I've been a pizza delivery driver for many years now...by choice. I truly love this job, and fully intend to do it for as long as this life will allow me to. Right here, in beautiful Anchorage, Alaska...which I also love very much. But I know nothing lasts forever, so I'll just enjoy the ride for as long as it lasts. I wasn't always a pizza delivery driver--I've actually done a lot of different things in my life (I'm 46 years old at the time of this writing), but nothing job-wise has ever felt as perfect for me as delivering pizza.
So why start a blog about such a mundane thing?
Multiple reasons, really. But first off, why NOT start one? I firmly believe that every single life on this planet has an interesting story to tell...if only they'd all realize that and choose to share it. Thankfully more and more are doing so, which is wonderful. And nothing in this world is mundane if you take the time to notice it, and sprinkle in a little imagination. Instead of breaking down the other reasons, I'm going to tell you the processes that led me to decide to create this blog (which I only decided to do a few hours ago), and I think the other reasons will become clear:
A few days ago, while delivering pizza, of course, something that felt very surreal to me happened: I delivered to a house that I hadn't delivered to in many many years (I can't remember how many). I didn't recognize the address on the delivery ticket, but I remembered the house immediately when I pulled into their driveway. I remembered the family--they used to order regularly back in the day. And I remembered the son who would arrive at the door with his mom--he looked to be 7 or 8 years old. He stuck out to me because he spoke so well and was so well-mannered. His mom used to have him give me the money and collect the pizza while she looked on to make sure nothing went wrong. She was a nice lady too, I remembered. That was then. The other day, however, there was no mom when I delivered the pizza--just this massive teenager. He handed me the money and I handed him the food. He was very pleasant and well-spoken. Then it hit me! This massive teenager was the little boy who used to hand me the money way back when. I told him I hadn't delivered to this house for many years and asked him, "You were the little boy that used to hand me the money while your mom looked on aren't you?" He laughed and confirmed that he was, though he didn't indicate whether or not he remembered me. I didn't ask. Then I went on to my next delivery.
On the way to the next delivery, I had sort of an epiphany: people inside their houses tend to be frozen in time from my perspective. I wondered if this was due to my own self-centered tendencies, or if it was like that for others. The customers don't age to me generally. The kids don't grow up, the family pets don't grow old and die; a lady or dude in their 20's is ALWAYS a lady or dude in their 20's to me. Even though that's not true in the real world, it is in my own mind. That's my perspective. That fascinated me.
Then I started thinking about just how long I've been delivering pizza, and all the changes that have occurred in my own life during that time. So many. I've lost my father since then, I've had two kids since then. And a few relationships that came and went--both friendly AND romantic. I had a dog that died, and adopted a cat who is now my companion (Kaylee, my cat from space, I call her. From somewhere near Orion's belt, I do believe).
A couple days later, I started thinking about life in general...not just my own, but everyone's. I started thinking about how much negative energy has been spread in our world for a while now. How people seem more and more each day to become comfortable treating each other horribly. And I started thinking about how I might make some little difference in the world while delivering pizza. And how I already had been for many years now! And that made me smile. Then I started thinking about how life is a lot like delivering pizza...and came up with several analogies. Just a thought exercise for myself at that point--I hadn't decided to write about it yet. I mean I thought of firing off a few fun tweets, of course, but then it seemed like there was really a lot of ground to cover here. Felt like I was onto something. Something really worth sharing. I considered that one of the beautiful things about pizza is that (at least here, in the U.S.) it transcends race, politics, religion, and even sports (though sports goes very well with pizza & wings of course!) Pizza unites, it doesn't divide. If people are hanging out and decide to order pizza, they discuss it and order a pizza. They DISCUSS it! If one likes pepperoni and one likes sausage, they don't argue and try to convince each other that they are right and the other one is wrong. No one ever says, "Pepperoni is evil. If you order pepperoni, you are evil too, and I'm leaving and I can't be your friend anymore." No, they simply order the pizza half and half or as many pizzas as they need (the more pizza the better, is my opinion, but I'm biased of course!) Something actually innocuous in our crazy world, right? And something sensible. Something that unites rather than divides. And in the event their were people triggered enough to argue over their pizza, I wouldn't have to see it or be a part of it...other than being the "good" guy no matter the outcome. Because I'm simply delivering the pizza. And isn't it so perfect that pizza is generally in the shape of a circle?
So I decided I would write an essay on these things, and post it to one of my other blog pages. I started organizing the paragraphs and layout in my mind as I continued to take deliveries. But the end of my shift was nearing, and it was seeming like there was way too much in my mind to cram into one posting. So then I realized this was worthy of its own blog. That I could share life from the perspective of a pizza delivery dude in Alaska. This seemed to have a lot of potential for fun. Then I got even more excited to get home from work (though abiding by the speed limits of course!), and thought it would be cool if people started leaving comments here and it could turn into sort of a happy, drama-free forum over time. And how I could be silly and do sort of a Dear Abby sort of thing where people ask the Pizza Dude advice regarding life's questions (or pizza questions), and he could answer them. He could be sort of a silly, fun problem solver. And I decided #PizzaDudeSez would be a really fun hashtag. Then I remembered that we don't need to do that here, since we have Twitter! So before I created this blog and started writing, I created a new Twitter account, @PizzaDudeSez . So people can tweet me their life's questions there using the #PizzaDudeSez hashtag, and I will share my quasi-pizza dude wisdom with you. And this really feels like it could be a lot of fun. And something not dark and negative.
For those that have known me as KeV Atomic and XanaduDead in the past, I will still be those dudes too, of course! Just adding another online hat now, that has the potential to make lots of us smile over time. And I will keep writing the Sacred Garden stories of course too, but I really want to keep those more intimate--for people that have known me for a long time and have enjoyed my silly stories. So those stories will be published via CawCawCarl. The Pizza Dude Sez blogs will be for everyone, and I will tweet links to those much more openly.
On a personal note, this solves another problem I've been having lately: namely that with all the added tension in the world, I've found the need to write more and more lately in order to maintain some sort of balance within myself. Writing heals me. The Garden Stories are generally too long and involved to release multiples of them each week on a regular basis. I don't want to cheapen them by writing too many too soon. And I don't always have the time and energy to write a chapter when I want to. Life happens, you know? So the Pizza Dude Sez blog will give me an outlet that I can use to heal in between the Sacred Garden chapters.
Anyway, to those of you reading this, thank you for joining me on this journey. Can we put our troubles aside for a few minutes here and there and just enjoy our lives? Life is beautiful beautiful!
Let's ride!
I love you.
XX
So why start a blog about such a mundane thing?
Multiple reasons, really. But first off, why NOT start one? I firmly believe that every single life on this planet has an interesting story to tell...if only they'd all realize that and choose to share it. Thankfully more and more are doing so, which is wonderful. And nothing in this world is mundane if you take the time to notice it, and sprinkle in a little imagination. Instead of breaking down the other reasons, I'm going to tell you the processes that led me to decide to create this blog (which I only decided to do a few hours ago), and I think the other reasons will become clear:
A few days ago, while delivering pizza, of course, something that felt very surreal to me happened: I delivered to a house that I hadn't delivered to in many many years (I can't remember how many). I didn't recognize the address on the delivery ticket, but I remembered the house immediately when I pulled into their driveway. I remembered the family--they used to order regularly back in the day. And I remembered the son who would arrive at the door with his mom--he looked to be 7 or 8 years old. He stuck out to me because he spoke so well and was so well-mannered. His mom used to have him give me the money and collect the pizza while she looked on to make sure nothing went wrong. She was a nice lady too, I remembered. That was then. The other day, however, there was no mom when I delivered the pizza--just this massive teenager. He handed me the money and I handed him the food. He was very pleasant and well-spoken. Then it hit me! This massive teenager was the little boy who used to hand me the money way back when. I told him I hadn't delivered to this house for many years and asked him, "You were the little boy that used to hand me the money while your mom looked on aren't you?" He laughed and confirmed that he was, though he didn't indicate whether or not he remembered me. I didn't ask. Then I went on to my next delivery.
On the way to the next delivery, I had sort of an epiphany: people inside their houses tend to be frozen in time from my perspective. I wondered if this was due to my own self-centered tendencies, or if it was like that for others. The customers don't age to me generally. The kids don't grow up, the family pets don't grow old and die; a lady or dude in their 20's is ALWAYS a lady or dude in their 20's to me. Even though that's not true in the real world, it is in my own mind. That's my perspective. That fascinated me.
Then I started thinking about just how long I've been delivering pizza, and all the changes that have occurred in my own life during that time. So many. I've lost my father since then, I've had two kids since then. And a few relationships that came and went--both friendly AND romantic. I had a dog that died, and adopted a cat who is now my companion (Kaylee, my cat from space, I call her. From somewhere near Orion's belt, I do believe).
A couple days later, I started thinking about life in general...not just my own, but everyone's. I started thinking about how much negative energy has been spread in our world for a while now. How people seem more and more each day to become comfortable treating each other horribly. And I started thinking about how I might make some little difference in the world while delivering pizza. And how I already had been for many years now! And that made me smile. Then I started thinking about how life is a lot like delivering pizza...and came up with several analogies. Just a thought exercise for myself at that point--I hadn't decided to write about it yet. I mean I thought of firing off a few fun tweets, of course, but then it seemed like there was really a lot of ground to cover here. Felt like I was onto something. Something really worth sharing. I considered that one of the beautiful things about pizza is that (at least here, in the U.S.) it transcends race, politics, religion, and even sports (though sports goes very well with pizza & wings of course!) Pizza unites, it doesn't divide. If people are hanging out and decide to order pizza, they discuss it and order a pizza. They DISCUSS it! If one likes pepperoni and one likes sausage, they don't argue and try to convince each other that they are right and the other one is wrong. No one ever says, "Pepperoni is evil. If you order pepperoni, you are evil too, and I'm leaving and I can't be your friend anymore." No, they simply order the pizza half and half or as many pizzas as they need (the more pizza the better, is my opinion, but I'm biased of course!) Something actually innocuous in our crazy world, right? And something sensible. Something that unites rather than divides. And in the event their were people triggered enough to argue over their pizza, I wouldn't have to see it or be a part of it...other than being the "good" guy no matter the outcome. Because I'm simply delivering the pizza. And isn't it so perfect that pizza is generally in the shape of a circle?
So I decided I would write an essay on these things, and post it to one of my other blog pages. I started organizing the paragraphs and layout in my mind as I continued to take deliveries. But the end of my shift was nearing, and it was seeming like there was way too much in my mind to cram into one posting. So then I realized this was worthy of its own blog. That I could share life from the perspective of a pizza delivery dude in Alaska. This seemed to have a lot of potential for fun. Then I got even more excited to get home from work (though abiding by the speed limits of course!), and thought it would be cool if people started leaving comments here and it could turn into sort of a happy, drama-free forum over time. And how I could be silly and do sort of a Dear Abby sort of thing where people ask the Pizza Dude advice regarding life's questions (or pizza questions), and he could answer them. He could be sort of a silly, fun problem solver. And I decided #PizzaDudeSez would be a really fun hashtag. Then I remembered that we don't need to do that here, since we have Twitter! So before I created this blog and started writing, I created a new Twitter account, @PizzaDudeSez . So people can tweet me their life's questions there using the #PizzaDudeSez hashtag, and I will share my quasi-pizza dude wisdom with you. And this really feels like it could be a lot of fun. And something not dark and negative.
For those that have known me as KeV Atomic and XanaduDead in the past, I will still be those dudes too, of course! Just adding another online hat now, that has the potential to make lots of us smile over time. And I will keep writing the Sacred Garden stories of course too, but I really want to keep those more intimate--for people that have known me for a long time and have enjoyed my silly stories. So those stories will be published via CawCawCarl. The Pizza Dude Sez blogs will be for everyone, and I will tweet links to those much more openly.
On a personal note, this solves another problem I've been having lately: namely that with all the added tension in the world, I've found the need to write more and more lately in order to maintain some sort of balance within myself. Writing heals me. The Garden Stories are generally too long and involved to release multiples of them each week on a regular basis. I don't want to cheapen them by writing too many too soon. And I don't always have the time and energy to write a chapter when I want to. Life happens, you know? So the Pizza Dude Sez blog will give me an outlet that I can use to heal in between the Sacred Garden chapters.
Anyway, to those of you reading this, thank you for joining me on this journey. Can we put our troubles aside for a few minutes here and there and just enjoy our lives? Life is beautiful beautiful!
Let's ride!
I love you.
XX