Category — Employment

I´m working.

I´m inside a small office which has two steel doors and plexiglass windows cover two walls. My office is inside the hold of a large container ship. My office doors are typical ship´s bulkhead doors.

Friends stop by, women stop by – trying to get me to go out. Women from my past. Unknown women who seem familiar to me.

Outside my office windows – there is a beach inside the cargo hold of the ship. A beach with an ocean (and small waves). Hundreds of people line the beach. I step outside of my office to see.
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Friday was my last day of work. Actually, it was only a half day – I was leaving at noon to carpool to San Francisco International to catch the red-eye to San Salvador, El Salvador. Two weeks of surf to remember what not working feels like.

There was too much unfinished business to actually leave work. (What kind of sick statement is that?!?)

I had one more major meeting to attend – to deal with, among other things, my supervisor situation.

This was what I did NOT say during that meeting…
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These unhappy [outer space] agents found what had already been found in abundance on Earth – a nightmare of meaninglessness without end. The bounties of space, of infinite outwardness, were three: empty heroics, low comedy and pointless death.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. – The Sirens of Titan

In honor of empty heroics, low comedy and pointless death – it’s time to revisit the employment situation.

I last presented my employment plan while at a conference in Monterey.

Toward the end of that conference – my supervisor found me before we were each going to different workshops.

He told me, “You need to carry my things back with you.” – motioning to all of the free corporate-giveaway schwag and work-materials. He was renting a car, and leaving the conference early, to take a few personal days to drive and visit someone.

I was so surprised, all I could do was laugh.
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Employment Planning

The caffeine, carbs and sugars have finally begun to kick in. Arriving at the airport at 5am (Sunday), I am almost tempted to stay asleep. Do I need to be fully present for this portion of the work-day? My supervisor doesn’t look all that aware anyways.

The destination: Monterey Bay. Four days and three nights of a dual-geek-type conference (IT geeks and Research geeks). As usual for geek conferences – especially geek conferences where cross-species communication is necessary – all meals and social activities are pre-arranged. We will be locked into the conference area starting with the 8am breakfasts until the last call at 10pm for the late-night hospitalities.

No sight-seeing on this trip. At least none that is officially sanctioned by our corporate multi-billion dollar hardware and software sponsors.

Monday is St. Patrick’s Day – and alternative plans for the evening quite possibly need to be created.
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Employed? Uh, heh…

You don’t go out looking for a job dressed like that, do you? On a weekday?

Is this a… what day is this?

Escape from the Job?

The golden handcuffs.

I should be glad they’re golden. I’ve worked as an auto mechanic, in construction, general labor, as a security guard, dishwasher, barrista, clerk, pizza delivery driver and fast-food worker. I may hate working at a computer eight hours a day – but at least I’m not busting my knuckles, breaking my back, bored out of my skull, cleaning slop off plates, steaming the skin off of my hands while pulling ’spro for arrogant doctors, getting bit by dogs or coating myself in grease.
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(surfing is frugal)

Over the the month of January, I’ve had time to think about and refine my original idea. The premise is still the same – I can not continue along my present path.

Something needs to change.

I am currently finishing the task of paying off credit card debt, and working paycheck to paycheck with very little savings. My job takes most of my time and energy. I am renting too much house for just myself and my dog.

I am only one unfortunate event away from poverty.

Actually, most of us are only one unfortunate event away from complete poverty. We are not as safe as we try to make ourselves feel. This statement is not meant to make us live in fear. Quite the opposite – we should not let fear keep us from living the lives we want to lead.

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New year’s Day. New Year’s Resolutions. Too much darkness, not enough sunlight. Too much fatty, sugary food. All these things can bump one into a more introspective mood. Especially those of us with mild Seasonal Affect Disorder – whose holiday plans fell through (which was driving south for more than a week of sunny SoCal and Baja 70-degree-and-Santa-Ana weather). Instead, I spent the last week in the gloomy, chilly rain of far northern California.

During the summer and fall, I can’t think of a place I’d rather be. I love it here. However, sometimes I really hate the damp dark rainy Pacific Northwest winter climate. Once the darkness sets in, and the rain starts, and the average local buoy reading is 20-foot plus and sideways rain blowing onshore – there’s no clean surf for months. There are the rare days, when the winds die and the ocean calms – like this New Year’s Day (although the surf was too flat) – but that was the exception rather than the rule. The average surf go-out during these times means looking for waves wrapping around the protective headlands and hoping it filters the chop from 12 feet to a more manageable 5.

To survive, many of the long-time locals take this time to vacation in warmer climes. A co-worker told me I should plan next year’s winter vacation now to make sure it happens.

So on a warm sunny day, feeling the happiness, I let myself think of the ideal winter vacation (instead of the usual driving south to couch-surf with friends-and-family for a week over the last week of December).

Why not go around the world?

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