Fairy Tale

With the release of another Shrek movie – am I the only person that thinks that the 3D version of a movie would have been marketed better if it were the third, rather than the fourth movie? – and McDonald's questionable tie-in with the strangely successful franchise, fairy-tales are on the agenda these days. What exactly is a fairy tale, though? Obviously doesn't only involve fairies per se, but more often than not include magical or incredible characters, items or places. So most Disney stories about princesses fall under the category very obviously, but then so do other stories like a witch living in a candy house or three talking bears sleeping in beds.

I'm not sure what my favorite fairy tale is. Perhaps it's because one of the earliest memories I have of my childhood is how most of the books we had at home were non-fiction. Titles like The Way Things Work or 365 Things to Know or The Great Book of Birds lined my bookshelf more than anything from Aesop or Mother Goose. Not complaining, of course. I loved looking at things like the mechanisms behind the firing of a laser or the similarities in dinosaur and avian skeletal structure or the formation of a white dwarf, rather than the adventures of seven others.

Things don't always have a fairy-tale end, though. Heck, they almost never have a fairy-tale anything, even if you do find yourself the beautiful princess or charming prince. Like fairies themselves, such stories are more often than not just that, stories, designed to address hopes and desires unattainable in most instances.

Like how I said so very long ago, though, stories are an important part of the way life is.

Today marks an important day for the story of my life, I feel. Can't wait for later.

Been doing a lot of thinking lately, though some might argue that I tend to overthink everything anyway. Certain things.

Remembering something that never happened, and how so much has since, is a weird kind of feeling or situation. Looking back at that sentence, I guess it's vague, at best, but have you ever had someone special in your life, someone so dear and who means or meant so much to you and find later that they simply… don't? I'm not talking about breaking up with a significant other, because mutual romantic feelings and relationships are always difficult and pose unique challenges themselves. But how someone can come into your life, share laughter and smiles every day with, and then quite suddenly stop. It's like a character in a story that's been hypnotized or taken over by something or body-snatched by pod-people. And even stranger still, I find myself undisturbed by it, only curious. Someone who knows about the situation asked me last night (this morning?) if I was alright over the whole thing, and I said yes. And I am, though that's a little crazy. But I guess we all are, eh?

Gave the whole situation until the end of today to sort itself out, before I'm closing that chapter. And opening another.

Monday morning sees me starting work for the first time. Not the enforced office-life of NS, or the horrors of giving tuition to slack-eyed boys and mindless zombies for a pittance. No, an actual job. Almost unreal, definitely surreal. I still find it hard to believe at times, and I've had about two weeks to digest it. I remember how I always wanted to be a scientist, growing up. To be precise, I wanted to be an inventor, though I don't think I've ever invented anything, and am not exactly the enterprising or revolutionary sort. But anyway, starting work tomorrow at a huge, multi-national media company, working on something I've always had a passion in. Dream job? Not quite, since there was actually something else I was eyeing, though with this one already in the bag I hope that other gig goes to that other geek.

Looks like I'll be taking the train a lot in the times to come, so maybe this space will be a lot more active. Not as long a ride as other times in the past, but I think we're all in for long rides, and it's just up to each and every one of us to write our own fairy tale endings.