Escape from Pianosa

I had dinner tonight with my friend from college, Dave Ford. He’s got a really amazing travel story going, not to mention a powerful message: you can quit your job, travel the world for a year, and change your life forever if you put your mind to it. In his own words:

I worked my ass off for 6 years, put some cash in the bank, and set off to see what else was out there in the world. What I am finding is completely rocking my world. Life has never been better. I have walked through Penguin colonies in Antarctica, climbed mountains, layed on some of the best beaches in the world in Brazil, and have stood in front of wonders of the world. I am just getting started…. Currently less than 20% of Americans hold Passports. If you do not have one, go get one and see what else is out there. I promise you will not regret it.

After tackling South America, he’s headed off to Africa in January for another six months of amazing travel stories and videos. I’m going to help him take his current blog, which is now hosted at Blogspot, and set him up with his own domain, a clean and powerful WordPress blog, and some effective ways to get his message out and build up an audience.

As I work through the improvements in his blog and his online marketing, I’ll post updates here and hopefully this will serve as a guide to moving from blog hosted by a third-party to a more serious and professional blog, hosted on your own site.

In the meantime, I definitely encourage you to check out what’s going on in his life at his old blog, soon to be new and improved. For some intense reading, check out his adventure with the hallucinogen Ayahuasca.

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First off, my Euro-trip is in a state of perpetual delay. It entered this state only after I told everyone I knew that I was going to Europe, and yes I’m so excited! Predictable. Now I believe that my Euro-trip is waiting for me to make plans for the fall and find a great job here stateside before it becomes a reality, forcing me into a painful dilemma. The Euro trip is my greatest enemy right now.

In other news, I spent nearly all of last week(end) at the Theater Project in Mt. Vernon, working on stuff related to the Baltimore Improv Festival. I was excited and nervous to host opening night, which turned out to be a great success. I had my first performance on Saturday night. People tell me it went well but I don’t really remember; I was so nervous and excited that I basically blacked out and can hardly remember what I said or did on stage. Glad to have my first one out of the way, hopefully with many more shows to come.

The rest of the weekend was spent in workshops or watching shows. I was going to say what my favorites were but there were so many killer performances I can’t even remember them all. Caveat from WIT, Neutrino, Upright Citizens Brigade, Rare Bird Show, and of course the BIG troupes all stand out.

Did an awesome workshop with Neutrino on Saturday. Why is improv so fun? Because you can get together for three hours with random people, screaming at the top of your lungs, crying, laughing, and going crazy. If you do it well enough, people laugh and say you’re really hilarious and that looks so hard how do you do it! And it’s all encouraged and very cathartic of course. I’m hopelessly addicted.

And the last excuse for not blogging is that I’ve been at the beach all week… I apologize to my loyal readers and friends in med school who have nothing better to do when on-call at 2 AM (that’s why we play fantasy baseball..so that these moments of boredom can never occur!). More to come…

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The bad news is that my trip to Europe was postponed once again; the good news is that it’s still in the works, and that I’ll be in town to see The Decemberists on Saturday. That show will complete me entirely awesome summer concert series, which has included Manu Chao, Thievery Corp., Rodrigo y Gabriela, and now the Decemberists with the BSO.

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At improv rehearsal last night I had this conversation three separate times:

Other person: How was your weekend?

Me: Pretty good, went to the beach.

OP: Oh yeah? What beach.

Me: Rehoboth.

OP: Oh, isn’t that the GAY beach?

Me: Yeah, it’s really really gay. But it’s cool, they let straight people hang out there too. I have a straight visa because I’m a friend of the gay man.

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Am I going to Europe? I’m not sure. Months ago I realized that I want to be a writer, or at least to give it a shot, having nothing else at the moment that strikes my interest. I realized that the reasons for my employment in real estate were wholely monetary–a means to an end, and that the ends were varied but included travel and writing and possibly a return to formal schooling, despite all its shortcomings. I also realized that the money would never come if that’s all I cared about (cliché, but true in my case).

So I decided to pursue my interests without regard to money–to play for the sake of music, without an eye towards success, as Rodrigo y Gabriela put it during their concert Saturday.

I applied for a job as a writer for a European guidebook, and much to my surprise, I got the job. I was supposed to leave next week, but there’s been some delays with the publisher, which should be resolved in the next few days. I suppose that if they aren’t resolved that I’ll be back to square one–not that this gig was ever anything more than a temporary endeavor.

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I had an incredibly long travel day coming to Seattle. I thought about telling you but upon further consideration I realized that most stories of the “flight from hell” variety tend to bore royally. My preference is: don’t tell me about your airport ordeal unless it involves sex, an unexpected arrest, or ends in a raft in the Atlantic.

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One of the best things about being between careers is that you have some time to experiment and try out new ventures that you otherwise might not have time for.

One of these ventures is a Web TV show we’re creating for Generation whY; the show will discuss social and career-related issues that affect young professionals today.

We don’t have a website yet, but the show’s main sponser is Zoodango.com (”where you connect with young hip urban professionals”), a social networking site created by James Sun of Apprentice fame.

I’m super excited because I’ve spent the past few months working on show ideas and writing scripts with Aaron Altscher, and this weekend we’re flying to Seattle to film the show. More details to come…

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I just finished The Alchemist by Paul Coelho, which I enjoyed. This was my favorite passage:

“Why do you tend a flock of sheep?”

“Because I like to travel.”

The old man pointed to a baker standing in his shop window at one corner of the plaza. “When he was a child, that man wanted to travel, too. But he decided first to buy his bakery and put some money aside. When he’s an old man, he’s going to spend a month in Africa. He never realized that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.”

“He should have decided to become a shepherd,” the boy said.

“Well, he thought about that, ” the old man said. “But bakers are more important people than shepherds. Bakers have homes, while shepherds sleep out in the open. Parents would rather see their children marry bakers than shepherds.”

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