Archive for March, 2008

my heart is still in san francisco

March 4th, 2008 -- Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

i felt like i should post something to wrap everything up and let everyone know we’re home. traveling was fun, and i’m so glad we had the opportunity, but i’m happy to be home. I honestly don’t know how those backpackers do it - for months at a time, with no real itinerary. having grown up military, i’ve always considered myself a bit of a modern-day nomad, but more of a longer-term nomad i guess. more like 1-3 years in one place as opposed to 1-3 weeks or months!

we’re still digging ourselves out from under the luggage, souvenirs, and mail we accumulated over the last 2 1/2 months and are enjoying our regular haunts like our neighborhood coffee shop, deli and grocery store.

i haven’t really decided what i’m going to do with the travel blog from here … one thing i learned from this trip is that i don’t plan to do something like it again any time soon!  when we first took off i thought if everything went well - considering our employment situation - we might continue doing these types of trips. but when we travel from now on, i think we’ll take longer chunks of time to see one or two areas - instead of six countries in one month! It was a great way to see everything - and obviously i’m psyched we did it - but it’s not something i necessarily want to repeat :-D

and speaking of our employment situation, i think i’ll be looking for full-time employment now that we’re back. a lot of my clients stopped working with me around christmas time for various monetary issues and i honestly don’t love what i’m doing as a consultant/freelancer enough to try and build my client base back up again.

so anyway, i’m thinking i might just use the blog to update friends and family on our (incredibly exciting non-travel, day-to-day) life. so keep checking back and i’ll keep writing.

<3

alexis

too much choice

March 1st, 2008 -- Posted in career, finances, san francisco, the city | No Comments »

i came across this post on one of my favorite blogs, violent acres - it summed up exactly how i’ve been feeling and what i’ve been thinking lately. the basic gist of it is that while being able to “choose our destiny,” or “choose the path that makes us happy,” or “follow our bliss” or “find our true calling” sounds like a great opportunity, it can really be quite maddening.

the author talks about how, when she became self-employed, she felt completely overwhelmed with the possibility that she could literally do WHATEVER SHE WANTED. that’s the american dream, but it’s also a debilitating feeling.

this is probably part of the reason why i’m trying to get another “real” job, as opposed to continuing along the freelancing road. i could take my freelancing in any direction i wanted and that’s part of the problem. i feel like i haven’t been very successful at creating direction for myself and honing my “business” into something i truly enjoy doing. it has, however, helped me figure out what i DON’T enjoy doing.

and maybe that counts for more than i think.