back to LJ
Days to Minneapolis: 34
Lbs. Lost So Far: 33
Total Loss Goal: 75
So I'm back to the Blogging world. I was an early adopter some years ago, wrote the odd angsty post and spewed my vile rhetoric upon the internet community. Caused some trouble for speaking my mind, perhaps over-dramatized some situations and pulled my journal apart.
There is a lot of catching up to do.
2005 has found me reaching the breaking point of living in Southwestern, VA, working as a web developer for the marketing dept. of an environmental and energy consultant group. Work is complicated, the company having shifted my job requirements several times over the past three years. The past two years have found me now working primarily on developing online applications for the company, project trackers and what not, while outside client work ebbs and flows like molasses. 3 years has seen one decent raise, but the company STILL has not lived up to the salary promise that they made me at the beginning. It's ok, I'm getting used to being disapointed here. My annual review comes up on the 8th (or, you know... a couple weeks later... whenever they can get to it), so perhaps I'll score a few more cents on the hour.
Three weeks ago, I decided to take a break (first real one in two years) and did a week of vacation up in Minneapolis, MN, visiting friends and attempting to unplug for a while from the net culture and just enjoy some excellent weather and perhaps do a little sightseeing in the city.
I didn't really unplug. As a matter of fact, I developed a couple MORE addictions, checking my okCupid.com account religiously at every wireless coffeehouse and bar I passed, and spent hours hitting "REFRESH" at 4chan.org (/b). Great for laughs.
Getting back to Minneapolis was a real treat. The weather was hot, but not unbearable. Getting to see Scalar and his new GF was great, Kimishi came down and JoanDoom let me crash at his place. I also got to meet Beatnik in person (although I didn't realize it at the time) and HIS wife (very kickass german girl, made vegetarian dishes that completely rocked... oh and cold brew coffee, awesome). I spent a lot of time chatting with the friends, walking around the city (and boy did we walk) and I found a new favorite coffee shop downtown.
I got there on a Friday (July first) and by Monday, I realized how much I missed being around all my friends and being in an actual city. You could WALK places, for christ's sake. Around here in VA, the local gas station is about half a mile away, so that's not bad, but any shopping or bars or... anything apart from sheep and cattle requires anywhere from 15 to 1.5 hours driving. I'm not much of the bar person, and I'm keen to keep my car from having to go too far in it's advanced years, so I stay home, mostly. But in Minneapolis, I can walk out to literally anything I can think of needing. If I don't walk, there are dedicated bike lanes. If I don't feel like that, there are buses running regularly.
okCupid went from showing 0 Matching Results Found in VA to 63 Matching Results Found. That's always been another point about here: No interesting partners. Plenty of women around, but unless you are into NASCAR, wrestling, or making babies in high school (wave o' babies!). You can always run over to a bar and try to hit on someone there (unwise) or go to church... no thanks. But here I am, changing my local area settings to Minneapolis, and all the sudden, the heavens part, and matches abound. Spent a lot of time messaging people. Some replied, some didn't, a couple I am still talking to, and think we are all excited to meet up and hang out.
Easy transportation to good places, potential friends... jobs? I spent a lot of time on craigslist, checking out the IT/WEB job postings. A couple entries caught my eye, and I reformatted my resume, sent out a few tentative replies. Being that my address was in VA, I didn't expect too much from that, but I made the statement that I would quickly relocate on my own cost, if I was hired. I got back a really promising reply, with an amount of money that would effectively quadruple my current salary. They seemed to like my work (or were perhaps intrigued by my willingness to move so far on my own dime.) They weren't looking to make any decisions until September, which was approximately when I figured I could save up enough to live for about 4 months without a job in the cities.
So here is the plan: Save up all the money possible for the remaining month and a half that I had until Sept. See if I DID get a raise, and relish in the thought of turning in my two weeks notice almost immediately after that. Sell back what will effectively be two weeks of vacation still saved up, cash out, move on. Money has been tighter than I thought, though, so I'm trying to crank out some work on the side, websites and album covers to cover the difference in what I had hoped to have. It's still going to be very tight, I think. Plus I have the extra worry of the apartment place I am looking at doing a credit check on me... not exactly in the best standing right now. No cards now, just trying to pay for past sins.
Apart from all THAT, I really NEED to get out of here, so it's not a question. I'll take what I can, do what I have to, and get the hell out of the mountains. A couple of friends have offered to hole me up, if even the apt doesn't fall through, so we'll see what happens. Starting over, taking risks. People don't really feel comfortable thinking about doing something that drastic, but I'm even less comfortable here. As my very short and wise mother said, "You never really lived here, you just existed." Damn I love that woman.
Well, this seems like more than enough for now... I'm definately long winded, in speech and writing apparently. If you are true voyeur, I'm sure you won't mind, if you aren't... what are you even DOING here?
Lbs. Lost So Far: 33
Total Loss Goal: 75
So I'm back to the Blogging world. I was an early adopter some years ago, wrote the odd angsty post and spewed my vile rhetoric upon the internet community. Caused some trouble for speaking my mind, perhaps over-dramatized some situations and pulled my journal apart.
There is a lot of catching up to do.
2005 has found me reaching the breaking point of living in Southwestern, VA, working as a web developer for the marketing dept. of an environmental and energy consultant group. Work is complicated, the company having shifted my job requirements several times over the past three years. The past two years have found me now working primarily on developing online applications for the company, project trackers and what not, while outside client work ebbs and flows like molasses. 3 years has seen one decent raise, but the company STILL has not lived up to the salary promise that they made me at the beginning. It's ok, I'm getting used to being disapointed here. My annual review comes up on the 8th (or, you know... a couple weeks later... whenever they can get to it), so perhaps I'll score a few more cents on the hour.
Three weeks ago, I decided to take a break (first real one in two years) and did a week of vacation up in Minneapolis, MN, visiting friends and attempting to unplug for a while from the net culture and just enjoy some excellent weather and perhaps do a little sightseeing in the city.
I didn't really unplug. As a matter of fact, I developed a couple MORE addictions, checking my okCupid.com account religiously at every wireless coffeehouse and bar I passed, and spent hours hitting "REFRESH" at 4chan.org (/b). Great for laughs.
Getting back to Minneapolis was a real treat. The weather was hot, but not unbearable. Getting to see Scalar and his new GF was great, Kimishi came down and JoanDoom let me crash at his place. I also got to meet Beatnik in person (although I didn't realize it at the time) and HIS wife (very kickass german girl, made vegetarian dishes that completely rocked... oh and cold brew coffee, awesome). I spent a lot of time chatting with the friends, walking around the city (and boy did we walk) and I found a new favorite coffee shop downtown.
I got there on a Friday (July first) and by Monday, I realized how much I missed being around all my friends and being in an actual city. You could WALK places, for christ's sake. Around here in VA, the local gas station is about half a mile away, so that's not bad, but any shopping or bars or... anything apart from sheep and cattle requires anywhere from 15 to 1.5 hours driving. I'm not much of the bar person, and I'm keen to keep my car from having to go too far in it's advanced years, so I stay home, mostly. But in Minneapolis, I can walk out to literally anything I can think of needing. If I don't walk, there are dedicated bike lanes. If I don't feel like that, there are buses running regularly.
okCupid went from showing 0 Matching Results Found in VA to 63 Matching Results Found. That's always been another point about here: No interesting partners. Plenty of women around, but unless you are into NASCAR, wrestling, or making babies in high school (wave o' babies!). You can always run over to a bar and try to hit on someone there (unwise) or go to church... no thanks. But here I am, changing my local area settings to Minneapolis, and all the sudden, the heavens part, and matches abound. Spent a lot of time messaging people. Some replied, some didn't, a couple I am still talking to, and think we are all excited to meet up and hang out.
Easy transportation to good places, potential friends... jobs? I spent a lot of time on craigslist, checking out the IT/WEB job postings. A couple entries caught my eye, and I reformatted my resume, sent out a few tentative replies. Being that my address was in VA, I didn't expect too much from that, but I made the statement that I would quickly relocate on my own cost, if I was hired. I got back a really promising reply, with an amount of money that would effectively quadruple my current salary. They seemed to like my work (or were perhaps intrigued by my willingness to move so far on my own dime.) They weren't looking to make any decisions until September, which was approximately when I figured I could save up enough to live for about 4 months without a job in the cities.
So here is the plan: Save up all the money possible for the remaining month and a half that I had until Sept. See if I DID get a raise, and relish in the thought of turning in my two weeks notice almost immediately after that. Sell back what will effectively be two weeks of vacation still saved up, cash out, move on. Money has been tighter than I thought, though, so I'm trying to crank out some work on the side, websites and album covers to cover the difference in what I had hoped to have. It's still going to be very tight, I think. Plus I have the extra worry of the apartment place I am looking at doing a credit check on me... not exactly in the best standing right now. No cards now, just trying to pay for past sins.
Apart from all THAT, I really NEED to get out of here, so it's not a question. I'll take what I can, do what I have to, and get the hell out of the mountains. A couple of friends have offered to hole me up, if even the apt doesn't fall through, so we'll see what happens. Starting over, taking risks. People don't really feel comfortable thinking about doing something that drastic, but I'm even less comfortable here. As my very short and wise mother said, "You never really lived here, you just existed." Damn I love that woman.
Well, this seems like more than enough for now... I'm definately long winded, in speech and writing apparently. If you are true voyeur, I'm sure you won't mind, if you aren't... what are you even DOING here?