Thursday, July 14, 2011

The purpose of its purpose...

I always thought the point of a blog was for nerds and geeks to feel okay with writing a diary of sorts. I mean, who really reads another person's blog anyways? Lately, I have been seeing some use that can be derived from such a seemingly pointless and arbitrary exercise. 

I have been doing a bit of soul searching lately trying to figure out what my life's long term goals should be. Most people have these set and nailed down by the time they get out of college, but not me. I got bogged down in school the first time, took two years off to see if I should even finish, went back to a different school and finally finished...7 years after I started. To my account, I did only go to school for 5 of the 7 years and of those 5, I really only went to like 3 or 4 classes. Don't get me wrong...it's not like I didn't try. I just learn differently than others. That's not to say that if I hadn't gone to more classes my grades wouldn't have been better, but let's get past that. It's certainly not what I intended to talk about.

After finishing up school in the winter of 2008/2009, I continued working for a local grocery store that I had been working at since returning home from Thailand in 2006 (after leaving school I went straight to Thailand for a few months). I was tattooing and doing artwork as well to pay my bills, but not really saving any money. Still living like I did in college...paycheck to paycheck. I was having some issues with the girl I was seeing at the time and like I have done many times before, I got up one day and said, "I'm going....blank...." Usually that blank was filled with a location, but sometimes it was just, "insane" or "crazy." This time, in particular though, I woke up and wanted to go to Atlanta to see my college buddies and get away from things for a bit. So, I packed up my car, asked for a week off and headed down South. This is something I had done many times in the past, by myself, and was totally accustomed to the 2 day marathon of driving and napping (and peeing in soda bottles ((and cans when there were no bottles, but that was never fun)) to keep from having to stop).

I got down to Atlanta and spent a few days hanging with good friends, drinking good beers and enjoying good times. Out of nowhere, I thought it might be fun to drop in on my friend (and former lover...not really...) Bill, whom I had lived with for multiple years in multiple locations, and his wife, Allison in New Orleans. It was a 7 hour drive, but I talked to Bill's sister and found a way to get to NOLA and make sure Bill would be home without knowing I was coming. I pulled the longest "pop-in" of my entire life (New Hampshire to New Orleans) in one of the coolest ways possible, but that is a totally different story. In the day and a half I was down there, though, Bill and Allison had convinced me to look for a job with the company that Allison (a certified hair dresser) had just gotten a job working for (a medium sized construction management firm). If anyone who is left had been paying any attention, you will remember that I got my degree in structural engineering, something this company was looking to hire more of. 

So, I applied and went through a 4 month process of eating the bull fed to me (by my current as of right now) boss about this and that and the other. He really did run me through the ringer before I actually got a job. But, when it was finally offered to me, I had a major decision to make...4 months before, it was easy. I had broken up with my girl, had a not so awesome job making not so awesome money and was looking for a change of scenery. NOW, I had a new girl (and a cute, super young one...YAYEH (like Lil' Jon)), was making better money getting more work on the art side as well as the tattooing and things were going well with my family (my parents have my dogs that I rescued in Atlanta, too...). I wasn't happy with the situation that I was being presented from this company, but I thought I should go with it. I needed to make a major, significant lifestyle change that would result in my growing up. I was still stuck in the college mentalities and had almost zero responsibilities at the age of 25. That sounds all well and fun but when you look and see that I had no real job, no real money, no real future and no real present, I wasn't doing all that well in the bigger picture.

So, I was to move to New Orleans. That's a pretty good place to stop for now but if you want the title to lead to something with some substance, the reason I am starting this blog is to document my history loving, owning, riding and adventuring on motorcycles. This could potentially turn into a year long ride report as my itch for adventure riding has been re-irritated and I am seriously considering in the next 18 months leaving on a year plus long ride around the world on an adventure bike. This blog will hopefully chronicle my motorcycle fixation from childhood through adulthood and serve as a running memory bank of all the coolest stuff I have done on two wheels (with a motor in between).

Next stop, New Orleans and the triplets (who gave birth to Christine)...

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