Actually, not sure yet if I'm actually "back." We'll see. I've been too busy lately trying to decide where my life needs to go next, and tearing up stuff so I can get moving in some direction other than inertia. You know, that old thing about if your life is not making you happy, change it. The changes are in process.
I have begun a new third "job," working with a guy in Red Bank, doing probably slightly easier work than I've been doing in NYC. I need three "jobs" mainly because it costs so damned much to live around here, and the NYC gig has shrunk down to three days a week most weeks, but the boss there is even happier if I don't come in than if I do, so....he's perpetually broke, so he'd rather not spend money on personnel costs, even if that means the work doesn't get done. With this kind of reasoning, the atmosphere is not terribly conducive to me wanting to be there anyhow.
So if I can actually work the Red Bank gig up to more hours per week, let's see....20 minutes one way by car and free parking, vs. 2 hours one way by train, pay for parking, and the trains are NEVER on time....yeah.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the house is on the market, and at the moment there are two different builders who might like to buy it, knock it down and build some kind of McMansion here. Goody for them, more power to them if they can do it. I don't want to be here anymore. The "new" beach is already more than half washed away, the river is higher then I've ever seen it, on a regular basis, and we are having serial nor'easters that are damaging the new roof and other parts of the anatomy of the house. Like for example, one storm had winds so strong they broke a bolt holding the deck railing to the house, and the railing was banging back and forth. I think the only thing holding it up at one point was the wooden bench that is bungeed to the railing (so IT doesn't blow away). I can do without this kind of drama every week or two.
The plan is to sell this dump and move myself over the river and up the hill - out of the flood hazard zone, out of needing flood insurance, away from the probability of being under water much of the time. Fingers crossed. Soon would be good.
Cutting back on the traveling for a while. I had a really less than enjoyable time in London a couple of months back, and that experience soured me on a lot of things, like large cities and hotels. Sure, the food was pretty ok, and the music was fabulous, but the child who screamed for five and a half hours straight on the flight was definitely not ok, and the hotel that was so noisy I couldn't sleep didn't make it any better. And I really don't enjoy swarms of people anywhere. I don't need to spend a lot of time and money to go to places that are swarming with people. I can just go to work in NYC and get the same thing on a more local level.
Haven't been to the Met at all this season. Talk about toxic atmospheres. I have to at least set foot in the building, tho, sometime in March, so I can hand off tickets to something in Hamburg that I decided I'm not going to when I decided to cut back on traveling....I'm tired of having a complicated life.
My hope for the new year is that I can sell the house, buy a new one, and make things a bit simpler. Maybe meet some new people, I am looking at places that are not too conducive to me being a total hermit (tho I found a couple of cozy hermit-style abodes that might work nicely for me). Tempting to hide entirely, but not really a good idea, I'm reclusive enough as it is.
So that's it in a nutshell. And if anyone is looking to email me at comcast.net, forget it, Comcast in their generosity and wisdom shut off that email and won't let me have it anymore. Long story, which I am not interested in rehashing ever again. The result, tho, will be that I won't have Comcast at all in the new place, I'll use any other company. If you need my new email address, call me. Anyone who needs to be in touch with me has my phone number, and that won't change.
