And There Will Be No Cake?

Today should mark a day of celebration in my life. Ten years ago today I published my first Inside The Perimeter blog post on Blogger (anyone else remember that platform?). On previous anniversaries I included the first post, but I haven’t the time to do so today.

Instead of celebration I am tired, so very tired. Work has pulled my in so many directions that I no longer know which way is up and I am constantly being pressured to deliver a project that is not ready, in part because the foundation on which it depends is also not ready.

I’ve also managed to drive myself into the dirt by enrolling in German classes, which still scares me but at least I understand my desired goal, as well as attending out-of-town career fairs and conferences. And if all goes as expected today I’ll be in Little 5 Points tongiht at Horizon Theatre for their production of “Native Guard”. If I manage to get down there early I will celebrate Anniversary #10 with a pint of beer at a local establishment. All of these things are taking my valuable recovery time. I know that I have the power to not do these things, but they are the constituents that make up the experiences that I want in my life.

ITP Flickr Pic
ITP-Reader Lisa and I have a long-standing joke about garlic knots from a place called “Barley’s Taproom” in Asheville, NC. One of the first times I met the Lisa and Randy in Asheville we went there and I ordered the garlic knots, because I love garlic knots, hoping that they would be awesome; they were a little less than awesome on that day. I’ve since ordered garlic knots each time I have visited, never quite achieving the level of satisfaction for which I hoped.
Inside Joke (Barley's Garlic Knots)
They look delicious, right?

On Monday night there was a happy hour celebration at the Barley’s Taproom location in Greenville, SC. When they brought out a large tray of garlic knots I just had to take that photo and send it to Lisa.

How were they? Good, but not nearly as good as I’d hoped that they would be. I think Barley’s misses out by not having them arrive swimming in a pool of garlicky butter.

This Was Nearly The End
Ten years is a long time. I know, I’ve been without a girlfriend for at least that long. It’s even scarier for me to think that I have been in my house for 15.5 years, at the same company for nearly eighteen years, and come December I will have lived in Atlanta for twenty years.

I’m not happy.
I want change for the better.
It’s up to me to initiate change.

For months I considered ending Inside The Perimeter today. Let’s be honest, my life has been less than exciting since returning from Europe and I have neglected this blog greatly recently. But I am not a quitter. If I were a quitter this blog would have ended years ago when the popularity of blogging waned. And since I abandoned Facebook three (?) years ago this blog is my lifeline to those of you that are my friends and I need that.

Will Inside The Perimeter last ten more years? Highly unlikely. But I shan’t worry about that today, instead I want to (briefly) relish in my accomplishment for making it this far with at least a handful of posts of which I am proud.

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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9 Responses to And There Will Be No Cake?

  1. My first attempt to publish today’s post failed. Had there not been a very recent draft saved this may indeed have marked the end of this blog because I would have been too furious to start writing this post again.

  2. Steve says:

    There should be cake, my friend, and at least one pint hoisted by all of us for your continuing efforts in the blogosphere. I certainly enjoy your daily (!!) missives and hope if nothing else, they are cheaper than regular visits to a therapist!

    You are making changes to your life- you have started to formulate the plan for the sale of the ITP estate, you have returned to German classes, and while you struggle with work issues, you are fighting the good fight. We all do it at some point.

    Congratulations on 10 years and may you find satisfaction to carry on a while longer.

    -FP

  3. I just erased the iPad that had two photos of whiteboard notes that I took over the weekend. Unfortunately my moment of clarity about remembering these photos occurred two seconds after I pressed the “Erase All Data and Settings” button. No other copies of these photos exist. As if I weren’t in a deep enough hole…. FML.

  4. Can I get a “Do Over” for today? My day is going from bad to worse…

  5. Steve says:

    Hang tough! I have faith… not necessarily in you, but in general! 🙂

  6. Hanging tough not helping. I am now trying to pull a version of code from five days ago from my source version control only to find version control markers in it that should not exist. I am completely flummoxed, under extreme pressure, and just want to walk away from it all.

  7. Jenka says:

    I’ve been thinking that maybe you should just drop the Stats section, or maybe just do it once a month or quarter. It’s clearly been a relief to you not to have to update them every single day. That might make the blog more enjoyable/less work.

    If there had been more notice, we should have all gotten together this evening to celebrate!

  8. Steve says:

    Jenka has the right idea…

  9. I like the stats, but they have run their course. I would like to get back to taking/posting more photos.

    A get together would have been fun. Of course I would not want to subject any of you to the foul mood I am in currently. Let’s just say that everything I have touched today has turned to crap. I am to blame for some of the problems, but there have been multiple tools and configuration settings thwarting me greatly as well.

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