In case of self ejection - 30 Minute writing exercise

In trying to build my writing chops back, I'm going to give myself 30 minute blocks of uninterrupted writing time. The goal - to write without expectation of perfection, going for volume instead. (this post is raw and unedited, so mistakes will be present)

Today's topic. In Case of Self Ejection

Timer starts... NOW

I have this odd habit that I've been doing since I was a kid. I would try to plan for my future self. 

Not in some trust fund or like vacation, but little things. 

I've constantly tried to anticipate with my future self wants or is ambitious to grow into. 

As a kid, it was little things. I'd sneak in Jell-o box into my mom's shopping cart, Cherry Flavor. 

Later that night, "hey mom, I'm craving something, maybe jello?".

"We don't have any jello"

"I thought I saw some in the cupboard... *looks where I placed it earlier, see! We do have some!"

Perplexed, my mom would make jello. 

Another lay-up from my past self. 

Sometimes I would sleep with my basketball next to me with my gym shorts, a t-shirt and my shoes ready to hop into.

I struggle getting out of bed, but waking up to a basketball would knock over the domino of realizing that all I had to do was sit up. If I sat up, I was within reach of everything I needed to start the day successfully. 

I was developing the rhythm I liked to want to wake up in the morning. 

For you non basketball players, this is a thing among active "ballers". We wear shorts underneath pants on the chance you ever happened to stumble across an opportunity to play pick-up. 

It was a tell of how the "true" ballers were. 

I don't do that anymore, but at any given moment, I'm able to either longboard or dribble (basketball or futbol). 

Over time this evolved and it became such habit that I didn't even realize I was doing it. 

I ran a concession business out of my locker in high school. I sold Cold sodas without refrigeration. My trick (during the winter) was to leave sodas in the car over night because we actually had winters back then. 

My lower locker (beverages were at the bottom, heat rises) was filled with 12 and 24 packs delivered straight from the trunk of my car and would stay cold until lunch. 

It is more difficult to change the state/momentum of a larger mass instead of a singular smaller unit.

-Side Tangent - I believer it was the early 2000's when the "Cube" design was introduced to the soda consumers. High school hustlers everywhere grinned at the ability to stack and store more product in skinny lockers.

I digress. On occasion, I would panic thinking I didn't have product for my classmates and teachers only to grin. The previous night I made sure to place sodas in my car for overnight chilling to assure that Pablo in the morning would wake up to success. 

This may seem minor, but when teachers would pull you out of class for a question about "an assignment" only to change the conversation to, "Can I get a zebra cake, 2 dr. peppers and bag of skittles"... being ready and prepared is half the battle. 

Halfway Mark

Let's fast-forward a bit. Introducing Billie Holiday and my list of dates. 

I grew up a romantic, part of me still is, I'm just not as active in the space as of late. 

Part of growing up without social skills is learning how to prepare for all social engagements. 

Reading books on body postures, how to shake hands, speaking with various volume levels, learning what girls and guys say vs what they mean, picking up on "tells" about how a person thinks or how they actually feel vs what they say... I needed to absorb all information to interact with all potential situations successfully. 

*(retracted paragraph on how to get people to like you)

Back to Billie Holiday, I would curate "spontaneous" dates in college. I would collect songs and trinkets and place them in certain places so that I could access them on the chance I could use them. 

A young me drove country roads and found a spot that was open and beautiful. A young me listened to Billie Holiday's discography and found a few favorites and then purchased those cd's to keep in a separate CD holder in my car in case of cute girl. 

A year later it happened. Said cute girl enters life, randomly calls me and asks, "take me somewhere, anywhere, let's do something.". 

Prepared me ran through the drop boxes of stored mental info on the way to pick her up from her dorm. 

Minutes later, an impromptu date with ice cream and driving country roads led to the spot where we climbed up to a viewing spot looking out over the fields of corn with the city in the background. I then, for the first time asked her to trust me as I grabbed her hand and we ran through the cornfields like children. I parted the corn and kissed under the moon. 

As we walked back to my car,.. I had left the door open with a cd with some Billie Holiday hits. I had turned the music up before running into the field because, "I forgot something" so that when we walked back we could dance under the moonlight together. 

Thank you past me for the lay-up. 

These things continue and compound and morph. Now, it's to the point where I forget about things I've done. 

I'll get an itch of an idea and then try to figure out what to do only to search in a specific drawer with a specific notebook where the past me did the research and wrote a note to my future self on how to be successful with said idea for when I was ready.

*last 30 seconds

Thank you dear reader. I was trying to get to a specific moment to write about, but we're going for volume and I feel confident I achieved it, but there is a cut off. 

The blog post is titled, "In Case of Self Ejection" as I have, as I've mentioned for many many possibilities that I may encounter. 

The title is not ominous, but rather was going to lead to if I ever get so overwhelmed in life, my daily life will still function as it has been. 

In case of self-ejection, everything will continue to run, but I won't be responding. You'll see me in at least a week and back and refreshed with more stories to tell. 

Keep Going.