We make plans and God laughs

I have a plan - with a date associated and everything! May 28th, I'm throwing my stuff in a trailer and heading down to Durham, North Carolina with my beau, my dog, and my two cats. I will buy myself a little cheap multi-family house. If that works out well, I will buy more income-generating properties until I no longer have to work for money. Until that time, I’ll almost definitely end up back in high tech. I don’t seem to be qualified to do anything else. I was recently turned down for a job as a dog washer.

We just set the moving date, but this plan has been in the works for months now. People keep asking me, “So, you’re definitely moving to Durham?” To which I always respond, “Well, that’s the plan.” My resistance to speaking in absolutes is always taken as a lack of commitment to the plan, but that’s not the case at all. It’s just that I have had so many “definite plans” in just the last year alone, that I feel like an idiot claiming to know, with any certainty whatsoever, that I will definitely be doing anything ever. Every one of these plans was sure enough that I declared it to various friends. For those who are not aware of all the plans and when they were announced, let’s review:

• October 2004 – January 2006: I will move to Panama with my (now ex-) boyfriend, build rental properties and live off the income.


• January 2006 – April 2006: I will move to Ecuador with my (now ex-) boyfriend, build a little house for cheap and run a café and/or retreat center.


• April 2006 – May 2006: I will travel around Mexico for a couple of months. Maybe I’ll move there if I like it.


• May 2006 – June 2006: I will move to Auckland, New Zealand and get a software job.


• June 2006 – July 2006: I will move to Austin, TX for several months and take month-long trips to various countries around the world until I figure out what I really want to do.


• Some brief period during the summer of 2006: I will go live with my sister in Mesa, Arizona for a few months while doing software contract work.


• July 2006 – November 2006: I don’t know where I’m going but I’m getting the hell out of Seattle before winter hits, no matter what.


• November 2006 – Present: I’m moving to Durham, North Carolina and will invest in rental properties until I no longer have to work for money.

I’ve learned to accept, and even enjoy, living with uncertainty. It helps me to appreciate what I have going on right now. With all my current free time, I have the luxury of spending my days doing anything I please. What a waste it would be to squander this opportunity by dreaming of a future that could very well never come. “Once I get to Durham, then my life can really start.” Plans can be a great tool for living a satisfying life. Relying on plans coming to fruition is a sure path to disappointment, suffering, and a whole lot of wasted time.

Raw food dish of the week - Mini Eggplant Pizzas

It might not look like much, but it was very delicious.



Soaked pine nuts, Celtic sea salt, date, soaked sun-dried tomatoes, shitake mushrooms, and spinach, blended in the food processor, spread on eggplant slices, and dehydrated for 10 hours at 105 degrees.