Feel-Good Friday

It's Friday, but as it is for my tradition, it's Feel-Good Friday. Every Friday is Feel-Good Friday no matter what.  And today, I really do feel good. I feel normal, nothing crazy, just normal. Maybe slightly below where'd I'd like to be, but I'll chalk it up to the gray and rainy day.

On Monday I start a new job. It's a new job, that has regular full-time hours, daytime hours, with benefits and all the other whatnots with a great local company, a good corporate job. I'm so thrilled, let me tell you why.

8 years ago, August 2020, I left everything to come here with my wife and 2 children. I left full-time ministry in an effort to support my wife, to work on our marriage, and start again. The dream was simple, she'll go back into teaching, I'll stay home with the kids, we'll be broke for a little while but I'll figure something out (I always do) and we'll get by. 

Didn't happen like that.

I did stay home, so that worked. Every morning Pre-K thru 6th grade, for my son and my daughter. 

• Morning routines
• Breakfast
• Lunches
• Walking to the bus
• Driving to school
• Taking what was forgotten in the morning to back their school
• Lunch visitation
• School events.
• etc etc etc. 

I did all the things that one does when you're the stay-at-home parent. It was fun at first. It was the first time since I was a sophomore in high school that I didn't have a job, but then not making any money and not being able to afford things isn't so fun, know what I'm saying??? 

We were doing it, we were, but I wanted to work again. I didn't know anyone, so I started hitting up network events and meetups. Those meetups led to more meetups which inevitably led to more meetups. It's a rabbit hole of meetups and network-y things. They just keep going and they were sort of working, because I was meeting people and trying to start something, which eventually, I did.  I got the startup bug and it bit me hard. So...

Let me roll the timeline out for you. 

1. Oak City Cohort (my startup), but my business partner tragically passed away by taking his own life. It had all been going great, but I was broke so I took another job.
2. Office Manager for a parachurch non-profit, but it ended up being a sham and the most toxic environment I had ever been apart of. So I quit, then I went into a new business.
3. Bull City Cigar Company, co-founder and majority owner, was going great until my business partner stole from me.

4.  Important injection: Marriage was ending, the business was failing, no revenue was coming in, I was moving out, needed to pay rent (like yesterday) so I needed a job.

5. Server at the Angus Barn- Good job but not sustainable for a single guy trying to raise and take care of two children. Working late nights and missing out wasn't doing it for me. Ton of fun though.
6. Yoga Instructor- Haha. I love it, still do, but come on. Doesn't cut it. 
7. Then it went like... bartender for a hotel, but that sucked. Again shoddy pay, late nights. No good.
8. Catering gigs. The first one was horrible. Treated so disrespectfully, but I need $$$. Beggars can't be choosers.  Then the second was okay, but it was sporadic, but it paid the best. I sucked it up. 
9. Bartender at a retirement community. Yes, you read that. It started as a part-time gig (later became full-time) while I juggled three other gigs, time with my kids, their school events, a court custody battle, and trying to have a life. I was going crazy. 

Then I shit the bed. 

I was finally making progress, gaining stability, getting rooted in my community, getting back into regular church attendance. I was trying to establish a strong ground for myself and for my kids to be supported here in Raleigh.

But one Friday night after work, I went out to my favorite brewery, because I was happy.  I had a great night at work, earlier that day I just finishing paying off the last repair on my car. I had a week of paid holiday coming up with my kids for Thanksgiving. I had really fun plans for us for the Christmas vacay. I was finally getting over the hurdle. I was doing it, finally, and man, did it feel great. So much hard work and struggle and I was finally about to see some light. I didn't intend to drive drunk, but I did. I went home from that brewery, but I never made it back. I spent the next 10 days in jail. I ran my car off the road, ran right into a post in a ditch. I didn't hit anyone, I didn't hit anything else. I got out of the car before anyone came, I was unscratched, but the car looked really bad, like really bad. I was fortunate. 

The retirement gig fired me, the yoga studios had no idea where I was. I gone, locked up. It wasn't fun.

2020 comes, I tried at another serving gig. It sucked. The pay sucked. It wasn't good. I got a another yoga teaching gig at another studio and I got a another bartending job at a nearby brewery and I was working as a "creative director" for something else. 

Please understand too, that this whole I have been trying and applying for other jobs, great job, but those take time, I needed money now. 

Then quarantine happened. Bam!

Well, back to today, Feel-Good Friday. On Monday I start a new job. I've been applying to this compnay for a year, applying for every dang position they have and they finally called me back. I got some real face time with them and they loved me. They gave me the job right away. I always lost to the algorithms that sort out key words on online resumes. 

I have been fighting so hard these last 8 years and I finally have something that I think is sustainable and it's something that I have been wanting. I have a long way to go still and I have been without a car this entire year since last November. One, because I can't afford a new one and, two, because I don't have my license right now. 

I am very happy though. It's Feel-Good Friday. And, like usual, begin again.

Peace be with you.

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