big changes / becoming friends with the soju man

well

i had anticipated that the blog post following my last would dive deep into what i’d begun writing -- uncharted paths, disorientation, adjustment, existential crises, etc. this still might touch on that, but life has changed dramatically since i last checked in, team.

i made friends

i got a job, and my work-life balance has been thrown heavily askew towards WORK, which is becoming almost synonymous with life, for better or for worse.  i’m a personal assistant to the president of a holding company who also specializes in crisis management and restructing consulting.  it’s kind of like being personal assistant for five different CEOs because the company has its hands in a little bit of everything.  there is a lot of corporate juggling involved.  i never believed that corporate juggling would be a part of my occupation unless i was writing a story about it.  some of the things end up we do end up being very public, while others are confidential.  the awkward part of this is that i can’t really blog about it as i am generally accustomed to doing.  real life is tough.  sorry to the fans.

the office, pending a potential move, is on boulevard franklin roosevelt right off the champs elysees.  my metro stop gets me above ground with a great view of the arc de triomphe, which is still very cool to me.  there are a lot of parisian icons that still leave me in awe, perhaps even more so when juxtaposed with a more pedestrian and casual activity, e.g. swerving through traffic on the champs elysees on a vespa, biking past notre dame, walking over the seine at sunset.  i don’t know if those will get old anytime soon.  i could picnic on the banks of the river every weekend as long as the company is good.  shout out to dan and chase for coming through a couples of days to visit and give me a taste of home, though, amidst all this frenchness.

i got my job because i’d been working on a side project with some homies who manage and produce concerts.  i met ethan, one of the two partners, is good friends from home with a stanford homey, at coachella (referenced here as unidentified friend of friend who introduced me to the 1975; little did i know…) and he has since moved to amsterdam to expand his business here in europe.  i was going to be a parisian liason to work with french promoters and venues.  because i’m french, and all.  i sat down to coffee with them about three weeks ago and met their investor, who invited me on a business trip to lyon fifteen minutes later, followed up by a visit to the hague the next day.  then she hired me.  i spent a week in a small village in western france.  and now i’m on a plane back from a week in south korea.

more updates soon but i figured i’d at least post this.

reading list:

donald ray pollack, the devil all the time

dang.  this dude has his pulse on something unique, terrifying, and real.  you don’t get a lot of writers with a story like his, one who lived for fifty years in the backwards backwoods of middle america who discovers he has a talent for observation and writing.  it’s haunting to read.  excellent characters.  bone chilling scenarios.  grittier than gritty.  slimy, almost.  dirty.