The Virginia Curveball

Sometimes life can throw you some curveballs. You expect it. It’s the fastballs that get you, though. The high heat an inch from the tip of your nose that makes your life flash before your eyes. Those are the ones that knock you on your ass.

Two weeks after we got to Virginia, my wife realizes she’s pregnant. High heat!

It threw us for a serious loop that we’re only now coming out of. For those wondering how the hell I ended up working as a Financial Advisor, there you go. The call came out of nowhere – a recruiting call via Monster.com – and I was made an offer two weeks later and it came with immediate benefits. The pay sucked but there was that whole building your own business angle that was appealing. It meant paying some serious dues the first couple of years but, with a baby on the way and one $1000 trip to the ER under our belt, beggars can’t be choosers. Besides, I’m always up for a challenge and the daunting task of getting three licenses – Series 7, 66 and Life & Health – in 12 weeks ranked up there with the best of them.

The exams were a bitch, probably the toughest I’d ever crammed for, but I got through them solidly, scoring 87, 85 and 86, though I forget which were which. Not bad for having ZERO prior financial experience. Their training resources were everything they said they’d be. Unfortunately, that’s about all that was.

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And so it begins…

Ahem…1-2, 1-2. Mic check. So, this is Blogger? Cool.

A year ago today, I loaded a U-Haul truck full to the back door and we headed south on I-95, Virginia or bust. It’s been about six weeks since we’ve been back in NY so I guess you’d have to say bust! Seriously, though, the truth of the matter is that while our intentions were good – slower pace to raise Isaac, spend more time with each other, etc – we were at least 10 years ahead of schedule for the supposed American Dream. Michele K. put it best saying “backyards are overrated.” I like to say that, while the grass was greener, the trees were stunted and the air a little stale. To each his own, though. It’s not a bad place, just wasn’t the place for us.

Some good things came out of the move, though, not the least of which is my daughter, India, born in Norfolk, VA on Friday, October 4, 2002 @ 4:45am! I also got closer to my mother than I’ve been in ages, made an interesting, if short term, career change and made a few good friends, one of whom even moved to NY! I’ve got stories that I’ll drop on you from time to time but I’ve got clothes to fold and Isaac to get ready for bed.

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The Revolution Will Be

NOTE: This article was originally published in POETRY IN AMERICA, Poets & Writers Magazine Special Issue, April 1999, and republished in The Spoken Word Revolution, Redux (Sourcebooks MediaFusion, 2007). It was posted to my old GeoCities site in 1999 and was recovered from the Wayback Machine on 10/29/21. Links to Amazon were replaced, everything else is as originally published. the Academics have much to fear and they will not die without a dirty fight. -Charles Bukowski Faced with the surging popularity of spoken-word and the poetry slam, The Academy of American Poets, long known for its gala reading series, was forced…

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