It's inevitable: I always get my best writing ideas when I cannot do a damn thing about it.
When I lived in Saginaw and drove 30 minutes to and from work every day, when do you think I was most inspired to write? If I hadn't gotten a better and closer job I probably would have broken down and purchased a Bluetooth digital recorder (do such things exist?).
Now, I answer phones for a switchboard and while I do have the occasional free 40 second block between calls, I can get about three to seven words written before my thoughts get derailed with a caller looking for the dermatology clinic, to page their psychiatrist, or to find their brother who od'd and "I swear he got admitted this morning I was just too high to remember which hospital."
The good part is that I do tend to get some good ideas from such exchanges. Today a woman called in because if her neurologist didn't page her back within two hours she would get evicted. Why? What brought her to this point? I journaled about it for about ten calls before my brain bounced to something else, or I took a break to get water - whichever one came first.
An example of my work journal, while listening to random mix of soft tunes on the Muzak:
"Human? Dancers? When asking this seemingly simple question, several inferences are made quite easily: first of all, it is inferred that humans are NOT inherently dancers. Secondly, it is also inferred that dancers are not inherently human. We must be one or the other, otherwise the lyrics would be, 'Are we humans, or are we dancers, or are we both?' and that would totally mess up the rhythm scheme."
Where else could I come up with this nonsense?
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