Doomed to succeed.
Just sent this out as an email to some friends in Oregon. I’d been planning a long weekend trip to OR later this month, and had to scratch those plans. The explanation as to why makes for a good update on my latest mundane news, so a quick cc to my blog for wide-angle dispersal seems like a real time-saver:
Hi friends,
Bad news: my plans for that 3rd weekend in February have become doomed. Doooooomed! Wait, no, that’s overly dramatic; what’s happened is that I’ve switched to a new job and a new work schedule since last month, and chiseling out a 4-day weekend in Feb is no longer going to be possible.
The upside is that I’m enjoying my work for this new employer, a B.C.-based organic tea & oil company called Flora (http://florahealth.com) w/ a States-side production facility and an herb farm(!) here in Lynden. Even though I’m still a temp, they’ve given me a regular full-time schedule from day one and every indication that they’d like to hire me onto their permanent payroll, once I learn the ins-and-out of operating all of the cool machines they use to mix & package dry tea and brew & bottle the liquid version.
I’ve just switched to the afternoon shift (3:30pm – midnight, M-F) starting yesterday, in order to do just that. A 2nd-shift worker named Jaskaranji is teaching me her job so that she can move to 1st-shift in March. If all goes well, I’ll be hired in and inherit her position by the end of the month.
It’ll likely mean moving into a new apartment around the end of February (which I hadn’t planned on) here in Lynden (which I *definitely* hadn’t planned on) and scrubbing my plans to go back east this summer so that I can instead stick around here for another year or 3 or 5 and see where this all goes. Classic case of getting what I need instead of what I want, I suppose.
It’ll also mean having to manage a finite number of vacation days again. Since there are weddings and things I’d very much like to go to this summer, I’ll have to hold off on requesting any long weekends away until I know how many I’ll have to go around.
If you’re curious: long-term outlook is still the same. Still saving towards launching my own business by age 35. Maybe this’ll be the means of getting there. At the least, a groomed path heading that direction.
Still hoping to come south and visit your fine state again within the next few months, on a quick weekend trip or two. No idea if that’ll actually be possible, but aside from this job Lynden is a boring town, so getting as far away from it as often as possible is going to rank high among my weekend priorities.
Stay sharp and be well. I apologize again for the constant revisions to my itinerary.
– Mike K
a Jenga moment
You know that moment when you’re playing Jenga, when the tower is getting kind of tilty, and you just placed another brick on the top of the stack, and you think it was a solid play, but now you’re holding your breath to see if the tower will collapse and slowly drawing back your hands like a mentalist trying to bend a spoon through concentrated power of spooky action at a distance? This week has been like that.
Got a new job at a place where I might like to stay for awhile. “Awhile” meaning perhaps more than a year, throwing my previous idea about heading back east this summer into already obvious disarray. It’s a company here in Lynden that makes organic herbs and oils, similar to the company in Eugene that I courted a few months ago. And it is within walking distance of Classic Mike’s house, which is wildly improbable. Nothing is walking distance in Lynden. I’m maybe the only person in this town who walks to work in the morning.
So, I’m doing that. I’m still a temp worker and on a week-to-week contract, but chances are good that I’ll land a permanent gig at this business, which would mean finding a more permanent place to live in Lynden as well. Since doing that is going to signify, if not a 180, at least an abrupt 90 degree turn from where I’d been planning to go just two weeks ago, I’m keeping somewhat quiet on it until the Jenga tower stops swaying on this one.
Other news: The case fan in my Thinkpad is starting to go out. It’s not something I want to tinker with right now, and that means I’m only able to use my own laptop for brief bursts, moving around and off-loading files before its innards begin threatening to overheat. Considering the big extent that I rely on that thing as a communications tool, this coming month might be a quiet one for me.
Still wanting to get back into the routine of sending physical mail, still haven’t yet. This includes birthday & holiday thank-you cards, now 6 or 7 weeks delayed. Maybe less time on the machine will free up more time at the writing desk. Makes sense, but I’m surrounded all the time by such fun distractions that it’s not a sure thing. I just need to make time for it, and I will. Just needing to find my balance here.
Still to be continued
Still finding it rather tough to focus on writing anything right now. Work is tough but doable, so long as I shut out everything else on the days that I’m working and focus entirely on getting through the day. On my days off, I have a hard time being sociable. All I want to do is lay around the house, take naps, play games, watch the snow fall, and read.
I still haven’t mailed out thank-you cards for some very kind gifts my family sent to me in December; I worry that they consider me ingrateful.
I say all this as a preface to an apology. I’m sorry for not taking the time to communicate better. I would still love to hear more about what’s been going on in your lives. If you’re reading this there’s a great chance that I miss spending time with you, having conversations, playing games, and maybe even figuring out new things that we can work together towards.
I still don’t have the time and energy tonight to write everything I’d like to, but let me blurt a few things out before I head off to bed:
#1: I don’t particularly like this job I’m doing now, but it’s temporary. I’m doing it purely for the income. I’m saving money towards at least three different projects already: a food preservation business (which is my primary idea for that future “serious business” I announced last month and plan to found in 2017), a cohousing/goat-herding collective (Laurel’s current brainstorm, more of an uncertainty but something I’d truly love to see happen) and, though I’ve been debating for months now, I still want to buy a van.
#2: I’ll be leaving the West Coast this year (but not, by any means, forever). I’m planning to leave Washington by mid-May, spend another month doing temp-work in Oregon, then take a meandering road-trip in July, leaving from L.A. shortly after Independence Day and ending up in Maryland around August 5th for my friend Emily’s wedding.
#3: If I’m able– in other words, if I can find another temporary job– I’d like to return to Michigan from there and spend the next few months in my old ‘hood [the rural/suburban sprawl of Oakland County, north of Detroit].
#4: In December, I’d like to head down to Florida and visit my family. Not sure for how long exactly– December is the extent of my itinerary so far– but I’d like to spend at least a month there.
All told, my ambition is to visit 20 states this year– with the important caveat that I intend not to go broke doing it. I am in fact hoping to continue adding to my savings accounts each month in 2012, even while travelling, by living lightly and continuing to do temp work. As I keep promising, I have more I’d like to write about this. Soon.
The next 5
(quick update: I’m now back in Bellingham, by the way. [That] did happen.)
The best part about turning 30 in a couple weeks is that I get to make a new, only-second-ever Five-Year Plan.
It also means I can officially end my first 5-year plan, finally– made on the 15th of December 2006, the day I turned 25. That one, looking back, was all about finding a solid path & becoming a fully independent adult, e.g. choosing an enjoyable lifestyle, forging a confident personal identity, and paying back the money I’d owed to my family.
Funny thing is, in terms of the specific goals I’d laid down for myself, I failed spectacularly.
(My original 5-year goals as stated were: #1 Pay off all debt to zero. #2 Finish my Bachelor’s degree and become a professional scientist. #3 Get married. Start a family. #4 Buy a sailboat and learn how to sail it. #5 Thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail.)
At age 25– alone, living in the snow-buried wilderness of [Coles Corner, WA] and working for the ski area at Stevens Pass, having just moved north from Arizona– I was at a place in my life where I needed to convince myself that awesome times were still ahead. So I dreamed big and aimed high.
Around mid-2008, getting comfortable in Bellingham, I started to let those goals slide away. I conceded that I didn’t have the income potential to own a sailboat, nor any true desire to be a husband & father. I discovered that completing two more years of college would’ve required 30 years of student loans, and even the few quarters I attended before I bailed have put me farther into debt than when I started. (I did pay-off all the money I owed to my family, though. Still pretty proud about it.)
In hindsight, any one of those goals could’ve taken 5 years to accomplish on its own. Naming five was over-ambitious. Hiking the PCT was the one goal I was still working towards right up into 2011. Tried to make it happen this summer, but turns out I wasn’t quite ready.
Bigger picture, though: I think these last five years have been a great success. I’ve gotten involved with the organic foods movement; it’s set me on a new path in life that I enjoy. I’ve met a bunch of new friends that have become completely indispensable to me. I’ve just straight-up had a ton of fun. These last 5 have been the best years of my life. That’s the real beauty of a five-year plan. Even if you fall short, your life still ends up better.
So you’re probably wondering: what’s next? I’ve learned my lesson my first go-round and decided to focus on only one goal instead of five. Here it is:
GOAL: By age 35, I will found a business.
An organic foods business, specifically. Being a miller’s assistant at Fairhaven Mill was the best job I’ve had. I now know a lot about how to make flour. I know a little about tending a greenhouse and little bit about making almond butter. What I don’t know enough about is how to start and run a company. That’s what’s next.
Bellingham is well ahead of the curve when it comes to local organic food, but even this community is going to need many more businesses like Fairhaven Flour if it’s going to survive and thrive through the rocky, post-Peak-Oil decades to come. Not just more flour mills– I wouldn’t want to directly compete with Fairhaven anyway– but independent businesses of all kinds. Who is going to found them if not passionate, naive thirty-somethings like me?
I still want to continue towards getting myself off-grid, too. I still want to pay my debts, and learn to sail, and hike the PCT. But I’m willing to wait on all of those things or move them to the background while I focus on getting a business off the ground.
I’ve now got some huge, unknown numbers of further decisions and plans ahead of me. Five years to figure it out.
Cross your fingers. Let’s go.
