Awful morning + Strokes excerpt (Julia)

[tarotgal]

My day started out badly. I got to work and got a call from my mother who could not find my cat. She had searched the whole house, called his name, shaken the treat pouch, everything. She went outside to look and still couldn't find him. I had a meeting at 11 and couldn't go home. Around 10:40 she called; Max was cowering beneath my futon and refused to move or come out or eat anything she put down for him. He didn't seem injured or ill, just scared to death. No idea what spooked him, but I'm so glad he wasn't out in the rain storm. I got him when it was pouring rain out, it would have been awful to have lose him during one as well. I'm so glad he's safe and acting normally tonight!

After that fiasco, I heard about the Russian hockey team that died in the plane crash. One of our goal tenders played on that team and many of our players had friends on the team, including Ovie. They were told during a practice session today and the news hit them hard, apparently. I was devastated. It has been a HORRIBLE summer for hockey players. Three young players dying of ODs or accidents or suicides and now almost an entire team? Breaks my heart.



It was raining on my way home from Writers' Roundtable tonight. I wrote a Julia fic (unfinished, because I don't like parts of it and other parts aren't written yet) inspired during a drive home in the rain after a Writers' Roundtable meeting. And now every time it rains on my way home from one, I think of that piece. I thought I'd share that beginning scene with you now:

There were times when Julia thought there must be something more than all of this. This thought occurred to her as she was stopped at a red light, watching the windshield wipers go swoop-swoop swoop-swoop. The thought popped into her mind after she successfully talked the fiftieth gay club boy of the night out of her limo. And the thought lodged itself in her head as she stood in the silence of the staff room at Strokes.

She mulled over a Sudoku puzzle until she heard familiar footsteps and the squeak of the door opening. And then a few handfuls of bills dropped onto the table, obscuring the puzzle. Pretty sure she had put a 3 in the wrong place anyway, she abandoned her pursuit to add her own pile of tips. Robert slipped into the chair beside her and together they split the money.

“So,” Julia started. “Are we going out tonight?” Sure it was nearly six in the morning, but there were plenty of places still open.

But Robert shook his head. “Sorry. I already…”

He already had plans. She slipped the bills and loose change into her purse and crossed her arms over her chest. “What’s his name?”

Robert grinned. “Does it matter?”

Which meant he couldn’t remember or hadn’t thought to ask in the first place. “Apparently it doesn’t matter so long as he’s hot.”

“And huge. Nine and a half inches.”

“Bullshit!”

Robert shrugged. “Probably, but I’m looking forward to finding out.”

“I bet you are. Have fun, baby.”

And there it was again, as she waited for the first Metro train of the morning to arrive. And as she sat in the front car, watching the safety lights fly past her on each side of the tunnel. And as she walked up the stairs to her apartment. The nagging feeling that, as wonderful as her life was, there was something missing. Maybe it wasn’t something she needed. But it was most likely something she wanted, or it wouldn’t be creeping up on her so often when she wasn’t looking for it.

There really should be something more than coming home after a simple job, putting on a pair of sweats, and crashing on the couch with a DVD from Netflix and a bowl of microwave popcorn. She fell asleep before the end of the movie and sent it out in the mail the next day without watching the rest.