Fresh start

Elaina surveyed all the damage as she made her commute home from work the next day. She saw plenty of neighbors trying to get their affairs in order from the storm, taking pictures for insurance, clearing away branches, working together to push cars over to the junkyard. As sad as it was, and as many people as had been hit, there were few truly horrible casualties. Any injuries were minor, people had places to sleep, the power had come back online relatively quickly. The work part of Elaina, as disillusioned as she had been lately, was buzzing with all the potential projects that such a fresh slate after the storm presented. She and Joseph had done quite a bit of brainstorming in relation to Yelsnag Park, and that was just the beginning of the changes that Elain could see. In that moment, Elaina did something different that she had done since she had moved to Point Place. For years she hadn’t taken advantage of the wave of energy that came from having an exciting idea, instead, she had let it come and go. This time she noticed the uptick in brainstorming, the nagging at the back of her head to write it all down before she forgot. She made it home, and before even taking the time to make coffee, take off her makeup, or anything besides open her laptop. She started typing away writing down all her ideas, making to-do lists, starting proposals. She didn’t stop until she looked up and saw that it was 3 am. She was both surprised and happy, she was tired in the way that you were after working extra hard, not the same listless caffeine driven day she had been having. The next morning, Elaina woke up with unusual vigor. Checking her computer to make sure that god forbid all her work from last night hadn’t deleted, she skipped her usual job site scrolling and instead sent an email to her boss, asking if they could talk for a bit that morning. Gearing herself up as she went about her morning, getting ready, driving to work, and walking in the building, she thought back to those cheesy dove commercial ad of the woman in the bathroom hyping herself up before asking for a raise. Taking a deep breath she walked and said “Good morning Mr. Anders, I have an idea I want to run by you.”