My Apologies

Dear reader,

 I say you are dear because that is the thing you are to me. You are being dear to me because it is so that you are taking of the time to read what I only a humble tour guide from the time to time will be writing. You will be acknowledging that for some time I have not been fulfilling my end of the bargain. My writing here has not been very constant. I am sorry for these turn of events but the truth is that I have been feeling out of sorts for some time with best regards to my chosen profession. I know that it is so that you answer back Anton, Anton! What is the meaning of this? Thus this is the meaning of this. I have shared with you my familial problems who are my mother, my brother and sometimes my wife who insist on me staying under kitchen table if I have lived a little too much the night before the morning after - so to say. I do this for the encouragement of the many millions of peoples who experience same experiences that I experience. And of course I share with you my special love for my city of Voronezh. You see I love the things I do and my work, but it is for these many months that I felt out of sorts. I have been thinking that what I really want to be is a writer. For this reason I have been conflicted which makes much sense because very good writers from Russia have been feeling conflicted in the past all the time. I am thinking long and hard that when I reach the end of my days, people will not be to remember myself as the best tour guide Voronezh was blessed to have, which is something people will be doing as it is only natural, and I am a weak man powerless in the face of such a thing to stop them, but rather I would like for people to say: "You know that Anton Petrovich, the one who was best tour guide in Voronezh and perhaps the whole of Russia, well did you know that he is also great writer - not only of short stories but also of plays - and he is as good as Chekhov and Tolstoy." "Yes.", the person's friend and confidant will retort. "I have knowledge of him, there is a museum in his beautiful home city dedicated to his whole life, and so many people come from all places that it can never close."


And so it will be that I am now an author being number one and a tour guide being number 2. It is correct that I continue to be tour guide because it pays the bills and I am the best. Maybe one day I will receive a payment for something I am writing but as me darling wife is always saying I should not count on it. So you see I have been grappling with these two callings as person grappling with two slippery snakes and it has been keeping me busy these days. But rest assured I am getting the grapple worked out and will keep telling to you much about my life once more. I am sorry for all I have put you through with the worry of not being any the wiser about what I have been having the pleasures in these days past. But you must keep coming back because that is life. I am looking forward with smiling to the day I can show you my beautiful city and take you to be full of delight at performance of one of my plays in the future. For now I must leave you. Do not cry! Anton will be coming back soon.