Meeting part of the tribe.

Work

I finally made it to the library to do some re-pricing work on my inventory. This is the season where textbook pricing becomes a delicate balance. My aim is to be optimized - get the highest prices I can get, while pushing a ton of inventory out the door.

I'm taking time away from Adderall. I'm moving in a slow and sluggish manner. My brain is more cloud than laser during the transition. However, it makes no difference at all. I remind myself daily that it is acceptable to accomplish almost nothing. It's ok! I do a little bit of work when I can. The world and the universe remain stable regardless. Most of my tasks can wait.

Happy Hour and Budget

I was on the fence about going to Kelly's. Aside from happy hour, I am spending almost nothing. I buy simple food at the grocery store, and that's it. Kelly's, by comparison, is blowing up the budget. $22.76 is a black mark on my spreadsheet. It's throwing off my low-average numbers.

Money-wise, I can afford restaurants and beers for every meal. I could drink better than some $3 wine. But that doesn't fit with two parts of my Master Plan -- saving money and eating better. I am examining my happy hour habits, and deciding if there is room to improve. Once the numbers are in at the end of this month, I will have a better idea of what to budget. My aim right now is to set a baseline as close to the floor as I can manage, while still feeling fulfilled as a happy human being.

Meeting Part of My Tribe

Happy hour today was excellent. I sat at the bar with a couple who moved to the island eight years ago. They are positive folks who are in touch with the universe. They have been together for many years. They are clearly in love - it is evident by the way they look at each other and interact.

We talked much longer than we might have, because the subject of excellent books came up. We have all read some of the same books, and our interests have tons of overlap. They were excited to talk about Ernest Shackleton. I swear it wasn't me who brought him up. We talked about other books of adventure, and we talked about selling shit online. They make money that way too. We talked about vans which are built to live in. They have one of those too. They have traveled extensively, but they now have a house.

The more we talked, the more connections we made. They say they hate society as if being in Key West makes that obvious - and you don't need to pull back many layers of the onion to recognize that's a major component of what's going on down here. They're for the people, and against everything else, and that's also roughly where I stand. They subscribe to the idea of finding a tribe, and if I were choosing today, I would have them in mine.

By the time we said goodbye, we were at firm hug status. A handshake would have been out of the question. Where else but Key West could I so easily find my people? Many of our type have historically escaped here for the same exact weather and reasons.