9:40am reality is setting in. I am leaving Friday. I can’t stay. I will lose my sanity.

Thinking back on previous decades. 8 turning 9, 18 turning 19, 28 to 29, 38 to 39. I wasn’t really happy in any of them.

Had a couple people say they are interested in the truck. Might meet one today.

Yesterday the energy flowed through me. Today it dammed up under my right rib again.

I have high energy. The energy needs flow through me. Or it will cause mental and physical damage

8am, sitting watching a movie with my daughter. Thoughts from last night. Woke up at 2am feeling stressed and depressed. Then I remembered I had a great day yesterday! No matter why I wake up with fight or flight.

I avoid confrontation. The landlady and I are having a disagreement about how much rent is due next month. I haven’t responded to her latest message. I keep going over in my brain how or what to say.

I expend so much energy holding onto this place. The pressure of being. Parent and providing. How do I support and care for my daughter without the stress of worry all the time? Young me was care free, strong and unburdened. I didn’t worry about rent, foreclosures or even disagreements with my boss. I don’t expect to be completely carefree but I need to find stable.

I read an innocent exchange in a book. The boss was calling a reporter in and wouldn’t tell him why. The writer didn’t mean to make it stressful but I had ptsd.

9:51pm laying in bed. I literally feel like a different person. I am terrified to think too much. What is I become what I was the last month/13 years?

Watching Mike birbiglia. About birth of daughter.

We could not get pregnant for five years. No reason. 15% of infertility is unexplained. Did in vitro

Was a long shot it would work. But it did. The moment they handed my daughter to me was amazing. I think about it all the time. When her life began. My birthday is in a week. My mom reminds me of where and when. I understand. The birth of a child is singular and spectacular

For one day, a week before my 49th birthday; I am a Golden God. I love feeling like this. Utah me. Chaplain me

At home, 5:22pm for an ever so brief moment, after cleaning out the garage, excited about moving and intrigued by possibilities with this other position I felt the old Utah energy. That feeling of being on the cutting edge of the wind, soaring through life. Fuck this has been a great day. Hard to remember the mental anguish I have endured up to now. Was that really me? Please god tell me that is the past.

I heard back from the first job I interviewed with last month. The guy wants to talk more. Recalling the conversation the position was in Ventura county or the Bay Area. He even mentioned a COO opportunity. I will hear what he has to say but I am pretty deep into the position in Phoenix. It would take a pretty amazing opportunity to change course

In California my priority was being a dad. Providing the greater experience for my daughter. I was obsessed with the place we lived. My job performance was a distant third. I just wanted a paycheck and to be left alone. I didn’t have the bandwidth or energy or sacrifice to excel.

I am indifferent to Phoenix. To the apartment. The priority is doing a good job. If I do good at my job I will provide stability my wife and daughter. Everyone will be happy

1:50pm Saturday, sitting in my truck outside my house

Had a good day. Went for a walk with my daughter and her dog. Transferred posts over to word. Stated to do some editing. My daughter came out and said she wanted to go for a drive. She never asked to do that. Or hasn’t in a long time. I said sure. Where did you want to go? She said she just wants to drive around and listen to music. It was so fun I have tears of happiness thinking about it. Just her and I and the dog. Driving around listening to music together. No tension. No worry. No thinking about life and trying to solve anxiety. We grabbed lunch, ate then I went to move a big non from the garage/basement over to the wife’s apartment. It was all her moments. Then she came back with me and we went through everything stored downstairs and decided what to keep or throw away. My daughter came down and asks if her friend visiting her grandmother from out of town could come over. She hasn’t had friends over in a long time. So they okayed upstairs while we cleaned and talked to a neighbor. This is the most normal/human I have felt in a year since the WIL blow up and pandemic lockdown.

I have to take more risks with lockdown. I don’t mean to be flippant. I am not raging anti mask. But I am a little more open to calculates risk going to a store if I keep social distance. Or letting my daughter have one friend over.

The move is starting to feel very cathartic. Getting rid of all the junk accumulated downstairs allowed me to see the positive side of leaving. I have enjoyed Orange County but I have had my share. Time to bless and release. Try something. New somewhere less and let other people enjoy. Holding on doesn’t do me any good.