Showing posts with label Things Change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Things Change. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The Elephant In The Room



Real change does not happen over time. Real change comes about in a heartbeat. As the Teutonic Heidi Klume says so lovingly: “One day you are in & the next day you are out…

I don’t know how to articulate the profound changes to my life in the past 5 days. Indeed, I am legally hand-tied from saying certain things. I very rarely posted anything about my employment, never identifying the company I worked for on my little place on the Internet or on the Facebook, or even hinting at what service I provided.

Except for the very short few months when we landed in Portland in autumn of 2001, I have not been without a ‘day job” for 44 years. My last job lasted for a decade until last Thursday, just days away from my 10thanniversary, when I was abruptly laid off.

By a series of little miracles, I am able to not panic financially. Living frugally & with some degree of cunning, I will be able to survive for the next year & possibly beyond.


I have not had more than 5 days is a row away from the job that ate my life in the last decade. Really. So immediately, I started in on serious deep decompression. I am finally giving myself that full week off that I never had, after which, I am setting out on new adventures, attempting to make money from my writing & very possibly dipping my toe back into the show biz waters.


I am giving in, at last, to being a true Portlander: raising chickens, growing some of my own food, riding a bike, starting a band, & hopefully in the summer of 2013, if there is a summer of 2013, opening my own small coffee cart/shop in beautiful, historic Downtown Kenton, my own neighborhood & the location of The Husband’s new incarnation of his popular Downtown Portland pop-up shop- Boys’ Fort.

Boys' Fort 2: Beyond Thunderdome

But for now, I am throwing myself fully into being, like my idol- Ann Romney, a Stay-At-Home-Mom: having Post Apocalyptic Bohemia looking perfect for The Husband’s return, tending the garden, getting Junior to his ballet class & Lulu to soccer practice, off to the gym then to a fitting, having martinis at 3pm & doing some volunteer work, possibly reading stories to underprivileged homosexuals.


I need to re-do my acting resume, work on a business plan, & look at equipment for my own little neighborhood spot. I am thinking a coffee shop/gloryhole named Slurp.


Monday, March 26, 2012

Maxims From Stephen- "Things Change"

"THINGS CHANGE"
25 years ago, I entered an unexpected, inexplicable metamorphism in deportment, demeanor & disposition. This was not a gradual move, but rather as if some had flipped a switch & the next moment I had become a man of few words, who wore cowboy ware, watched wrestling on TV, listened to George Straight on the radio & drove a very fine old Ford Pickup. Nearly 3 years later, the entire persona changed instantaneously & my new Green Man epoch began.
Seattle 1986






In 1950 when I was born
Papa couldn't afford to buy us much
He said be proud of what you are
There's something special about people like us

People like us
(Who will answer the telephone)
People like us
(Growing as big as a house)
People like us
(Gonna make it because)

We don't want freedom
We don't want justice
We just want someone to love.
Someone to love.

I was called upon in the 3rd grade class
I gave my answer & it caused a fuss
I'm not the same as ev'ryone else
& times were hard for people like us

People like us
(Who will answer the telephone)
People like us
(Growing as big as a house)
People like us
(Gonna make it because)

What good is freedom?
God laughs at people like us
I see it coming
Like coming down from above

The clouds roll by & the moon comes up
How long must we live in the heat of the sun
Millions of people are waiting on love
& this is a song about people like us

People like us
(Who answer the telephone)
People like us
(Growing big as a house)
People like us
(Gonna make it because)
We don't want freedom
We don't want justice
We just want someone to love.

Someone to love.
Someone to love.
Someone to love.
Byrne, Franz, Weymouth, Harrison
1986