The Arcadian Experience

 

Yep. Today I turned 40. It was the last day of a long week of a new job – a hard job that requires all of my mental capabilities.

40 is not so bad. And it was a good night. My family and my best gal pal and dead cow with great wine and red velvet cake.

And a bucket list gift… We’re going to the Rangers Opening DAY! OMG! It’s the 40^th year for the Rangers and for me too.

I have been a Texas Rangers fan for years, even in the really rotten ones. The last 3 years have been wonderful for the Rangers fans. And thank you momma for providing the credit card for the purchase of a Lexus Club level Opening Day suite! CANNOT Wait!

 

On my way back from Whiskey Tango Falls I got a good look at the new wind farm straddling Young and Archer Counties.

I stopped at the ranch to pick up my little kid. It was time to feed Jingle and he was hungry. Jdubs runs while shaking the bottle and the dogs are running and playing.

 

 

That is awesomeness in Arcadia.

I worked in NASCAR as a publicist for one season. Frankly, one season of racing on the circuit was all I could stand even at 25 years old. 32 weekends of travel, working all major holidays and one day a week off, which was usually a Monday that included traveling back home to do laundry before doing it all over again starting on Thursday.

I can’t tell you how many unoriginal “quotes” I heard from drivers, pit crews, owners and the like. Most of them said stuff like, “my job is to go fast and turn left.” I would look at them and say something like, try again you can do better. And usually I could get a better quote out of the subject after that.

Today was a day of firsts. This week I will turn 40 and I’m going fast and turning left. And for another overused and unoriginal expression, I’m drinking from the fire hose.

I took a rare night off from blogging last night … actually a good night with friends, making another batch of homebrew and genuinely gaffing off. It was a good night.

But tonight I’m thinking and anticipating my new beginning tomorrow. As I have mentioned previously on this blog, I’m going through a job transition and tomorrow is the big day. I’m anxious and hoping for the best. I’m not sure what to expect but I do know that tomorrow will be a big left turn in my professional career. Sometimes the best things come out of nowhere because the Almighty is at the wheel, and that’s what I’m hoping for tomorrow.

I write every day—for this blog, for my day job, to help a friend with a letter. In my professional career I’ve always held positions that not only required writing proficiency, but excellence.

I’ve been paid to “write stuff”—everything from campaign speeches to marketing collateral to strategic messaging.

The information age makes reading and writing proficiency paramount. And with technology and social media everyone can be a writer, photographer and an expert source of content.

The various forms of self-publishing make for overwhelming amounts of information and dilute journalistic integrity. But being able to put your content out there and acquire followers is very freaking cool.

I have a college degree in communications, but you don’t necessarily have to be a formally-educated person to write well. For at least half of my career, I’ve been paid as a professional to write stuff for other people. None of it is creative in the sense of a fiction novelist, but it takes focused energy and logic to work through a complicated explanation of a piece of technology as described by an engineer.

What I love about writing, especially technical writing is the problem solving and translation of complicated information into easily digestible sentences. Each sentence builds on to the next one, adding greater depth to the information presented. Then it crescendos into an “ah-ha” section, followed by a conclusion and it’s finished in a tidy bow. In that sense, writing is solving problems not dealing with them.

In the last 7-10 years I’ve always had to produce written communications, but my day job has been much more than just writing; it included business management, HR, operations and finance. Right now I’m in a transition in my professional career and about to take a hard left turn, starting next week, and the writing part of my career is going further down the shelf.

Before turning the corner, I signed up for a couple of short-engagement tech writing projects for former colleagues. I’ve been out of the tech game for 6-7 years. But today I was validated professionally as someone with tech writer chops. I know it sounds like a very nerdy thing to brag about, but sometimes it’s nice to know you still got it.

My sweet Valentine and I spent the day in Fort Worth with our Valentine, Jdubs. It was a good day for all.