When Rainy Days are Cause for Joy

I love this time of year. It's rainy season in South Florida and the darkened skies that blanket our afternoons and lash us with quick moving squalls are like liquid sunshine.

Prior to the daily deluge of the past two weeks, we've had months of humid, but rainless, hot weather that scorched our lawns turning them helplessly brown and made going outdoors a hot, humid mess. Now the relentless sun and heat have been replaced with skies as dark as early evening, puddles at the end of our driveways, and green lawns. It's also created a nice scene changing, mood shift for our little perpetually sunny town. Somehow this dramatic change does us good, it feels more grown up around here, more urban, perhaps chic?

photo credit: http://www.lcra.org/newsletter/currents/nov06/images/rain_day.jpg

26 May

Over the past five months I've listened to Steering by Starlight twice in audio book format, driving around town. However, though I've checked it out at least twice from the library, I've yet to get through the hardback and the included exercises. While checking my library book due dates this morning, I realized that the poor book is due at the end of this week and cannot be further renewed. I've resolved to finish the book this week, I've checked it out enough, this has to stop! So, I'll be working on that this week.

I've actually got a tall stack of books in the 'find yourself' genre, all checked out from the library and waiting for me to read them so that they can impart their words of wisdom on my future direction in life. Here's a sampling of the titles:

• To build the life you want, create the work you love


• Secrets of the millionaire mind


• Mortgages for dummies


• The career guide for the creative and unconventional


• 48 days to the work you love

I'm not sure whether these titles are 'cringe-worthy' or a sign of a seeking mind, and I guess it actually doesn't really matter. It reminds me of a time years ago when I was so desperate for direction that I went to have my tarot cards read. I don't remember the reading, but apparently it didn't do the trick since I'm still searching. Quite honestly, I'd be happier with myself if I did less searching and more doing.

As to the fear I mentioned in my last post, here's the source: the least expensive house in Incline Village, my first choice location, is currently $525K. My comfort level is $350K. For that amount I can buy a no-frills condo. My fear is that I'm being stupid to move to a place where I can't afford the home that I so dearly want (though ironically there seem to be plenty of houses that I can afford to rent). And I wonder why I can't convince myself to move somewhere less expensive where a house can be purchased. I am honestly torn on this point.

For years I've dreamed of (and saved for) owning a lovely home (my first), one that is roomy enough for friends to visit, where I don't feel cramped. I love Tahoe but is owning a condo (rather than a house) worth the price of admission? I am by turns thrilled to be moving to Tahoe in September and terrified. So here's the source of my fear: Am I being stupidly stubborn and naive by moving there, renting a house, and hoping by some miracle I'll find a house I can afford?

photo credit: http://chinavillamellera.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/fui-la-mate-y-volvi/

26 May

Over the past five months I've listened to Steering by Starlight twice in audio book format, driving around town. However, though I've checked it out at least twice from the library, I've yet to get through the hardback and the included exercises. While checking my library book due dates this morning, I realized that the poor book is due at the end of this week and cannot be further renewed. I've resolved to finish the book this week, I've checked it out enough, this has to stop! So, I'll be working on that this week.

I've actually got a tall stack of books in the 'find yourself' genre, all checked out from the library and waiting for me to read them so that they can impart their words of wisdom on my future direction in life. Here's a sampling of the titles:

• To build the life you want, create the work you love


• Secrets of the millionaire mind


• Mortgages for dummies


• The career guide for the creative and unconventional


• 48 days to the work you love

I'm not sure whether these titles are 'cringe-worthy' or a sign of a seeking mind, and I guess it actually doesn't really matter. It reminds me of a time years ago when I was so desperate for direction that I went to have my tarot cards read. I don't remember the reading, but apparently it didn't do the trick since I'm still searching. Quite honestly, I'd be happier with myself if I did less searching and more doing.

As to the fear I mentioned in my last post, here's the source: the least expensive house in Incline Village, my first choice location, is currently $525K. My comfort level is $350K. For that amount I can buy a no-frills condo. My fear is that I'm being stupid to move to a place where I can't afford the home that I so dearly want (though ironically there seem to be plenty of houses that I can afford to rent). And I wonder why I can't convince myself to move somewhere less expensive where a house can be purchased. I am honestly torn on this point.

For years I've dreamed of (and saved for) owning a lovely home (my first), one that is roomy enough for friends to visit, where I don't feel cramped. I love Tahoe but is owning a condo (rather than a house) worth the price of admission? I am by turns thrilled to be moving to Tahoe in September and terrified. So here's the source of my fear: Am I being stupidly stubborn and naive by moving there, renting a house, and hoping by some miracle I'll find a house I can afford?

photo credit: http://chinavillamellera.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/fui-la-mate-y-volvi/

26 May

Over the past five months I've listened to Steering by Starlight twice in audio book format, driving around town. However, though I've checked it out at least twice from the library, I've yet to get through the hardback and the included exercises. While checking my library book due dates this morning, I realized that the poor book is due at the end of this week and cannot be further renewed. I've resolved to finish the book this week, I've checked it out enough, this has to stop! So, I'll be working on that this week.

I've actually got a tall stack of books in the 'find yourself' genre, all checked out from the library and waiting for me to read them so that they can impart their words of wisdom on my future direction in life. Here's a sampling of the titles:

• To build the life you want, create the work you love


• Secrets of the millionaire mind


• Mortgages for dummies


• The career guide for the creative and unconventional


• 48 days to the work you love

I'm not sure whether these titles are 'cringe-worthy' or a sign of a seeking mind, and I guess it actually doesn't really matter. It reminds me of a time years ago when I was so desperate for direction that I went to have my tarot cards read. I don't remember the reading, but apparently it didn't do the trick since I'm still searching. Quite honestly, I'd be happier with myself if I did less searching and more doing.

As to the fear I mentioned in my last post, here's the source: the least expensive house in Incline Village, my first choice location, is currently $525K. My comfort level is $350K. For that amount I can buy a no-frills condo. My fear is that I'm being stupid to move to a place where I can't afford the home that I so dearly want (though ironically there seem to be plenty of houses that I can afford to rent). And I wonder why I can't convince myself to move somewhere less expensive where a house can be purchased. I am honestly torn on this point.

For years I've dreamed of (and saved for) owning a lovely home (my first), one that is roomy enough for friends to visit, where I don't feel cramped. I love Tahoe but is owning a condo (rather than a house) worth the price of admission? I am by turns thrilled to be moving to Tahoe in September and terrified. So here's the source of my fear: Am I being stupidly stubborn and naive by moving there, renting a house, and hoping by some miracle I'll find a house I can afford?

photo credit: http://chinavillamellera.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/fui-la-mate-y-volvi/

20 May

Insomnia continues. Luckily I have some new books to read.





The good news:

• I received a call from the agency handling long-term rentals in Incline Village. She suggested that I come out in July or August to tour and confirm a lease for September.
  
• My computer has been sent back to HP for a new hard drive. It should return in a week or so. In the interim, there's the office and the library.


• I'm revising my resume. I was invited to apply for another job in Denver, so I did.
  
• Reading "To build the life you want, create the work you love". Interestingly I resisted the words at first, now I find them wise and reassuring.


• I find that FEAR of making the wrong decision, of failure, is my greatest obstacle right now.

photo credit: http://www.lifepurposediscoverysystem.com/blog/uploaded_images/fear-of-failure-768216.gif

20 May

Insomnia continues. Luckily I have some new books to read.





The good news:

• I received a call from the agency handling long-term rentals in Incline Village. She suggested that I come out in July or August to tour and confirm a lease for September.
  
• My computer has been sent back to HP for a new hard drive. It should return in a week or so. In the interim, there's the office and the library.


• I'm revising my resume. I was invited to apply for another job in Denver, so I did.
  
• Reading "To build the life you want, create the work you love". Interestingly I resisted the words at first, now I find them wise and reassuring.


• I find that FEAR of making the wrong decision, of failure, is my greatest obstacle right now.

photo credit: http://www.lifepurposediscoverysystem.com/blog/uploaded_images/fear-of-failure-768216.gif

20 May

Insomnia continues. Luckily I have some new books to read.





The good news:

• I received a call from the agency handling long-term rentals in Incline Village. She suggested that I come out in July or August to tour and confirm a lease for September.
  
• My computer has been sent back to HP for a new hard drive. It should return in a week or so. In the interim, there's the office and the library.


• I'm revising my resume. I was invited to apply for another job in Denver, so I did.
  
• Reading "To build the life you want, create the work you love". Interestingly I resisted the words at first, now I find them wise and reassuring.


• I find that FEAR of making the wrong decision, of failure, is my greatest obstacle right now.

photo credit: http://www.lifepurposediscoverysystem.com/blog/uploaded_images/fear-of-failure-768216.gif

Suzanne Battles the Bulge

"Camille, do I look any thinner? I've been running in the morning."

My friend looks up from her desk, gives me the once over and then pauses, "Do you want the truth?"

No. I mean, yes. "Yes, of course."

"You look the same. Sorry."

This is my mid-life tussle with weight. I get up three mornings a week and go for a 30 minute walk/run around the neighborhood. On the odd days, I do a variety of things while laying on my back all of which are supposed to tighten my abs and slim my waist.

I still look like a succulent ripe apple. (yum-o! says Rachel Ray!)

Last winter dear friend gave me a gift of some lessons with a personal trainer and we trained and I ran a 5K to celebrate the culmination of our work together. That I managed to run the entire race was a sweet victory. That I didn't lose a single pound during our time together was a disappointment.

My trainer suggested that food, not exercise was the issue. My fondness for baking luscious chocolate cakes, monkey bread involving sticks of butter, or oatmeal cookies which mysteriously lose their ability to fight cholesterol when you add two kinds of chocolate chips, pecans, and a cup of sweetened flaked coconut might have been easy to cut out....but add in an addiction to potatoes and bread and their deadly combination in that All-American feast called a cheeseburger with french fries, and well perhaps she had a point.

So I called Jenny Craig. And I went for a visit and was assigned the most wonderful personal weight counselor. Wendy was everything I am not, petite, slim, and feisty. She had a wonderful sense of humor and was kind enough not to hit me when I said that we would have to factor the caloric content of a vodka tonic into my daily calorie count.

I lasted two weeks on Jenny Craig. It wasn't all bad, I lost 10 pounds the first week, though I believe much of that was water. The second week I made a valiant effort to stick to the plan, but my inquisitive mind, a bad habit of reading food labels, and one too many frozen 'breakfast sandwich' which tasted like cardboard sent me over the edge. Unfortunately for Jenny, the second week coincided with my waking up with a nasty bout of vertigo that lasted five days and caused me to have wretched flights of nausea. My mother insisted that I keep the remaining meals and she's been eating them, and says she likes them, so I think the problem isn't Jenny, it's my picky palate.

Though I couldn't continue with the frozen or prepackaged food plan, I did recognize that the valuable lesson of the program was that it taught portion control. I wanted to continue my weight loss, so I went to the Internet and looked for a fresh food alternative and selected one that is based on the Zone Diet.

Which is where I am now. The food is better, I'm eating healthy, my ubiquitous white jeans are looser, but the scale is not budging. I've decided to continue my morning run because I like the way it makes me feel for the rest of the day, it seems to be a great mood lifter. I'd like to do another one of those 5K runs when autumn comes (it's too damn hot now). I've even started wearing cute little running shorts.

I'm going to continue doing all of this, the diet, the exercise. I try not to get frustrated that the weight is not coming off as I'd like it to. I try to make peace with myself and say that it only matters that I am healthy. But truthfully, it's frustrating that it is more difficult to lose weight as we get older.

I would love to turn heads the way I did when I was thirty pounds lighter. The thirty pounds that have gradually crept on in the three years that I've been back from overseas. One of these days, one of two things will happen: I will accept myself as I am and live healthy at this weight, or I go on a drastic weight loss regimen and stay on it until I've whacked off the pounds that stand between me and the self I imagine (or going back overseas, preferably to a country where they don't have the plethora of Western food products I enjoy.)

Or maybe there is path between. I'll let you know.

18 May

Had an interesting deja vu moment today: On Sunday, I was thinking about my old address in Incline: 949 Dana Court. And the number 4 popped into my mind and a $350K price. Then this morning, I received an email via Trulia with the latest listings from Incline. There was only one, it was 949 Dana Ct. #4, with an asking price of $399K. Interesting isn't it?

The realtor who handles long-term rentals in Incline Village has not responded to the online query I sent them on Friday. So I queried them again, twice, today: once via email, once via their website, and then I sent my local realtor there in Incline an email telling her they were being non-responsive. Huh.

My computer has managed to lose it's hard drive...really....when I try to run a diagnostic test to find out why it won't run it says: 'hard disk not found'. Not good. It's still under warranty with HP but it will take two weeks for them to send out a box, ship it, fix it, and ship it back. My concern is that this is the second computer of mine in the past six months that this has happened to...am wondering if this is a security issue or a strange coincidence.

Anyway, no computer. Went to library to use theirs, a sign on the door said they were closed 'due to emergency'. Huh. So, spent weekend reading a book on resume writing and another called "To build the life you want, create the work you love".

And finally a trip back down Memory Lane: back in 1994, when I first left New York, I travelled to the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington, thinking that I would settle there. Today, on a lark, I went to realtor.com and looked up houses on the island....seems I can afford houses there.

This is what a friend of mine once described as stumbling around like a drunken sailor.

18 May

Had an interesting deja vu moment today: On Sunday, I was thinking about my old address in Incline: 949 Dana Court. And the number 4 popped into my mind and a $350K price. Then this morning, I received an email via Trulia with the latest listings from Incline. There was only one, it was 949 Dana Ct. #4, with an asking price of $399K. Interesting isn't it?

The realtor who handles long-term rentals in Incline Village has not responded to the online query I sent them on Friday. So I queried them again, twice, today: once via email, once via their website, and then I sent my local realtor there in Incline an email telling her they were being non-responsive. Huh.

My computer has managed to lose it's hard drive...really....when I try to run a diagnostic test to find out why it won't run it says: 'hard disk not found'. Not good. It's still under warranty with HP but it will take two weeks for them to send out a box, ship it, fix it, and ship it back. My concern is that this is the second computer of mine in the past six months that this has happened to...am wondering if this is a security issue or a strange coincidence.

Anyway, no computer. Went to library to use theirs, a sign on the door said they were closed 'due to emergency'. Huh. So, spent weekend reading a book on resume writing and another called "To build the life you want, create the work you love".

And finally a trip back down Memory Lane: back in 1994, when I first left New York, I travelled to the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington, thinking that I would settle there. Today, on a lark, I went to realtor.com and looked up houses on the island....seems I can afford houses there.

This is what a friend of mine once described as stumbling around like a drunken sailor.

18 May

Had an interesting deja vu moment today: On Sunday, I was thinking about my old address in Incline: 949 Dana Court. And the number 4 popped into my mind and a $350K price. Then this morning, I received an email via Trulia with the latest listings from Incline. There was only one, it was 949 Dana Ct. #4, with an asking price of $399K. Interesting isn't it?

The realtor who handles long-term rentals in Incline Village has not responded to the online query I sent them on Friday. So I queried them again, twice, today: once via email, once via their website, and then I sent my local realtor there in Incline an email telling her they were being non-responsive. Huh.

My computer has managed to lose it's hard drive...really....when I try to run a diagnostic test to find out why it won't run it says: 'hard disk not found'. Not good. It's still under warranty with HP but it will take two weeks for them to send out a box, ship it, fix it, and ship it back. My concern is that this is the second computer of mine in the past six months that this has happened to...am wondering if this is a security issue or a strange coincidence.

Anyway, no computer. Went to library to use theirs, a sign on the door said they were closed 'due to emergency'. Huh. So, spent weekend reading a book on resume writing and another called "To build the life you want, create the work you love".

And finally a trip back down Memory Lane: back in 1994, when I first left New York, I travelled to the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington, thinking that I would settle there. Today, on a lark, I went to realtor.com and looked up houses on the island....seems I can afford houses there.

This is what a friend of mine once described as stumbling around like a drunken sailor.

15 May

This morning I woke at 4 a.m. worried that I have not been doing enough, that I am in the same place that I was a year ago, that I want to move to Incline Village, but that I am being foolish and should (still) choose a cheaper place (though I do seem able to afford to rent a house there and contacted an agent to inquire about two of them today), that I have not revised my resume yet becaue I don't know how to write one for a job I've never had(in books) but want, rather than one that I don't (in sales) which I've had, that I have not found a job yet because I haven't completed that resume, that there are many more qualified, wiser people 'out there' who will be able to get a job, career, home before me. And that the anxiety of trying to figure out which of these things to complete first (while admonishing myself for not completing any of them yet) is causing me great heaps of anxiety which wake me at 4 a.m.

15 May

This morning I woke at 4 a.m. worried that I have not been doing enough, that I am in the same place that I was a year ago, that I want to move to Incline Village, but that I am being foolish and should (still) choose a cheaper place (though I do seem able to afford to rent a house there and contacted an agent to inquire about two of them today), that I have not revised my resume yet becaue I don't know how to write one for a job I've never had(in books) but want, rather than one that I don't (in sales) which I've had, that I have not found a job yet because I haven't completed that resume, that there are many more qualified, wiser people 'out there' who will be able to get a job, career, home before me. And that the anxiety of trying to figure out which of these things to complete first (while admonishing myself for not completing any of them yet) is causing me great heaps of anxiety which wake me at 4 a.m.

15 May

This morning I woke at 4 a.m. worried that I have not been doing enough, that I am in the same place that I was a year ago, that I want to move to Incline Village, but that I am being foolish and should (still) choose a cheaper place (though I do seem able to afford to rent a house there and contacted an agent to inquire about two of them today), that I have not revised my resume yet becaue I don't know how to write one for a job I've never had(in books) but want, rather than one that I don't (in sales) which I've had, that I have not found a job yet because I haven't completed that resume, that there are many more qualified, wiser people 'out there' who will be able to get a job, career, home before me. And that the anxiety of trying to figure out which of these things to complete first (while admonishing myself for not completing any of them yet) is causing me great heaps of anxiety which wake me at 4 a.m.

President Obama, Jesus Would Like a Word With You...

The National Day of Prayer was celebrated last week by President Obama signing a proclamation... after cancelling a prayer meeting that had previously been scheduled at the White House as well as declining an invitation to the National Catholic Prayer breakfast. I'm concerned this is part of a trend that is inconsistent with President Obama's claims of faith.

The first incident occurred during a press conference in Turkey when President Obama said, "One of the great strengths of the United States," the President said, "is ... although we have a very large Christian population -- we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values." The second incident occurred when President Obama went to Georgetown to deliver a talk on the economy and the White House insisted that a small wooden panel above of the stage inscribed INHS (a term for the name of Christ) be covered before the talk. And finally the cancellation of the prayer service in lieu of a private photo of the President signing a proclamation. I believe President Obama missed an opportunity. Here is the proclamation issued by President Obama:

Let us remember those who came before us, and let us each give thanks for the courage and compassion shown by so many in this country and around the world. On this day of unity and prayer, let us also honor the service and sacrifice of the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. We celebrate their commitment to uphold our highest ideals, and we recognize that it is because of them that we continue to live in a Nation where people of all faiths can worship or not worship according to the dictates of their conscience. Let us also use this day to come together in a moment of peace and goodwill. Our world grows smaller by the day, and our varied beliefs can bring us together to feed the hungry and comfort the afflicted; to make peace where there is strife; and to lift up those who have fallen on hard times. As we observe this day of prayer, we remember the one law that binds all great religions together: the Golden Rule, and its call to love one another; to understand one another; and to treat with dignity and respect those with whom we share a brief moment on this Earth.


From Wikipedia, I found the following Proclamation written by President Lincoln in 1863. God is mentioned five times, rather than the one time offered by Mr. Obama. There is a more humble, grateful, God-fearing tone as well:

And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

During the election and in his memoir, Mr. Obama made much of how his Christian faith sustained him in difficult times. I wonder why now that he has ascended to the highest office in the land that faith seems less necessary. I can't actually imagine any person who had a strong relationship with God, no matter what their religious belief announcing on behalf of the nation that 'we are not a Christian nation, not a Jewish nation, but a nation of ideas."

I'm sorry you feel that way President Obama. I believe that the day we forget that our belief in God and the desire to worship freely was so strong that we founded this nation and died to make it free, that the freedom to celebrate our many faiths made this country one that other nations emulated or envied, then that will be the day we lose the spirit of freedom and the guiding spirit of God that has made this country great.

The White House has arranged prime time TV coverage for President Obama's press conferences and commencement speeches, yet quietly signed a prayer proclamation away from the cameras and then announced that the President would be praying in private.

President Obama has made much of how he wants to unite our country. He missed an opportunity to have representatives of many faiths come to the White House and pray together as we face a time of economic crisis. It is a shame that he does not have the courage of his hero, Mr. Lincoln who asked the nation to humble itself before God in prayer as it faced a crisis of even greater magnitude.

Perhaps this is cynical, but I wonder if we'll see more overt signs of Mr. Obama's faith as the next Presidential election draws closer.

8 May

Image by Today is a good day via Flickr

This week there was a terrific article in the Wall Street Journal describing the rise of freelance careerists. This alternative career path is a win-win for both the company that wants to cut down on overhead staffing costs and for the individual.

For the company, hiring freelance staff allows them to hire staff for short-term specialized projects, without having to provide a desk, a 401-K, a paid vacation plan. It also allows them a relatively painless way to increase and decrease staffing levels more fluidly in response to demand requirements.

The freelance employee makes their own hours, work where they want, chose their projects, and have multiple clients, thereby increasing potential income sources rather than relying on just one. This option would provide me, if not with full income potential, at least a soft landing in my new hometown as I look for more traditional work. Who knows, it might be a way to fulfill my desire to work from home.

How to get started? The WSJ article provided a few of the most popular sites:

• Guru.com
• Elance.com
• odesk.com
• virtualassistants.com

There was another article on the same page (Second Act: Stories of Reinventing a Career "From Wall Street to Green Mountain) that described a man, probably my age, who left a high flying career on Wall Street (Goldman Sachs! no less) to pursue a career more in line with his interests and desired lifestyle. So he traded Wall Street for Green Mountain coffees in Vermont and from the picture in the paper, he looks pretty darn pleased with himself. This is exactly what I hope to achieve with my own move.

Absolutely inspiring.

8 May

Image by Today is a good day via Flickr

This week there was a terrific article in the Wall Street Journal describing the rise of freelance careerists. This alternative career path is a win-win for both the company that wants to cut down on overhead staffing costs and for the individual.

For the company, hiring freelance staff allows them to hire staff for short-term specialized projects, without having to provide a desk, a 401-K, a paid vacation plan. It also allows them a relatively painless way to increase and decrease staffing levels more fluidly in response to demand requirements.

The freelance employee makes their own hours, work where they want, chose their projects, and have multiple clients, thereby increasing potential income sources rather than relying on just one. This option would provide me, if not with full income potential, at least a soft landing in my new hometown as I look for more traditional work. Who knows, it might be a way to fulfill my desire to work from home.

How to get started? The WSJ article provided a few of the most popular sites:

• Guru.com
• Elance.com
• odesk.com
• virtualassistants.com

There was another article on the same page (Second Act: Stories of Reinventing a Career "From Wall Street to Green Mountain) that described a man, probably my age, who left a high flying career on Wall Street (Goldman Sachs! no less) to pursue a career more in line with his interests and desired lifestyle. So he traded Wall Street for Green Mountain coffees in Vermont and from the picture in the paper, he looks pretty darn pleased with himself. This is exactly what I hope to achieve with my own move.

Absolutely inspiring.

8 May

Image by Today is a good day via Flickr

This week there was a terrific article in the Wall Street Journal describing the rise of freelance careerists. This alternative career path is a win-win for both the company that wants to cut down on overhead staffing costs and for the individual.

For the company, hiring freelance staff allows them to hire staff for short-term specialized projects, without having to provide a desk, a 401-K, a paid vacation plan. It also allows them a relatively painless way to increase and decrease staffing levels more fluidly in response to demand requirements.

The freelance employee makes their own hours, work where they want, chose their projects, and have multiple clients, thereby increasing potential income sources rather than relying on just one. This option would provide me, if not with full income potential, at least a soft landing in my new hometown as I look for more traditional work. Who knows, it might be a way to fulfill my desire to work from home.

How to get started? The WSJ article provided a few of the most popular sites:

• Guru.com
• Elance.com
• odesk.com
• virtualassistants.com

There was another article on the same page (Second Act: Stories of Reinventing a Career "From Wall Street to Green Mountain) that described a man, probably my age, who left a high flying career on Wall Street (Goldman Sachs! no less) to pursue a career more in line with his interests and desired lifestyle. So he traded Wall Street for Green Mountain coffees in Vermont and from the picture in the paper, he looks pretty darn pleased with himself. This is exactly what I hope to achieve with my own move.

Absolutely inspiring.

5 May

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

• Created an ad to lease out my condo starting September 1st. We're going to post the ad at a local seminary to target graduate students looking for fall term housing within walking distance of their school. Nice way to insure I have to move isn't it?!

• Contacted an Incline Village realtor that handles long-term rentals and told them that I am looking for a home to rent beginning in September, gave them my budget and my requirements.
  

• Do you think that if I close enough doors, the right one will open?
  

5 May

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

• Created an ad to lease out my condo starting September 1st. We're going to post the ad at a local seminary to target graduate students looking for fall term housing within walking distance of their school. Nice way to insure I have to move isn't it?!

• Contacted an Incline Village realtor that handles long-term rentals and told them that I am looking for a home to rent beginning in September, gave them my budget and my requirements.
  

• Do you think that if I close enough doors, the right one will open?
  

5 May

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

• Created an ad to lease out my condo starting September 1st. We're going to post the ad at a local seminary to target graduate students looking for fall term housing within walking distance of their school. Nice way to insure I have to move isn't it?!

• Contacted an Incline Village realtor that handles long-term rentals and told them that I am looking for a home to rent beginning in September, gave them my budget and my requirements.
  

• Do you think that if I close enough doors, the right one will open?
  

The Twitter-less Dinner

Image via CrunchBase

Last week I wrote about the pleasures of slowing down and savoring the moments of one's life. Eckhart Tolle might call this living in the Now, or being fully present. I've thought about this idea a great deal over the past few weeks as our news programs have been filled with the spread of the Twitter-craze, Oprah's doing it, Ashton challenged Larry King (God bless him for not slapping the child!) Even I, late-blooming adaptor that I am, finally established my own Twitter account.

Here. But not here.

The point of slowing down to savor the moment, making time for dinner, is that it defines a sacred space for home, family, relationships, that exist across the table in eye-to-eye contact. It cuts off the cluttering noise of tweets and SMS and email and blogs... and TVs and phones for that matter, all things that pull us 'out there' rather than being here, now.

As I walked to the library this evening, so that I could work on this essay in relative quiet, I wondered if this anxiety of losing ourselves was experienced by the generation that first received the telephone. Where there resistors then, who said that they recognized the commercial value of phoning in an order or calling for help, but they just didn't think that talking to their friend on the phone would ever take the place of sitting across the kitchen table from here over a cup of coffee and a piece of cake.

In the case of Internet communication the telephone call is taken to another level of remove: we now initiate, establish, and build relationships with people we've never known before and may never meet in the future. Does that make these relationships less real? Less valid? Less valuable? And does the time we spend blogging, twittering, Facebook-ing, take away from the finite amount of time we have for nurturing our relationships with people in our immediate 'real-life' environment?

Are we expanding our circle of friends or losing touch with those at hand? At this moment I am reminded of the couple that met on Second Life via their avatars, fell in love, and married. Their relationship eventually ended because the husband continued to spend time on Second Life and eventually had an online affair with another avatar he met online (though as far as I know they actually met in person) the wife used this cyber-infidelity as the basis for a divorce. I will also add that she was not wholly innocent, while hubby was cavorting on Second Life, she was lost in a different fantasy role-playing community. The irony is that they grew apart while living two rooms apart in the same house.

Or I wonder at kids who while on a car trip with Mom and Dad, spend the entire scenic ride texting friends, oblivious to the beauty of the landscape outside their window.

Extreme examples, I know. And they belie the fact that these rapidly evolving forms of communication have opened up new universes for freedom of expression. This blog has allowed me, an aspiring author, a venue to share my thoughts with others without having to cross the Rubicon of an agent or publisher. Twitter allows me to publicize my work at any hour and without the aid of a publicist. Facebook has enabled me to keep up with my overseas friends, stay in touch with former students, and share pictures with distant family members. My iphone has become a wonderful beach companion, as I read the Sunday papers from my chair surf side, while never getting my fingers smugged with ink or battling the wind for the paper. Yes, all of this is glorious and with the rapid adaption of the Kindle (no I don't own one yet....but I'm one long vacation away from convincing myself I need one) even the way we receive our information will inexorably be changed.

And that's not a bad thing. I am incredibly grateful for the creative horizons it has opened for myself and everyone else. Taking it a step further, I believe that these multiple streams of communication will increase the speed of, if not democracy, then open societies. (Check out the donated or sponsored proliferation of Internet capable computers being distributed in small schools in Third-World countries.)

At the same time, I come back to my need for the Twitter-less dinner, the scenic drive without a cell phone, yes, even the Sunday morning at the beach without news from my iphone. (Just the other day I realized that it has been ages since I've gone to the beach and just sat in silence staring at the waves instead of burying my head into a book or headline or journal.) I never want to become so consumed in the pursuit of catching the next communication wave that I miss communing with those around me.

Which is why, after I finish this post and tweet its launch, I will go home. I will play a CD I checked out of the library of Sting and Edin Karamazov performing music by the Elizabethan composer John Dowland. I'll make myself a vodka gimlet and head into the kitchen to prepare dinner. When it's ready, we'll sit down to dine by candlelight and music, we'll have a conversation and enjoy the time together, face to face.