recruiting support for the second Nocturnal production, Artaud's Cenci. The summer was another watershed for Jess and I as we learned to trust and depend on one-another, and make a life for ourselves. Also, Colin, Jess, and I failed to create a Flint Scavhunt, but Hallie succeeded in introducing me to the Ojai Playwrights Conference. I moved back in Chicago with an offer to resume work at Neurosurgery, which was already a department overhwelmed with back filing. I got a very nice and affordable but remote studio in McKinley Park. The remoteness of the location helped define this as one of the most isolating years in my memory. I had decided to propose to Jessica and saving for her engagement ring was a major undertaking. Also, Cenci and the Nocturnal were not going well, and I was growing distant from several of my closest friends. In the end, the year had a surreal, lonely quality to it... the highs were very high and the lows were very low, but I was wrestling with most of this alone. Things came to a head in dramatic fashion as 2004's scavenger hunt was one of the most ambitious and wide-reaching ever with many crises involved, while on the other hand, friendships were ruined by the continuing unraveling of the Nocturnal. As the Nocturnal unwound, I started a less structured group, the Occlusion Group, for broader artistic support, and Lisa secured funding. I was to finish out my lease at the end of August, so I did not move at the end of the year. The year ended shortly after I proposed to Jessica at the Hidden Valley Gardens outside Jackson, Michigan. After proposing, Jess went on vacation in Myrtle Beach with her family, while my mom took me back to Chicago for work on Monday. A week later, the year of the Synchopated Sailor ended.

Year 27.

See Next Post.

END OF POST.