Back to back, to Cali, Cali. Queue music! Yes, that’s right Toto, we never made it to Kansas. Where have we been blown off to now? The great land of La La?
My nomad days are over. But are they? I’ve got a new job, so that should anchor me down. However, ironically I’m still shuttling from office to office. I don’t have my own cubicle, I don’t have a desktop, I don’t have a phone, I don’t have business cards. I’m still moving from one location to the next with laptop in tow (two today!). The reason I took the job? Practical effects like financial concerns. But also, a prodigal son moment. If you recall my letter from last year, I wintered in Kyrgyzstan. I was there to teach English but my host was also an outdoor guide with a ranch. After English lessons, we would go to the ranch and let out the cows to pasture, then he would feed them, clean out the mangers, and put them back in the stocks. I didn’t help initially because 1) it was cold, 2) I was very tired and hungry with no energy for this work (think meat gristle, potato and jam and bread everyday, but only once a day! 3) I signed up to raise English-speaking children, not English steaks!
One day, I finally did rake inside the stable. I saw it coming; knew it would happen in time. And that’s when I had my prodigal son moment. What the hey I am doing at the end of the world, hoisting bales of hay and raking dirt in a manger? Thankfully, I had a crazy, rich, Asian uncle who knew my situation and bought me a ticket to go back to America. Have you ever seen that Eddie Murphy moving, Coming to America? I feel like that; it’s still quite an adjustment being back in the USA even though I’ve been living here the whole year.
When I first embarked on my journey, I wasn’t sure what to call it. People would ask for my story, where I came from, why I came here – which in my opinion, are all better questions than the standard American question – What do you do? I wanted to say sabbatical because I was taking a rest, but that term didn’t work because sabbaticals are defined. I didn’t want to say retired, because I wasn’t retired forever, I just wasn’t working at the time. That’s what a sabbatical would be – a break from work. But, yet again, sabbaticals are defined periods of rest, and my break could stretch indefinitely. I settled on the term “semi-retired”. I didn’t have a normal office schedule, but I still worked. You wouldn’t think writing is working, but being a writer is a full time job! I had a more defined schedule writing then, than I do today in the office (because I’m not in the office everyday)!
And this brings me back to today. This is the current scene in my office. No one around; a loud hum in the background from the ventilation. Very hard to be inspired! Some writers need complete solitude to write; I actually need humans in the background and the concomitant noise to write. Thankfully, I’m not tied down to this job. I took it primarily because it was located in California and it was a limited term position, so there’s no expectation that I work here forever – although they are definitely treating me like a FTE instead of the journeyman SME I desire to be! The ho-hum of life has beat on, and that’s why there’s less interesting updates from me.
Stay tuned for more updates. For now, the paperback version of my book is out, should you wish to buy it.
Cheers,