I'm A Satellite Heart: September 2010

I'm not above tangents. My life is made up of seeming "bunny trails", in fact... when I look back it sure does look that way, at least. I have the inside scoop, and I know that all of my passions and jobs and pursuits have significant purpose behind them, but to an onlooker I've got a lot of unrelated experiences.

Nah.

These things all make me who I am. Some have enriched me personally, emotionally, spiritually; some have made me the kind of money I've needed to travel or pursue certain career paths; some have simply given me great life experience and serve as interesting stories to tell- which I believe is very important, having stories. Someday I'll be "old" and my life will be relevant to others through the stories I can tell about my experiences.

And now, another seeming tangent- although an overarching theme to my life has always been that things inevitably come back around. Relationships, work, hobbies, interests.. nothing has to be lost or passed by forever. Today I start my freelancing career with Patch. Check it out- www.patch.com . It's a site that is ultimately owned by AOL, so reputable for sure. It focuses on bringing backyard, hyperlocal news and interests to its readers. MY first efforts will be towards furnishing information and small writeups about local businesses- a la Yelp.com , but more focused and more complete. The pay for doing what I'll be doing- hitting local businesses to gather basic information- is incredible, and there is almost unlimited work available to me. I will easily make a living wage doing just this, and in fact will be making much more than that as I have no second job and can devote an intense amount of time to this. As a freelancer, I make my own hours. I can submit 30 listings in a week, or 100 (or more). It blows my mind how I fell into this job, especially so soon after my end with the Rox. But finding jobs and making money has never been a problem in my life, and I am extremely grateful for this. The best part is that while I am working for the Canton, MA Patch site, Patch will soon be expanding into Maine. At the moment, there are quite a few states that Patch is up and running in, and about 200+ towns that are being covered. The goal is 500 by December... and new town Patches are going live every day. I talked to my overseer today about Maine and she is happy to get me involved with the expansion into Maine, which will be taking place over the next couple of months (my thinking is, maybe sooner- if they have someone who is actively interested in getting the ball rolling, and who knows an area well and can furnish some freelancers and employees who can cover a few towns to start with). My overseer is actually a Christian, attends Reunion in Boston and I am just continually amazed at how I find myself in the situations I come into... God really does have a purpose behind all of the relationships we're part of, all of the endeavors we undertake when we're walking in His light. I've got a personal connection with this woman now and I know that if I want to get settled in with Patch for the long term, she is a great IN and will be a good friend to get to know outside of work.

Separation from my Rox world has been SHOCKINGLY unpainful. This might be the first time in my life where I havent felt inner turmoil while removing myself from a community I'd become a part of. I fondly miss a number of people, but I dont kid myself that the community will ever possibly exist again. What a great summer though. I'll never forget it. Let's look at some pictures, that always makes a blog post more interesting. No particular order: