…and now I am back.
Went to Vancouver to help out a friend. Stayed a week. And I got a little caught up in the ‘business’ of it all and could feel the lure of the place again. Money was offered. Jobs were offered. Friends gave greetings. Challenges presented up. I actually felt the thrill of it again. Whoa, Nellie!
By the time I pulled my head out of the thick of it at the end of the week, I was neck deep in negotiation, strategizing, planning, math, execution, business models…..and I couldn’t stop, actually. Thinking. Thinking. Thinking. Ooooooohhhhhhh….it was goooooood.
It was fun, actually. I enjoyed it.
But I was also exhausted. And, like many town take-aways, I got a head-cold and that was plugging up my brain. I was completely ‘done’ by the end of the day. After a week, I realized that I could not keep this kind of pace going. Nor did I want to. It was fun while it lasted. But it was over. “Thanks for the offers but the answer is no. I would start falling asleep in meetings by week three and you’d regret making the offer. By week five, I would die from a jammer and, in so doing, I would regret taking the offer. I see only disappointment here for all of us. Only Sal can see an upside….buying more shoes and maybe taking that mourning-widow cruise she has been planning a little sooner rather than later. ”
So, I am back after having done my best to mess things up for as many people as I could.
It is good to be home.
Our Off the Grid Home 
Good to have been part of a Sally and Dave sighting. Usually reclusive by choice but occasionally known to appear when friends need a reality check. With their ears stuffed wax they avoided hearing the Sirens singing, “Come to the urban rocky shores.”
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Yeah. Odd, that. I have always been susceptible to flattery no matter how thick it was laid on. Sal used to say about all men, “I can’t believe how all men believe over-the-top flattery about themselves even when it is obvious I am joking. And you, sweetie-pie, being as cute and witty as you are, are the most gullible.”
“You think I am still cute?”
But this week’s flattery was simply not enough. By the end of the week I was almost asleep and didn’t hear most of it.
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Must be nice to be accepted, nay, welcomed back into ‘civilization’. But I’ll bet its even nicer to escape back home. Lucky you – the best of both worlds!
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True. And I feel lucky. Very much so. But, don’t forget, I limit my engagements to a precious dozen or so previously well-vetted and familiar friends. I try to avoid the 1.4M other people. Plus, I keep it short. Part of the reason my friends like me is that I am NOT there very long and only visit once per year. Brevity is the secret.
And- right again – Sal and I fell back in the chairs on the day we arrived home and declared for the gazillionth time, “Oh, God! It is GOOOOOOOOOooooooooood to be back!”
And I appreciate just as much my third world – the virtual friends of this blog and the readers of the book. THEY are a real treat. Like icing on the cake.
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