Life Transplanet

My birthday was pretty fun. We went out to a late lunch with my parents and grandma to Farmer’s Inn in Lasalle.

Out to Farmer’s With the Fam

Then, later that evening we went out to the Rio in downtown Greeley for some margaritas and live music. There was a reggae band and it was pretty cool.

At the Rio with Matt, Jamie, Bobbie, Erin and Chad

Greeley Reggae band Trichome with courthouse building behind

Britton and I got our tarot cards read from a lady across the street. It was pretty accurate including that we had some “delays” (AKA Puerto Rico). Since it was my birthday, she gave me a tarot card to keep. I pulled the King of Cups which means I have one or more strong, supportive and loving men in my life (both my dad and Britton). She said I was the Queen of Pentacles and good with money. Together we (the King of Cups and Queen of Pentacles) work well together.

The Card I took home

We had made plans to go out salsa dancing and meet some friends over at St. Michaels’ event center, so we headed over there around 8 or so. When we got there it became apparent that we had left a pretty cool party with live music for one with only about 20 people sitting around listening to a dj, so we went back downtown.

Friends Adriana, Bobbie, me and Lorena taken with Britton’s cell phone at the salsa place

We danced to the reggae band and my friends dedicated a song for my birthday. We stayed there until it closed and then headed across the street to the Penalty Box and hung out there for a while more. It was a very fun birthday.

Reggae Band Trichome early in the evening with Matt and Jamie’s daughter dancing

I threw out a watermelon rind for the chickens and they went over to munch on it. I tried to get a picture, but when I got close, they would scatter, so I layed in the grass and watched. Kitty mosied on over and sat right in front of me. So I got this great picture of the chickens in the background and Kitty in the foreground. The world is much different at ground level.

Kitty in Front and Chickens behind

Then they got curious and wanted to see what I was doing in the grass, so I caught them on video as they wandered around the yard. They are getting so big! I remember when they were baby chicks and we could hold all three in our hands at once.

A few of Britton’s old high school friends (and now mutual friends) came in to town to visit from Oregon this weekend. We saw them on Wednesday and again on Friday night for Friday Fest with live music in downtown Greeley. Britton and I rode our bikes there, but when the rain storm rolled in, Britton offered to ride my bike and Matt rode Britton’s back to our place. It was pretty fun and reminded me of the days when we were young(er) in the summertime out with friends just floating along like a butterfly doing whatever we wanted. Plus it was great to get the gang all together again.

This week I have been setting up a training program at work.  I had to get a QA (quality assurance) environment up and running using the manual (RTFM).  I got it going which is good.  Now I have a list of people that need logins to access.  Once that is done I can learn about the very thing I just setup.  How odd is that?  Shouldn’t I take the training first?

I’ve learned that the way I thrive the best is ‘sink or swim’.  It is a very painful way to learn, but its how I do it.  Its how I learned to use computers, its how I learned to drive, frame basements, plumb, put in sprinklers, program computers, play guitar, and play video games.  If I am under pressure to do something I can do it.  There hasn’t been anything in life I haven’t been able to learn.  This relates to the post about risks.  I will do whatever it takes to succeed.   Heck just the other night I rode a girls bike home in the pouring rain to ‘make it work’ for everyone.  And you know what?  It turned out to be a super cool night.

Here is a song that relates to what I am talking about.  The style may not suit everyone at first; but I think the meaning and the energy matches perfectly. Tool – Aenima (right click and save as, unless you are easily offended…Seriously).   Its odd that I think this will ‘scare’ some people away due to its intensity.  It might.  But that is what I feel before I attempt something I am unfamiliar with.  I go all out.  And when you look at the lyrics to the song, it is all about being able to do for yourself and not on the system and some false idol.  Still,  Cassie will not approve

Fret for your figure and
Fret for your latte and
Fret for your hairpiece and
Fret for your lawsuit and
Fret for your prozac and
Fret for your pilot and
Fret for your contract and
Fret for your car.

Learn to swim.

I am not  depressed or anything, don’t take it to heart.  How else does a person get the energy to shovel by hand 10 tons of rock? These songs give me the energy to!

I’ve been thinking about risk lately and what it means.

I think it’s different for everyone and rightly so.  I for one take risks that some people don’t just because of my exposure to it.  Take flying for example.  I’d have no problem hopping in a small Cessna and taking off into the sky.  For others who haven’t had the flight experience they wouldn’t do it, it would be too risky.

Then there is financial risk.  Some people have way more experience than I do in the stock market and don’t even flinch when they move a large amount of cash around.  Or gambling, I haven’t ever won anything at a casino so when I see people betting $10 a hand at blackjack I just don’t understand it.  I can’t do that.

We have been thinking about another property in PR.  It’s a bit riskier than what we are used to due to price and the fact that we want to use it to start our own business.  We do have some experience with running our own small businesses and can see possibilities and want to give it a try.  Here is the catch though; give up our comfortable life to do it?   What if everything goes bad?  OMG OMG OMG.  We both have good jobs and the living is fairly easy except for what challenges we hold ourselves to.

I haven’t really ever failed at anything I’ve tried to do in life (except putting down linoleum in the basement which turned out better because we went with tile instead).   So even the things that I have failed at turned out…better.  Isn’t that odd?   I used to think landing at a strange airport with no plans in mind was ‘risky’ but now that I’ve done that (a few times) its no big deal.  Experience helps us feel more comfortable about taking risks.

I want to make a trip out to PR again here in a month or two to look around.  I think that I am ready to expand my experience in life again and become more comfortable with being an entrepreneur.   Besides IF we were to fail just think of how much more experience we would have when we try again!  I am already very comfortable with Puerto Rico due to the fact I’ve been there a few times.   I know what to expect.

I encourage others to comment about any risks you’ve taken and how it turned out in the end.