✌ Victory! ✌

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On lunch right now for my last day at work. I’m going to miss my coworkers, they’re a good bunch. I’ve got an interview lined up for tomorrow. What I am really looking forward to right now, however, is time to my fucking self. I want to catch up on my writing and I’m super behind on other projects.

I’ll be so glad when I walk out in three hours.

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Hard to say how much of a Victory this is, but it’s at least serious closure.

Got final drafts of my divorce papers today. Everything is in order. A few more FedEx’s and it’s dissolved. Apparently in CA there is a six month cooling off period, and I think I heard Delaware is a year. Oregon? Yeah, like a week (plus time for the rubber stamps).

I don’t think any long term divorced couples ever really disentangle themselves completely (pets? Trees? Favorite parks?), but the BIG part is basically done.

I don’t know whether to :joy: :sob: :angry: :wink: or :thinking:. Mostly it’s :monkey::monkey::monkey::monkey::monkey::monkey::monkey:

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Congratolences!

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Throwing feces?

(I keed, I keed)

Congrats!

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Yes, but not my own!!!

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I’m in grad school and there is a ton of support (rather slyly done so it appears I am getting an MBA type degree) for entrepreneurship. As soon as I saw what the program was up to, I started hitting around at ideas for a yoga based business. At first they were all not viable and as I talked to my friends who were struggling to rub two pennies together it got REAL depressing.

This week I finally figured out the thing that I think is going to really work, like an actual business that can I put together in a few weeks at very low cost and start selling some really cool shit and grow into a super nice company. And I can help all my friends who have their own businesses who are struggling at marketing their stuff while I’m doing it.

Yesterday I talked with two of the key people to this venture (a manufacturer of yoga clothing and a fabric designer that I’ve been wanting to hook him up with for ages) and they were both jumping up and down with excitement about this idea. It is so fantastic because if push came to shove, I could ditch the rest of the plan and just market a line of yoga clothing. And the designer said she immediately saw the value in what I proposed, so I just feel like YES I did it.

I am SO stoked.

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Awesome! I’m sure you worked hard for it, but you still have to pat yourself on the back for your own brilliance, too.

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Actually, in the same vein…a friend is going through a very bad time, but in talking with her one bright spot is that it might bring her back to the Midwest in 5 or so years, at which point we could move forward with a non-profit idea that we used to toy with prior to her change of career path/location. She’s got the administrative and managerial skills I lack, so it’s a perfect match. Her pain is hard to witness, though, in the meantime.

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Sorry she is going through a bad time. If you ever want to connect, there’s a butt ton of Facebook groups that support female entrepreneurs and while they can be annoying with all the “You Go Girl!” graphics, there is also a lot of practical help with finding people who can do photography or make websites and such, and a lot of sharing of success stories which does help to keep your energy up.

The head of my Grad program is Dale Callahan and he has his own business supporting entrepreneurs. He is into Jesus so I wasn’t sure if he was going to be a good fit for me, personally, but he has turned out to be a tremendous resource with very practical advice on how to get started. His podcast has a lot of interviews with people who successfully launched businesses and it is so helpful when you are thinking, “I’m having that fantasy where I’m my own boss and the reality is I’ll be working like a dog,” to hear that other people do actually have businesses that support their lives rather than vice versa.

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So, reaching out on a limb I contacted an old employer, just to see what was up. I really had enjoyed the work.

And I got offered my old set-your-own-schedule, work-from-home, just-get-the-work-done dream job that I had a couple years ago.

This bodes well for the rest of my future that has been lining up lately, which likely includes adopting my girls two little kids. Last night she told me she wants us to buy a place together.

If you really knew me a few years ago, this would count in the epic turnaround department. Literally a country song in reverse. Even got the truck back!

And for once… I’m not worried about the other shoe dropping. I can so handle the other shoe.

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I have a place to live. Omg, I have a place to live.

ETA

East Palo Alto, here I come!

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In the past, East Palo Alto experienced profound crime and poverty, especially during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1992, it had the highest homicide rate in the country with 24,322 people, and 42 murders, equaling a rate of 172.7 homicides per 100,000 residents.

But it’s getting better! :wink:

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Hears you from the Detroit Metro, and nods in agreement. :wink:

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Ha! When I told my co-workers I was moving to EPA, they said, “well at least it isn’t Detroit!” :joy:

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Shows what they know. I’d only be worried if you said you were moving to Camden, West Bend or Saginaw.

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There’s a town in Oregon named Saginaw. Every time I passed it on the freeway, even if I was driving alone, I’d yell, “Sagin-AW-YEAH!!”

Edit

That’s a lie. Sometimes I’d whisper to my passengers, “sa-Gine-uh”.

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I’m sure it’s significantly safer to drive through than it’s namesake here in Michigan. :smile_cat:

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I have a friend who started to develop an idea to buy farmland in Michigan to create a farming camp for inner city girls. (Her work history made this a realistic venture.) She asked if I would come look at properties with her, because I have some knowledge in this area. Before we’d even get to the properties, I would point out how much gang graffiti was on garages, etc. that we would pass going down the various farm roads. She finally realized that taking girls from the south side of Chicago to an area with even more gang presence was probably not the right move.

Rural Michigan is a scarier place than most people realize.

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