I'm A Satellite Heart: Patch

Showing posts with label Patch. Show all posts

Monday, October 18, 2010

this is my next adventure, to commence in less than 4 hours when I wake up to my alarm (a snippet of Muse's Hysteria), throw on layers of clothing, and trek down the street to the Arlington T stop. The first inbound train departs at 5:14am and I will be on it. Aside from showing up an hour and a half early, I have no power over whether I win anything at this Jet Blue event, but I'm going to put myself in the right place, hopefully at the right time, and see what happens. It will be nice to be in North Station- havent been there for quite a while.

My days in Canton are over. Today I started working on Peabody's Patch, doing the same sort of stuff only this time it's north of the city in familiar territory. Today wasnt super productive, but I got enough done. Last week, in an effort to finish things up, I turned in about 40 listings in one day (most people do about 30 in a week). I felt pretty good after that. So work is going very well, and Pat is actually going to be doing some side stuff with Peabody's Patch force too.

The only things I plan to say about baseball tonight are that I am 100% behind the Rangers and that my friend Dom was at tonight's game and sent me this pic:

YEEEAH! Pretty cool. He's going to tomorrow's game as well. Next year I'll catch a WS game. I've been to ALDS and ALCS games in the past few years, and definitely remember the excitement with MUCH longing. Sigh. It wasnt to be for us this year.

Let's see. Since I last wrote, I've had the chance to catch up with a bunch of friends. Kenny and I chatted over Boloco, Victor bought me a drink at the Pour House, I celebrated the end of the JUICE's best softball season yet with my teammates at Dan's new house in Wenham, I spent an afternoon and evening with Johannes, saw Justin (S) off at Logan Airport, and watched Point Break with Chy, Lauren, JB and Justin (B), I made plans with Linc, I had a few quick chats with Dom, Julia and I enjoyed some home-fried chicken at the Highland Kitchen where she works part-time, even saw Lindsay while she was visiting from Argentina- and Jeff was present as well. I'm watching Glee with Julia tonight, having dinner with Johannes on Wednesday, meeting Pat for dinner on Friday, and going out with my friend Dan on Saturday. MAYBE having some video gaming quality time with Kubs somewhere between now and Sunday. Whew. That's a pretty good list if I do say so myself. OH! And I know what I'm going to be for Halloween:

Of all places, I got the idea from Martha Stewart's site. Looks fun to make and creative to wear.

Things are great. I'm headed to sleep now, in hopes that I can get out of bed when I need to in a few hours. I miss working in baseball. I miss working at the Rox. Closing thoughts..

Friday, October 1, 2010

Flexibility

Things are a lot different for me right now, and it all centers around work. My work day is definitely not 12+ hours anymore. I'm sure that most people cant imagine getting used to 12+ hour work days but it really did become standard procedure for me this summer... and if you've been reading this blog you know that I didnt mind it. In fact, I didnt know what to do with myself when I had shorter days. Now I make my own hours. I've been spending 2-3 hours each day in Canton speaking with business owners, managers, or anyone else who will talk with me. It's a good time, especially because it reminds me of Raymond. I am starting to get a sense of the flavor of Canton, it's social and economical and political dynamics. Canton, this town I have no real ties to- aside from the fact that the original members of Relient K are from Canton, OH. It has been interesting thus far! Beyond that, I get to set my creative skills to work a bit, selecting and editing pictures of the different businesses I've visited and doing paragraph-length write-ups about each establishment. I'm getting quicker at the writing part, but man am I out of practice. Also, I'm glad I have a job like this where I really have to be diligent and self-directed... those are great abilities to have, and I dont get enough practice at honing them. Cant beat the pay- and it's weekly so I'll get my first monetary dues this Tuesday. What... money coming IN for once? It's a dream come true.

I'm still loving my piano music, and a lot of the same stuff I was listening to almost a year ago. Cant wait until I'm a little more settled somewhere. I'll have a piano, and I'll be able to practice and play at will.

I think it's about time for bed. I'm in Maine, my brother is sleeping upstairs, my parents are at a wedding out of state, and my hair is curly. It's been raining all day and night. I'm sporting my moose pj pants. The smell of fresh chocolate chip cookies hasnt completely disappeared from my earlier baking efforts. I'll be back in MA tomorrow afternoon, and will probably just do some work from home to finish the day off. I miss Campanelli Stadium, Grant, Karissa, Dom, Scott, Mason, Falu, the batting cage, Christian and Cory. The Meadow and Lake Erie Rainfall have been on repeat on my iTunes... I want my love to be described by those two songs, among perhaps one or two others. I've had one alcoholic drink since the season ended (things are back to normal). Even now at age 25 I feel "grown up" when I get my oil changed without parental prompting (just yesterday, thank you). There's nothing good on TV... and TV is almost entirely dull to me anyway. I'm going to buy an EZ Pass for the highway and then go to sleep.

Night.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

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: