3 years: An inventory

You know what's weird? Almost to the day 3 years ago, I was in the exact same situation as I am right now: preparing to move across country. Heck, this feels familiar. I have been thinking about this a lot in the last couple of weeks when things finally came together for me. Now is a good time to take stock.

Three years is a long time and also not really. I always knew the move would be temporary, even before I arrived. Moving to DC was to support another person's dream. And also, I had fewer choices, career-wise, at the time. Sometimes, we do what we must for reasons that may or may not hold up down the line. That's life, nice and messy and complicated.

So I get to DC. I find a job. I break up and remain friends. I commute hours daily. I move and commute a little less. I find a way to cope (poorly? adequately?) with 4M people. I get really good at the work I am doing. I actually unpack my boxes on Inauguration day. I bide my time. I am rewarded. I prepare to leave DC.

That's the short story. The long story is in the 300 or so posts here since 2007 and all those 1000 tweets. The longer story is mostly unwritten. We all have have our own life stored away elsewhere, right? Par is in a 8X8X16 Pod container waiting to be driven across the country.

Like a good Libra, I've been trying for balance. Good/bad. Pros/Cons. Positive/Negative. Many many times while I've been here, I've failed in seeing the good. I've failed in living in the moment and appreciating the positives. I've failed at a couple of really important things. I've also done some pretty cool things and met some great people. Now is a good time to reframe, rebalance, reflect.

Things I've gained:

A sharp business savvy and better understanding of How Things Work

Detailed map of DC establishments serving over 500 beers on tap/bottles

A reputation for knowing my shit and getting things done

Profound hatred of strangers standing too close/touching me/gathering near me

An understanding of budgets and profit and how not to get screwed

A group of good friends who have made me laugh, shared my misery, and supported me

A drinking problem + a new relationship with scotch

Extensive network of business contacts that will pay off down the line

Sometimes viewing the world and people in it as 'contacts that will pay off down the line"

The 20 pounds back that I had lost in 2006

An extensive AFV (acronym-filled vocabulary) tailored for the business and social services world

More grey hair and the experience of turning 40 in this city

How to use politics and connections to get what you want/have people do what you want

Extensive travel and a shitload of airline miles and hotel points

The desire never to travel on anything called a "Beltway" again

An awesome massage therapist

An aversion to using politics to get what you want

Tones of new music

Greater appreciation for people who say what they mean/mean what they say

The ability to predict the amount of time it takes to travel a certain distance with and without traffic

Perfected recipes of beef vegetable stew, chicken pot pie, and orzo salad

The path I needed to take to get to where I'm going now...

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See? It's all good. An arrow finds its way, you gotta go there to come back and all that jazz. Next blog post coming to you from the middle of the country. Here we go...

BlizSnookie

Yeah, I'm working from home. See how busy I've been:



Gotta love a good Blizzard on the East Coast. It's the only time I give people a pass for wearing those ridiculous boots.

I am the heartland

Ah indeed, DC experienced a very lovely pile-up of snow this weekend. It's quite amazing actually and very pretty. I haven't gone outside at all except to take some pix and check things out. Alas, my dogs are up at their other mother's due to my week-long work hell so I'm missing them quite a bit. I'll go get them as soon as I'm able. I also had to cancel a scheduled massage today which kinda sucks.

But all in all, I am not complaining. I'm not complaining about the 10-12 hour days I put in last week or the fact that I schmoozed myself out being nice to all kinds of people or that I had to prep and give a talk in front of many of those people or that I had to deal with some very bullshitty corporate drama. I care not about such things and you may be asking yourself why? Why does she not give a whit about the hell that Metro was all week or that she slept a max of 6 hours every night? Why does this woman not give one shit about what is happening in this city and the millions of people who call it home?

Well, it is now safe to say (because it is a done deal/100%/no one can take it away from me) that I am finally getting out of here. A job came through back home and I am taking it. Trust, I am taking the shit out of that job and not looking back. Goodbye for-profit bottom line bullshit. Goodbye Metro hell! Goodbye too many people, awful traffic, and politics permeating every single conversation. I shall not miss you!

And this is happening fast. Like in several weeks. So that means I gotta get my shit together ASAP. But do I care? Hells no, because I get to be happy again and get to be me again and get to have a life again. With friends! And open spaces!

There will be much to repair after this experience. Not all of my time here was awful and certainly I wouldn't be in a position to take this job had I not come here and had the experience I had. It was a necessary road on the journey. However, I've got to do a lot of stuff to fix the damage - mentally, emotionally, physically - from living here and being the person I became. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I was waterboarding people (though I did entertain the notion on a few occasions). I just was having to play a game that takes a bunch out of you at the end of the day. No more!

And so, as a bunch of snow covers up the ugly and makes this city pretty for a short period of time, I am already visualizing home. It looks a lot like this: