When I was in Los Angeles last week, I was reminded how few people I have bothered to inform of a recent development, which was that Megan broke up with me on May 31. I got little warning; she came back from yet another baby shower one Sunday afternoon and announced that because she and I were not "leading to anything," we were not going to see each other anymore. I was not asked for an opinion as regards "leading to anything," so I formed none. The whole conversation lasted about five minutes. So it goes.

First off, I got to re-plan my exciting Boston vacation, which had been set for dates suiting her schedule and filled with activities suiting her tastes. But Kyle, it turned out, did not cancel the wedding, so I did not have the option to just stay home.

There, let it never be said that I don't learn anything from past relationships.

chapter 1: reorganization

So what now? As Don Draper said in the episode of Mad Men that I just watched, I have a life, and it goes in one direction. Forward. The first thing that happens is that everything is on the table. After two excruciating weekends, there literally wasn't anything left to clean. Every room of the house was done, the basement, the shed, and I stripped and re-waxed the car. Next I got rid of a generation of video games, old rock band and dance dance stuff (I kept the newer versions, so far), various old electronics, two cameras. A trunk full of clothes went to the donation bin.

A hypothetical long-suffering reader would remember that I do this regularly, and this episode arrives right on schedule, 14 months after the last one. For every object I own, I consider whether it is worth buying a box, putting it in the box, carrying it out to a truck, carrying it in again somewhere else, taking it out, and throwing away the box. It's safe to assume I will be doing this by myself, in suboptimal conditions. I have carried this stuff on a quarter-mile round trip from the street to the back of the Long Beach apartment complex in 100° of June sun, and driven it 4000 miles in blizzard conditions on two consecutive round trips from LA to Denver, and I'm tired of it. So if the answer is no, this thing isn't coming when I move, then I might as well get rid of it. Possessions are a burden. My living room now contains one shelf of books, Rock Band, and two pieces of furniture.

After the actual housekeeping was done, I did the metaphorical kind. Such as closing my 10-year-old Speakeasy account to replace it with the cable modem, which at 10x the speed, I am finally forced to admit is better. I closed the Smith Barney account that I inherited with the company stock plan and moved it to Charles Schwab. Which led me to close my airline credit card and replace it with the one from Schwab (which you should do too, if you are a customer...it pays 2% cash on everything, with no annual fee). Which leads me to liquidate ten years of AA miles and American Express points. The American Express points translate to a couple thousand dollars of credit at Banana Republic or whatever, which fits with the Extreme Makeover plan just as soon as I find someone that is willing to consult on wardrobe.

I sold my old computer and bought a new imac. I bought two new lenses. I rearranged some investments. I sold the tickets to the Phish concert at Red Rocks. Now the easy stuff was done, and it was time to face the bigger changes that need to happen.

My situation being what it is, something like moving or a job change would take a while, and I would not be able to talk about it until it was done. But I have a number of options. And along those lines, I did take a week to go to Santa Monica and Los Angeles, and a week in Berkeley taking the first sailing certification class (all done). Then I'm going back to Dublin at the end of next week, then Wales.

To be continued...

19 Aug 2009 00:47 PT - persistent link - trackback - 5 comments