Sometime around 2 AM on 14 November, as I stood in the parking lot of my apartment complex in my underwear hoisting and then dropping an armchair into the dumpster (much to the delight of my neighbors, one of whom opened his door to inspect my progress before slamming it shut again in rage), I realized that I had reached the point of no return.
The path to that point began with depression in middle school, which morphed into depression in high school, which turned into depression in college, which then became depression in Atlanta, which became a half-hearted suicide attempt in 1997, which became therapy in early 2009, which became a drunken me throwing out an armchair at 2 AM.
The dumpster incident sounds like the sort of thing my fictional alter-ego, a Eurotrash DJ named "Mr. Lava," would have described in his blog on my Euro-music website "Eurotrash or Eurotreasure?" But this incident was real, as am I, and this blog will describe only real things as I move towards the biggest change of my life.
The current plan: to leave Atlanta for Eastern Europe in January 2010, and to DJ my way through the part of the world that I have long found the most exciting and interesting. I also intend to write about my adventures and discoveries, both here in this blog and also for other publications.
I have little money to start with. I presume I will have no health insurance. Not sure how that works, actually; that will be next week's task to determine. I am devoting 4.5 hours a day to planning this adventure, those hours divided into categories such as: "Finding gigs in Europe," "Eurotrash music research," "Cleaning out of apartment," and the always useful "Miscellaneous."
Sounds like a stupid plan, especially when you consider how little cash I will leave with. But oddly enough this is partly why I am leaving my job in the first place. If your job pays you dirt, then you may as well find another job that pays you dirt, but that you love doing.
wishing you success (whatever that means in your world)
ReplyDeleteHow long will you be away? Your current health insurance should follow you at least to cover catastrophic stuff (unless you're quitting your job and won't have any insurance at all). Have you thought of setting up a "donate to the DJ" fund or something like that via paypal where people can donate money to your DJ tour? You could put a button to check out via paypal on both of your blogs. Money in the bank! We're in Atlanta now. Andrew will email or call to see if and when you're around to hang out.
ReplyDelete@Proma - Thank you!
ReplyDelete@Leigh - Not sure for how long I will be away. I have considered the PayPal route ("the tip jar" approach). I will add that feature sometime tonight. Look forward to seeing you guys soon!