Tuesday, March 24, 2009

I'm Back!

Well folks, It's been a strange and crazy ride since my last posting in February. Justine and I have landed in Carolina Beach, NC and we're both starting to settle into our jobs and home. We've been here at the beach for almost three weeks and the time has flown by. A fellow forgets how hard it was to nail down a job and network after settling into a town, but it is not easy to adjust to new things. Life was starting to get pretty comfy and easy in Humboldt, I mean all I did was run a bar, surf, and take long weekends along the coast. We had good friends to have beers with, easy work schedules, and an established routine. However, we weren't comfortable being comfortable with that routine in that place. Family was too far, the culture was too skewed, and the sky was not the limit. 
Jobwise, I went corporate this time around. I work for a company called EcoWater, we're the world's largest and oldest water treatment company around (apparently Warren Buffet owns 60% of us). We sell 1/4 of all water treatment systems in the world. I basically show you how crappy your water really is and tell you how we can fix it. Most of the water we drink is filled with nastiness, even the bottled water, I can run the tests that prove it to you. Next time you take a drink of that Aquafina, see if you can taste the chlorine and added minerals. 
It's funny to go from bartending at a somewhat rough, neighborhood bar full of crabbers, loggers, and assorted workingmen to toeing the corporate line...learning the lingo and saying the correct answers. I sat through a week of the most God-awful unpaid training last week, fighting for a few spots with 40 people, just thinking how much I'd love to crack a few of these numb-skulls in the head with a pool cue and drag their asses into the bar parking lot...telling them 'You aren't kicked out for good, just for today'. 
When we first got down here, it took a while to get dialed into a job. It's annoying to have someone tell you that they don't want to hire a college graduate. 'They're looking for someone with a lower pay scale', I would usually just ask them if they knew what a knew teacher got payed in California...
I may have gone corporate to pay the bills, but there are two cool little publications on the island which I am starting make submissions to. In June or July I have an article on the 'Prince of Privateers, John Maffitt' coming out in the Snow's Cut Monthly. He was an uber-badass sailor during the time of the Civil War, running blockades and blasting Yankee ships to bits. He grew up, made a name for himself, and died around the Wilmington area. The other magazine is Surf Carolina, it's a cool little surf magazine devoted to everything surfing that is the Carolinas. I'm in the talks with them about publishing a little article I'm writing about surfing the West coast on a budget. 
Things are settling down here and I'm finally getting some water time, so the words will start flowing once again. Times are crazy politically, there is plenty to piss and moan about going on in this world...But, as always, there is even more to get down on the knees and praise the Lord for. The news only sells if it's bad news, but is it really that bad? We're screaming about an abstract idea like money when it isn't real anyway...How does it effect your day today if someone else got a couple hundred grand they didn't really deserve? If some complete asshole won the lottery would there be the same outcry?Granted...lottery winnings are different, but we also put those bums into office that gave them the cash. I have food, family, friends, sand to put my feet in, and waves to push me along...How can I ask for anything more?

Stay tuned for more stories, screes, and pictures from life as I experience it. Keep on keepin' on and just keep paddling, there's always another wave.