A Good Denver Post Article

My dear friend from Texas, one of the 90% of Boulder's population of non-locals that migrate themselves to the area, once said, ever so eloquently, that in Boulder "you gotta hustle". He was alluding to the fact that, though Boulder is a mid-sized city and allegedly laid back, this is an expensive place to live filled with busy people trying to make a buck and survive. Driving (or biking) around Boulder between the hours of 10 and 2 you begin to wonder if you aren't actually in a 3 million person city in the center of an urban hub. To live in Boulder, you gotta hustle.

In a recent conversation with another friend we discussed the rise of You, Inc. Gone are the days of long-term stable jobs offered by single employers. You are your career. As I launch my own personal career I view myself as my most stable employer. My experience is my cmpany history, and my online socal networking is my marketing arm. Today's DP reiterates just this.

Death of full-time jobs

These days...

Currently I am sitting in Amante, the location of my new favorite java fix. I am here finishing a project for the latest start-up I am working with, a Boulder style start-up making investments in philanthropic-oriented enterprises, and where we ride bikes to work and sport flip flops around the office. I have begun to fear that I inherited my grandfather's disease of chronic entrepreneurialism will never be able to escape the need to work in small, growing, unstable environments. but this is a good gig and I'm thrilled about it.

In other news I AM working for the Man at another deal I reluctantly accepted at the Vitamin Cottage, a job I was forced to accept after two weeks of unemployment and facing the reality of my financial situation. Needless to say, it has been an interesting job. I am a cashier, and perhaps the worst cashier ever too. My lack of attention to detail has really bit me in the ass on this one. My drawer is consistently under by several dollars at the end of the night and one time--just once--I (accidentally) let a woman slip past me without paying. Whoops. But I am friendly, perhaps too much so, and chat it up with every weirdo that comes through my line, and then some. Check back for a series of unbelievable Boulder natural grocer customer stories...

Wrapping up projects with a couple other companies, I am trying to find time to get my thoughts out on the net. They are stored in the noodle and wanting to make their way to Unbridledtoungue. Ugh.

Boulder remains Boulder. The People are protesting Roundup Ready sugar beets, summer is lovely, and the first weekend of August resulted in an abundance of garbage exceeding the capacity of every dumpster in my alley. The annual student move-in-move-out at the turn of August is always an adventure, particularly for my neighbor Sydd, who collects garbage and adds it to his treasury of exterior house decorations. You know the house I speak of... with the infamous peak of irons, shrine of old shoes, and collection of rooftop vacuums. Sydd may be the only Goss/Grove citizen that looks forward to the Aug 1 weekend. But hey, even I benefited from the massive purge and Sydds's subsequent thriftiness, as I scored a new vacuum, which he found among the debri and fixed right up for me. Zing!

Kayleigh and friends also moved out of their apartment. It was a sad moment in time. We sat upon the empty floors for one last circle of peace and laughed about the nutty things that had happened in that dump of an apartment during their one year stay, including the time that their schizophrenic neighbor, having run out of his medication, stopped by to ask if he might borrow a phone to call emergency services or the time he stopped by to borrow cardboard and a sharpie to make a sweet panhandling sign - no joke. Or the countless nights out the ended in scarcely recalled dips in the ghetto Canyon-side pool. Ah how youthhood ends so swiftly and presently I find myself working 60+ hours, wondering when I will next have dental coverage.

Well, no complaining from this blogger.... I had a season of Play (many, in fact, and a few loonnnngg seasons) and now I emerge myself in a season of Work. The cycle of life balances itself.

A quiet re-entry

It won't last long: it never does. But I'll post occasionally...