Life and Times

Hola amigos. Been a while since I’ve rapped at ya.

It’s been three months since I’ve said anything of any value, three months since I’ve given any indication that I was alive, let alone what I was doing. And since I was clearly in a period of transition at the time my last posts were completed, I think it’s fair to give an update on what’s new since last I wrote.

* * * * *

First things first — I met a girl. And said girl, along with a promotion (more on that later), may stand as one of the key reasons I’ve been so recently incommunicado, out of pocket, what have you. As a matter of fact, it was around the time that I composed that last entry that we settled into a monogamous-type relationship.

The girl is a breath of fresh air, in that we share a lot in common, in terms of what we enjoy doing and how we spend our time. We’re both pretty spontaneous souls, in how we choose to spend our time and what we like to do. The endless search for something new — some new restaurant to check out, some new bar to peruse, some free event to attend or neck of the city to explore — has kept us both busy.

We recently returned from a trip to Nashville, a spontaneous three-day weekend planned just days before we left, that was the most fun I’ve had in ages. From the food to the historical-type tours to the honkey-tonk nightlife (but especially the food), it was a weekend to remember.

We followed that up with a trip to South Jersey in which she met my parents, which was also enjoyable, if not for the fact that my grandmother got ill that weekend. She’s better now, but it was a downer all the same, especially since it was her birthday weekend.

There was a little bit of anxiety over introducing her to the family, considering the last girl that they had met was my former wife. Nevertheless, family that met the girlfriend seemed to like her and we had a wonderful weekend hanging with my nearest and dearest in Jersey and Philly.

* * * * *

So what else is new?

I’ve got a new job for one thing. This also came about around the same time of my last entry, which is one of the singular reasons I’ve been so quiet lately. I’ve been promoted to Senior Editor of Contentinople, a new Web site founded by my company to cover the digital media market.

The job has been good to me, allowing me to set my sights on a really interesting coverage area, and my responsibilities have expanded enormously since I’ve taken the position. the one downside is that it’s kept me very busy, much busier than I’m used to, and so busy that I haven’t had much interest in writing outside my 9 to 5. I’ve found that when you spend all week writing, the last thing you want to do is come home and write some more.

And so I haven’t, really. But that’s something I’d like to change, as always.

* * * * *

Otherwise, things have been pretty boring. I’m still living in Bushwick, which hasn’t been nearly as bad as it could have been, all things considered. I think a lot of people expect the neighborhood to beat me up and spit me up, but I’ve been incredibly fortunate in that it’s been pretty good to me in the nine months or so that I’ve lived there.

One last thing… I hate to sound like a Hallmark movie of the week, but I guess it has to be said — I’ve learned a lot about myself over the last year, about what I want and expect out of life, about what I’m doing with my life. It’s strange, you know I used to just work because it provided me with a paycheck. But lately I’ve been working with a pretty impressive (for me) amount of drive and devotion in my job.

It’s almost as though I see it as a way of digging out a little piece of history for myself. For now, that history exists in bytes passed over the Internet, in words read over a monitor. It’s strange to think that these words aren’t permanent, that they could disappear without a trace were the site I write for ever to fold. That’s not something I’ve overly concerned about, but it’s not the same thing as writing for a newspaper or a magazine, where those words are somehow archived forever.