So, life update 2016, five months in, this is where we stand... I’m back in the United States. Good old U-S-A. To be honest, it’s jarring here sometimes, and I’m not 100% sure I want to be here. But the first week back was glorious. I reveled in driving to the grocery store. I loved Costco. I was so over Taiwan that my last few months were spent basically holed up in my mom’s apartment, emerging mainly to eat. So it was wonderful to feel bathed in American convenience and choices. And suburban lifestyle ain't bad for a second.
Somewhere along the way I stopped staying up super late at night and going out to clubs three times a week. In fact, I could probably count the number of times I went “out” in 2016 on one hand. Partially it was because I was having some back problems so uninterrupted sleeping was an adventure, but mostly because Taiwan was feeling too same old, same old.
I basically had a handful of people I was trying to see on a regular basis and that was it. Taiwan was over for me. It was super fun while it lasted but I felt dull inside and intellectually/creatively uninspired. Taipei is a wonderful city but bursting with vivacity it is not.
It was a good run for me though. November 2014 till March 2016. That’s a year and four months, minus maybe two months for when I was in the U.S. in August and November 2015. That’s the longest I’ve stayed put in one place since 2012-3. Back then it was a year and three months in New York. What’s funny is that I’m basically headed right back to New York, maybe even sliding back into my old apartment, with my ex-roommate. So, if things work out, hello roomie (again), hello New York (again), and hello Fort Greene (again).
In the meantime, I’ve been buckled down in San Diego for most of April, since returning in late March from Taiwan and immediately attending a friend’s fabulous Indian wedding in Arizona. Most of my tasks here have involved super cleaning my room — my mom is demanding it all be boxed up — and I finished that task a week ago. The Junk Fairy, the name of the father-son hauling company, came by to grab all my trash and now the rest of my possessions are in sixteen small boxes in the garage. I had thought my room was pretty clean before — since my mom was constantly making us clean things out when we came home — but apparently my room still had a ton of shit in it. Good bye heavy books, good bye old clothes, good bye irreplaceable sentimental items, DVDs, shelves full of toys, and other assorted crap. I didn’t quite go full on Kondo but I definitely decluttered the hell out of my room.
Note: I am approaching thirty-eight and still have a room at my mom’s house. That should probably change. It's far past a cautionary tale at this point. There are rumors that I’ll be trying to find a more permanent solution to my perpetual housing situation, but for now those are just rumors. I have felt a shift in myself though. Like I need a home base. Or at least a place to settle down. I may not have to stay there all the time, but when I need to go someplace I should go there/here. Sort of like Avengers Tower or something. Of course I would then need to get a job, to get some Stark money. And you know, grow up. I wonder what my credit rating is like...
I’ve only met her once, at the Arizona wedding, and she cried her little heart out each time because I’m terrible with babies. But I’m getting better. AMR and George are moving back to San Diego in the fall so Great will be raised on a pseudo-ranch with animals and wood shops and then when she comes of (teenage) age I will swoop into her life and teach her all things My So Called Life and well, My So Called Life.
People keep saying that I’ll get to be the cool uncle but Greta already has a cool uncle (AMR’s brother) and so I’ll have to think of another role for me to play. Maybe if I just write a book with her in it that will do. Of course, I'll have to write another book again. In the next thirteen years or so. That should be enough time right?
I’ve been trying to to rethink my writing career. As in, relaunch it. Jump start? Get it off ice? I can't even think in English anymore. Basically it's been ten years since my first book came out and I've not much to show for it, and so I’m gonna have a new name and everything to start over. Related, I’m overdue on a book proposal to Lilly, which I said I would finish before I left for the Philippines. A month and a half later, vacation tan faded and still no proposal. Old dog, same tricks.
Oh yeah, I went to the Philippines in March. Boracay to be exact. You can read all about it here. And also in January my friend came over from Maryland to take us on a road trip up the eastern coast of Taiwan. I’m sure I’ll post about that too. Actually Taiwan has been full of visitors for me. My New York friend also came out for a long weekend or so in January, and then in February my Bay Area friend hopped over from Japan to do writing retreat for two weeks. I’ll let you guess how much writing we did. The good news is that I got her working on her My So Called Life life spreadsheet. So that’s something.
And now I sit in my (fast) wifi hole and watch the NBA playoffs while trying to organize my life. The only due date on this year is late June, when I'm a groomsmen at a wedding, and other than that I'm a free agent. My heart is in Brazil, figuratively, but I'm not ready to go there yet. I feel the need for New York's energy and culture, something I've basically been empty on for the past year. And then what happens? I don't know. My plans have always been arbitrary, my goals non-existent, like I said I would be leaving Taiwan when so-and-so left. And now it's left. So what now?
Hi Greta!
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