Some good friends of mine have been wondering how I ended up in DC, and what the heck has been happening in my life this year. Unfortunately, I haven’t been doing too well at keeping anyone updated, as much of the year I didn’t have internet access. Right now, I do have internet access but my phone doesn’t work worth beans, so I’m still half out of contact with many people. Here is the lowdown…
I lost internet access this last Spring, due to lack of funds. Money has been tight since August of last year, and while there was a mild reprieve over the winter, things got tighter and tighter when spring came.
For a time over the spring, I wasn’t able to go many places, except for where I could get rides to from friends, and I lived in the boonies. A couple of friends in particular gave me many rides, but I was immobile most days of each week. That isolation combined with lack of internet made me pretty isolated indeed, but overall it ended up being a good thing. Joy and I got to really immerse ourselves in watching Spring unfold, and I had lots of self-reflection time to meditate and look within. A rebirth process started around that time which went into the fall, and that’s also when I found my name.
Ultimately this wasn’t sustainable, as I wasn’t able to get enough childcare work to support myself, as most people didn’t want to drive out to where I was. I found an apartment in a great location of town, and pulled all the stops I could to move there. I borrowed money from friends, I stretched things as tight as they could go, and I barely made the move successfully. In retrospect, at that time, I probably should have accepted that Asheville wasn’t going to work for me, and moved to DC where Joy’s Papa was and is living, but I didn’t want to give up on the beautiful city I had already worked so hard to stay in.
During the Spring, when I had fallen out of contact with most people, I stopped hosting Evolver Asheville, and handed it over to Wendy Owens. I also stopped doing Systemic Effect, the radio show, and handed it over to a team of new producers. I did both of these things because I could not do the show without transportation or adequate communication tools. Partway through the summer, I reduced the producer team to one producer, Olufemi Lewis, as the other 3 did not pull their weight and the show was going to get pulled. The content had been pretty stellar, but there were logistical issues that were not getting resolved no matter how much prompting was given from me or the station. Olufemi had been consistently producing good content, and had met all her requirements, so her and I began co-hosting the show once I moved to a better location.
It was a tough summer. I worked a lot of hours, at $5/hour, and had neighbor problems in my building which prevented me from watching kids at home very much (which cut into my financial plan of watching a couple kids at a time and making more money). It took a while to catch up on the debt I had gotten into previously. However, it was also an amazing summer in many ways, and we had lots of good experiences. We did a lot of hiking, and swimming. We listened to a lot of music, and we spent a lot of very good time with friends.
In late Summer, some bad things happened and on top of that, I found myself out of work and unable to find any more work. By October, I realized I had to do something drastic or we could become homeless. Brian helped us move up to DC, where he was living and had a room open in his apartment. We moved October 15th. At that time, Olufemi Lewis became the sole producer of Systemic Effect, and is still going strong, even though the station itself has had many problems and is still not back on the FM dial although it still streams live.
It has been wonderful living with Brian, and doing the co-parenting thing. It is so hard parenting alone, and this has given me some relief. We’ve also been having some pretty good times, as DC has a lot of free and wonderful stuff to do.
I have been looking for work here since I got here, and not much luck for a while. I have dozens of resumes out to video and marketing jobs I feel I am completely qualified for, and have not gotten nibbles on any of them. Many of the jobs are still posted online, so its possible hiring has just slowed down due to the holiday season, and maybe I’ll hear from one soon. In the meantime, I got a job at Caribou Coffee, a chain that I worked for at one point in college. I start training this next week. Getting this job means we will be able to pay rent, which is a big relief.
Recently, Brian has also started looking for other work, and has applied for jobs across the country and world, so it is possible that if a good-paying job does not work out for me here, we may move, and we may go far away.
I’m tired of things always being up in the air, and I’m tired of moving. I miss Asheville, and my wonderful friends there, but I have accepted that the most important thing is that I am adaptable to whatever needs to happen for us to survive, and if possible, even thrive. I have a pretty open-spirited approach to living, so I can choose happiness, and choose to grow from whatever turns life takes. My spiritual growth continues on through all this, and I am grateful for the many blessings in my life.
