Category: Year-In-Six-Sentences

This year, 2020, was the Year of the Hypochondriac. I continued living in Rockpit, Alaska. I gave up my expectation to become a teacher in the schools here on the island, and started working as a part-time clerk in the Alaska Gifts shop. I took on duties as the matting and framing specialist. I didn’t travel off the island at all, the whole year. I did quite a bit of hobby work on my “map servers,” and I started building a treehouse on lot 73, down by the sea.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2020 – it was written in the future.]

I continued living in Rockpit, Alaska.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2018 – it was written in the future.]

I continued living in Ilsan, but my uncle Arthur had an accident and a stroke, and I ended up moving to Southeast Alaska (Prince of Wales Island). It was a dramatic year.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2018 – it was written in the future.]

I continued living in Ilsan.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2017 – it was written in the future.]

I continued living in Ilsan.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2016 – it was written in the future.]

I continued living in Ilsan.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2015 – it was written in the future.]

I continued living in Ilsan.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2014 – it was written in the future.]

It turned out that I had been feeling unhealthy for a reason. I was diagnosed with tongue cancer. I underwent major surgery at Korea’s National Cancer Center (국립암센터), having a golf-ball-sized tumor removed. I spent 3 weeks in the hospital, missed 3 months of work, underwent a tomographic radiation treatment, and spent a major portion of my life savings. By the end of the year, the cancer was apparently beaten but I had long term impacts on quality-of-life that left me wondering why I was bothering; nevertheless, I continued teaching in Ilsan. That was near-death experience number three.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2013 – it was written in the future.]

This was a very stable year, as years go. I stayed in the same job, all year, with only one slight shake up in management due to a merger. I taught a lot of middle school debate, and the debate program was successful. I was less content on a personal aspect, because I  felt unhealthy for most of the year, and out of touch with my goals. I began to feel despair of ever learning the Korean Language. I experienced conflict with members of my family.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2012 – it was written in the future.]

I travel to Australia to visit my mom in January for a week, and then make a week-long touristic trip to New Zealand that is mildly pleasant but erely reminds me that I don’t really enjoy travelling as much as I used to – at least not travelling alone. I let my contract at Hongnong Elementary School run out. With some sadness, I said good-bye to Yeonggwang County and returned to Ilsan.  I started to work at Karma Academy, for my former LinguaForum Academy boss (from 2008). I have a more stable housing situation (like!). I have fewer elementary students (not like!).
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2011 – it was written in the future.]

I returned to Korea, but the job market wasn’t what I’d hoped. So I enrolled full-time in a Korean language school, and hunkered down for a long-erm job search while living at a cheap hostel in Suwon (south of Seoul). I travelled to Japan (Kyushu) in April, and then at the end of that month I started a new job at Hongnong Elementary (public school), in rural Jeollanam Province. I really enjoyed being an elementary school teacher, and I made a lot of friends among my Korean co-workers, but my principal (boss) was xenophobic (hating foreigners) and the housing situation was very unstable – I was moved into four different apartments over a one-year contract. I solidified my at-least-once-a-day blogging habit, though.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2010 – it was written in the future.]

I continued at L-Bridge until September, but I let my contract run out. I loved teaching elementary-age kids, and I wondered, ‘Am I happy?’ I wasn’t completely happy, but I was happier than during most of my life – so, all things being relative, it seems like I’ve chosen a good “career.” Nevertheless, since more than a few days’ vacation is unheard of in the hagwon biz, I decided I needed to “check in” back in the U.S., so I resigned my job (with the idea of re-taking it, or something similar, upon return) and went back to the U.S. for a few months. I put 10000 miles on my pickup truck in 3 months, and then sold it. I spent 10 days at a Buddhist Monastery outside of Chicago.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2009 – it was written in the future.]

Tomorrow School got taken over by LinguaForum. LinguaForum, in turn, got taken over by L-Bridge. Working at L-Bridge was really challenging, and I nearly quit. My boss, you see, was psychotic. But I discovered something about myself, which, retrospectively, I labelled “Zen With a Red Pen.” I spent a week in Australia with my mother in August – with a brief visit to Hong Kong, too.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2008 – it was written in the future.]

The computer gig had some interesting projects, but the career was losing its lustre. I decided to return to teaching, because I had overcome my prior financial difficulties. Jeffrey (my stepson) started college, and the trust fund I’d created for him would cover costs, so I was free, financially. I applied to some overseas jobs, including Costa Rica, Tunisia, and South Korea. South Korea ended up being the most appealing, for various personal reasons: my interest in the Korean Language; my adopted Korean nephews. So I started teaching at “Tomorrow School” in Ilsan, Gyeonggi, South Korea, in September.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2007 – it was written in the future.]

I took a second trip to Australia. At HealthSmart, I put in several months of ungodly 80-100 hour work weeks. I went insane. So I resigned my job, and tried to succeed as an independent database consultant. My heart wasn’t in it, though.  That fall, I had moved back to Minneapolis, where I found a wonderful apartment near Lake Calhoun in Uptown, and I adopted a new, healthier lifestyle that included losing nearly 40 pounds.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2006 – it was written in the future.]

I spent six weeks in Europe, two of them with my bestfriend Bob, who was there for an audition in Utrecht. I confirmed my interst in Poland, and my fascination for Italy. I fell in love with Lisbon, but was surprised by my abject disinterest in Spain the country, despite my love of Spanish literature. I then came back to LA and started a new job with HealthSmart Pacific as a Database Administrator and Applications Designer. I moved to Long Beach, but I ended up mostly commuting to Orange County. I hated commuting, as I have always hated commuting, even though driving for 45 minutes along the Pacific Coast Highway each way is oddly resonant.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2005 – it was written in the future.]

I solved some amazing, interesting technical challenges for the Sales and Marketing department at ARAMARK, but I’ve created bad blood with my former colleagues in the IT department. Company politics got unpleasant. I resigned my job in December. But I feel ‘successful.’ In 5 years, I’d managed to get promoted 4 times and quadruple my original starting salary, paying off my debts and saving a good sum of money. Oh… and I started This Here Blog Thingy™.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2004 – it was written in the future.]

I migrated again, with my employer, ARAMARK: I went into the Sales and Marketing department. I developed the infamous National Accounts Data Analysis (NADA) intranet site for my company on my own, and it was a huge hit. I was promoted and recognized for this. I reflected, ‘Failure in life…  success in business.’ I moved into the tiny house next to my dad’s on the hill in Highland Park. I took my first trip to Australia to visit my mother.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2003 – it was written in the future.]

I rented a horrible apartment in North Hollywood. I lived alone, enjoying the company of my eccentric cat, Bernardo O’Higgins. All cats are eccentric. I was turning into the ‘loner-nerd’ I’d always worried I’d become. Work, however, was going well – workaholically, in fact. I developed a habit of working on Saturdays, and taking time off while at work to go to the infinityplex in Burbank a few blocks from work and watching a movie – so I watched a lot of movies.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2002 – it was written in the future.]

At my work at ARAMARK, I migrated from the finance department into the IT department. I started working as a programmer. I studied SQL programming and accounting, and combine these disparate fields into a pretty good understanding of my employer’s business model.  I took many long drives around Southern California. I accepted the fact that I was meant to be alone in the world. I deleted a novel I was writing from my computer in disgust.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2001 – it was written in the future.]

A programmer at my place of work becomes slightly famous for creating a non-Y2K-compliant application after January 1, 2000. In June, Michelle committed suicide. It was as if to say, ‘So there!’ or ‘Take that!’ That’s how suicide works. I worked hard at ARAMARK. I bought my Nissan pickup truck, which was the first and only time I ever bought a new car.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2000 – it was written in the future.]

I started working at ARAMARK Corporation in Burbank, as a temp in the finance department. I proved sufficiently competent that they offered me a permanent position. Michelle and I occasionally discussed getting back together. We had long, drawn out, long-distance telephone conversations, her still in Philly and me in L.A. (well, Burbank). We both clearly had difficult-to resolve ‘issues.’ I told Michelle that I didn’t think it could work out.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 1999 – it was written in the future.]

Things began to break down with Michelle and I wasn’t doing very well with it. In August, we decided on a “trial separation,” but I wasn’t willing to  approach this methodically, and by September, I had quit my teaching job and I ran off (somewhat irresponsibly, I realize) to stay on my uncle Arthur’s land in Alaska. I cut trees and brush with a chainsaw (in the rain), and shoveled gravel (in the rain), and wrote a novel (sitting in a white van, in the rain). In November, I gave up on Alaska and on solitude, and I went to LA to stay with my father, who had recently divorced my stepmother of 21 years, whom I sometimes idolized. This was a very bad period for me, and so, closing out the year with a bang, I attempted suicide while parked alongside the Pacific Coast Highway north of San Simeon, and I nearly succeeded. I spent time in a mental hospital (the parallels with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance are, um, disconcerting).
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 1998 – it was written in the future.]

I resigned from the graduate program at Penn, feeling very unhappy with departmental politics. I was awarded a Master’s Degree in Spanish Literature, as a sort of consolation prize for not finishing the Ph.D. program I was enrolled in. I got to try to be a “soccer dad” with Jeffrey for several months, while Michelle put in ungodly hours with Merck, Inc., in her new job as a chemical engineer. I started teaching high school Spanish and Social Studies that fall, with an ungodly commute to Moorestown, New Jersey. Neither Michelle nor I particularly liked living in suburban Philadelphia. We fight a lot about money, and about parenting issues with Jeffrey – a step-parent’s role is very confusing.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 1997 – it was written in the future.]

My cat Bernie frequently slept on the bookshelf I’d put next to my desk, and she would fall asleep and then fall off the shelf and into the pile of papers on my desk, surprised by her own clumsiness. Cats are like that. I worked very, very hard at Penn, teaching Spanish to lazy, over-privileged, Ivy League undergrads and taking qualifying exams that summer. Michelle and I finally got legally married in a pizza joint in Minneapolis over the summer, too (the Judge came on a motorcycle). Michelle and Jeffrey then joined me in Philadelphia, after she graduated in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota – we rented a house in Yardley, PA, across from Trenton, NJ. I enjoyed taking the train into the city each day for school/work.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 1996 – it was written in the future.]

I worked nights for UPS in Northeast Minneapolis in order to save up money. This means I can say I’ve been a card-carrying Teamster. At the same time, I took a really amazing class on semiotics in the Comparative Lit department at the University of Minnesota. We bought a kitten that Jeffrey named Bernardo O’Higgins, that was declared to be “Jared’s cat” to accompany the two other cats: Keska “Jeffrey’s cat” and Charlotte, “Michelle’s cat.”I applied to graduate schools. My first choice was UCLA, but I started at the University of Pennsylvania in August, at the Department of Romance Languages, because of Michelle’s eventual East Coast job prospects – so I rented a charming, run-down apartment in West Philly.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 1995 – it was written in the future.]

Michelle and I moved in together. Then I spent six months studying the Mapuche Language (Native American Patagonian) at the Universidad Austral de Chile, in Valdivia, Chile. I got to see Buenos Aires, Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia, Uruguay, etc. I was back in Minnesota with Michelle and Jeffrey for Christmas. Michelle and I decided we were ‘married.’ We both had apprehensions about state-sponsored relationships, though, so we didn’t do anything legally binding at this point.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 1994 – it was written in the future.]

I did some graduate-level coursework in Spanish Literature and Literary and Cultural Criticism (Lit-Crit) at the University of Minnesota – tuition was cheap because I’m an alum. I also studied the Dakota Language (Native American Great Plains). I worked in a bookstore. I had a bicycle accident in which I shattered my 2nd metatarsil into 23 pieces. Two surgeries and six weeks on crutches later, at some point, an initially platonic relationship with Michelle became ‘dating.’ Michelle and I took several camping trips to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which is why the UP is symbolically important to me.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 1993 – it was written in the future.]

I lived in Pasadena in the house my great grandfather built around 1910. I took art classes and tried to learn Arabic. I was a bit aimless on the job front – I remember working as a temp at a Robinsons-May department store warehouse in West Covina. Then that summer, after a huge, confrontational fight with my dad and stepmother, I moved back to Minnesota. My bestfriend Bob and I become housemates again in South Minneapolis, near Powderhorn Park, and I met our downstairs neighbors Michelle and Jeffrey (her son, who is 5 at the time). I started working in a bookstore, and one time the front wheel came off my car while I was driving it (a 1965 VW Bug).
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 1992 – it was written in the future.]

I was stationed at Camp Edwards, Geumcheon (about 7 km from Ilsan of later residence). I was attached to the Bravo Company of the 296th Support Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. I drove a giant camo green tow truck (named Rocinante) around northwest Gyeonggi province, mostly dragging Humvees out of rice paddies. I found Korea to be a beautiful and interesting country. I was a competent mechanic, but an indifferent soldier. When the Army announced that it was downsizing in the wake of the end of the cold war, I grabbed an honorable “early out”discharge when it was offered, and by December I had become a civilian in San Francisco.
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 1991 – it was written in the future.]