The past month has been pretty eventful, all things considered.
Back in March I was asked whether I wanted to participate in this year's Creativity and Leadership seminar's for newbie entrepreneurs at my alma mater (the great Oberlinsaurus in the frigid northlands of Ohio). Creativity and Leadership-for those that haven't memorized Skritter's origin story-was the fund that gave us our initial investment. I have been trying to participate in the program as an older entrepreneur as much as possible because I like meeting new founders and I want to give back to the program that made our start possible.
Well, this dovetailed nicely with my new status as a part time contractor at a local web consultancy, so I scheduled two trips, one for the first, and one for the second weekends in April. Little did I realize how much it would wear me down to have no weekends.
On both trips I was very generously hosted with a good friend and fellow collaborator on Skritter. He put me up in his apartment on the south side of campus. On my first visit, I was wined and dined by the President's Advisory Council, I then told the story of my startup and why the fund was so darn awesome. I got free steak and a warm fuzzy feeling from the 6 hours of one way airport travel, and the weather was typically awful. I returned to Raleigh with a sniffle but a newfound interest in owning a PS3 after playing Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (how's that for a title?).
The next weekend, I decided to drive up north because 1) it was slightly cheaper than plane fare and 2) I wanted to stop and visit my parents en route. I made some slight miscalculations about when I had to be in Oberlin, however, so I really only got to spend time with the rents on my way back through the state of Ohio. I did a lot of late night driving and listened to two audio books: All the President's Men and War. Both books are nonfiction, the first is about the Watergate scandal and the second is about what it's like to be a soldier in Afghanistan. Both were pretty solid.
Then last weekend I was again in Ohio, but this time for my brother's college graduation from Wooster College. He graduated with a degree in physics and was appropriately coddled during the weekend festivities. The weather turned out to be pretty oppressive (cold and rainy), but it was definitely worth it to be there for the event. My aunt and uncle from Connecticut came in for the ceremony, as did my dad's dad and mom's mom. It was practically a family reunion. I got to catch up with Pearse and Helen (the cousins) and the grandparent generation. We stayed at a hunting lodge without power or water on the outskirts of Wooster, belonging to a friend of a friend of a colleague of someone I don't know. It was super pretty in the middle of nowhere.
In between the weekends I've been integrating myself into working life at Caktus Consulting. I'm a part time contract project manager, which doesn't afford me much paid time and kinda taxes the flexibility of my schedule. Despite some less-than-perfect aspects to the arrangement, the company is great, I'm doing what I want (project management) and I'm being compensated fairly. Although it would be great to be full time with the cool folks at Caktus, I'll just have to wait and see whether such an offer is forthcoming in July (at the end of my current contract).
This weekend I have blessedly few plans and intend to devote myself to continued GMAT studying, tackling backlog Skritter work, and working on various other personal projects. Becca has kindly arranged a sort of belated "welcome to NC party" for me that will go down on Saturday, so the apartment is going to be cleaned hard, which I'm rather looking forward to.
Oh yeah, and about pictures. I've realized that I haven't taken any pictures for more than 3 months. I have this handy DSLR just sitting here and no inkling to use it. It's dawned on me that I haven't done anything recently I want to take photos of, and this needs to be corrected. Becca and I are looking for a single family home to inhabit for the coming year and I'm hoping this gives me room to do crazy projects in the back yard. Currently I'm interested in creating a huge tarzan swing or perhaps a zip line. Gotta get my crazy on.
