Why does it so often feel as though that's all I truly accomplish on a daily basis, survival?  I endure, I exist, I watch reruns of Lost in Space when all else fails, just like everyone else.  Too often for my taste there's more filler to life than actual substance.  Sure, dishes get done, errands get run, and I brush my teeth or whatever.  In secret, though, I read blogs providing instruction on how to live an interesting life.  I watch NatGeo and dream of being an adventurer - some day.  But selling my possessions and constructing a raft of empty milk jugs on which to circumnavigate the globe does not fit into my busy schedule.  I also fear that I'm one of those people, not unlike Homer Simpson, who would not survive two hours alone in the wilderness without shampoo.  Discovering that truth while adrift in the middle of the Pacific ocean seems like it might be a bad thing.

(Besides, we all know those people who are just a smidge too interesting.)
I need the fast food equivalent of interesting. A karate crash-course that will teach me how to be zen and kick-ass in just five easy steps.  Weekend Amazonian rainforest tours to chase down poachers and prevent unlawful deforestation before heading back to the grind on Monday.   Archaeological digs that anyone can join, regardless of lack of actual knowledge or clumsiness or impatience.  (I need cool stuff that can be found within a matter of hours rather than days or weeks or months or years). 

On Easter Eve (Easter's Eve?) I stayed up until 4:30 in the morning watching The Walking Dead marathon I'd recorded (that's just how I get into the Easter spirit).  I've been in Walking Dead world ever since.  The parallels between the zombie apocalypse and what we call 'real life' are disturbing, I assure you.   Most days, just like Rick and Daryl, survival while clinging onto my humanity is just about all that I've actually achieved.

Absent the invention of fast food interesting, I write stories to fill up that empty space, create characters to go the places I cannot.    That truth has become lost to me in my current state of survival, and I really, really need to get my act together in order to get it back.   I will have Ever Evangeline complete by mid May if it kills me.  If I fail, I may just be doomed to succumb to the zombie virus, which may be interesting in its own right - just not for me.