Oh yeah, I quit my job...

After 11 years, I am finally done with Accenture. It was pretty amazing how almost everyone in my life universally said, “Thank God! That was horrible. What were you doing?” I couldn’t believe how adamant and consistent the response was, even with today’s job market. (There was just one exception.)

I have a new job that is part time. It’s basically the same work, and not that glamorous, but the important thing is it’s only Mon-Weds and on Thursday I’ll be at the animal shelter, on Friday I’ll be coaching high school ultimate. I’m excited about doing other things, and willing to do the same old stuff for 3 days a week if it let’s me do stuff I like the other 4.

The good news is my first client is in Knoxville, TN. Knoxville is gorgeous. There is a river that winds though the town and there are all these gorgeous old homes and store fronts. The people all seem strangely, frighteningly friendly, like they are about to sell you something, but they never do. There’s no direct flight and that will be a PAIN, but so far so good.

The huge find for this week is that the new iPhone podcast software allows you to listen to the podcasts at double time. That’s twice as many slate daily podcasts for me. Emily Bazelon is so much more tolerable when she is talking twice as fast.

Zojirushi, my coed ultimate team this year, went to the White Mountain Open in Vermont//New Hampshire which was a very enlightening experience. We have a lot to work on. Next weekend is the Chesapeake Open down in Maryland. That should be big challenge. I’ll get to see my parents and all the varmints, which will be nice.

I’m reading Nabokov’s Despair which is making me identify with the protagonist way too much. But I should have a review for you on that sometime soon so stay tuned.

I went to see Animal Collective, at the Prospect Park Bandshell, courtesy of Stephen, who had to go out of town unexpectedly for a bachelor party. As pictured below, they went with a nautical theme and the huge shark moved back and forth in the waves.

I’ll leave you with this you tube saga (from Tatiana)which I found pretty amusing.

Goldfish Carry Disease!

There were no pets allowed in the freshman dorms at Georgetown and a certain DOPS student guard I worked with used to periodically proclaim the title above.

That’s what first ran through my mind when I saw this photo in the Bodega nearest to my apartment:

I like to think that the sandwiches are labeled with which disease they carry. Here’s a pastrami and H1N1 on Rye. Here’s a BL (hepatitis) C.

I turned 33. Thanks for everyone who sent e-mails or someecards. 33 is terrible. I didn’t think anything could be worse than 32, but this is. When you’re 33 pretty much the next thing you have to look forward to is retirement, and that’s 32 years away.

Speaking of old age, I got cut from Bent, which wasn’t too much of a surprise. That team is going to be very strong and I wish them luck in the season.

Now, I’m thinking I might try to play coed. Last weekend at the Mixed Easterns in Devens, MA I played with Zojirushi who I’m now trying out for. We had a lot of fun and the team did really well, finishing 9th after being seeded 20th.

In other Ultimate news, ESPN is right on about the UPA being fools:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=buckheit/090529

I don’t know what I’ll do when the NBA and NHL finals are over. This is the most depressing sports time of the year. Wimbledon?

I saw Art Brut last week with Stephen. They were great except for the idiots in front of me who seemed really bored. If you ware bored, leave! We’re going to see the Decemberists tonight. I hope they don’t play too much from the new album, as I don’t love it, but they probably will.

I hope you are having a good summer. I had a great time at Oak Island seeing how big Kate and Lindy have grown and riding on Robbie’s new boat.

I’m off to Zion National Park in Utah for a week of hiking. I’m a bit nervous about the sleeping in a tent and the lack of sports talk radio but I expect to come back with some great photos.

There is still a great deal of ambiguity about where I might work next, which as you can imagine is becoming somewhat tiring for me.

Has anyone made it yet, that could use a personal assistant?

And finally, on the left here, you can see that our poll has closed. It seems I have 13 readers, 5 of whom are Internet stalkers and 5 of whom plan to excel in the next impromptu round of Courtney Kelly Trivia. Good luck! The integrity of the poll continues to be indicted by the fact that none of you are fessing up to being my mother. I'll see if I can come up with another poll question. Don't hold your breath.