I'm Actually A Square

Hey, it's hip to be a square!

Sometimes, it's amusing to me when I look at the stories I write-- with all the sex, violence, crime, and everyday evils-- because in real life, I am about as square as they come.

Hubby's square, too. We figure when we have kids, they'll be cubes.

I don't even drive over the speed limit. Though, I have been pulled over twice. And BOTH times, someone I knew drove by. Of course.

The first time, I think I was pulled over because I was a bulglary suspect. I had just left my parents' now-gone office sometimes after midnight. I didn't see it when I left, but one of the other units had been broken into. Cue the red-blue lights behind me. And me with a computer in the back seat... and a parking brake that doesn't work, only when I tried to tell the office that he first heard that I didn't have KEYS (for the car.) But, it ended well.

The second time-- I saw it coming. I had just left a staff meeting. I was making my left and noticed some guy cutting through a business parking lot (jackass--oh wait, he has extra lights...) to make his left. Then, once he got behind me, the lights came on, and my heart stopped. Yes, I knew I had a burnt out headlight. In fact, it was the third time it had burned out in four weeks. I was contrite, and I think that helped me get off with just a reminder to fix it. I stopped at the store on the way home to get the bulb and changed it in the parking lot. Getting pulled over is hard on the adernal glands of this square.

And yet, I write about characters who have regular dealings with the law. I don't know any of this through experience. But I know it through everyone else, from my students to actual police officers (though I need more the latter.) To me, that's all that 'write what you know' is about. It's about making sure you know what you're talking about, somehow.

Good thing-- because I kind of like being a square.

Though, that does explain why I don't fit in round holes very well... ;-)

So, what shape are you? Round, square, octogon, rhombus?

• Currently Working on: Novel #2, now at 14k
• Current Song: I'm Not Okay by My Chemical Romance