Leaving Spam

Adam Seitchik

June 2003

My last day of corporate 9-5, perhaps ever, was Friday, 30 May 2003.  That Thursday I had my leaving drinks, an English tradition wherein the newly unemployed buy six or seven rounds for anyone at work with whom they have ever made eye contact.  This was followed by some lame late-night dancing.  I adhered to Pam’s prime directive of not getting stinking drunk or sleeping with anyone, though at my age the two are mutually exclusive.  Still, I was grateful for the wide range of human behaviour allowable between these two extremes.

My horoscope for that leaving week (www.observer.co.uk) was as follows:  “The next few weeks are about completing the work cycle of the last two-and-a-half years, prior to a change of responsibilities to something less dutiful and impersonal. You can get in practice this week by playing the party raconteur. With Venus and Mercury enhancing your outlook, the main work to be done has an element of play. Even Capricorns can bunk off once in a while.”

So that’s the plan: bunk off for a while, then do something less dutiful and impersonal.  We’re heading back to the homeland (Lexington MA, not Belarus) via the eastern route: Tokyo, Kyoto, Sydney, Cairns, Alice Springs, Honolulu, Quebec.  Can a 14-year-old stand being with his family for six weeks straight?  Vice versa?   We’re investing in Walkmen and meditation CDs.

I spent the first post-corporate week exploring my inner mom, feeling that rush of excitement when the kiddies went off to school Monday morning, and the looming dread come Friday afternoon.  I also have been doing a bit of cooking, food shopping, playing tennis, going to the gymnasium.  Haven’t attempted laundry, making kids’ school lunches, prosac, etc.  Easing my way into it.

I bought a copy of Democracy in America, which seems like a good idea to me.  Otherwise I hope to travel light this summer.  I’ve had the good fortune of making a new friend this spring.  She gave me a little book of aphorisms which sustain me for this leap into the post-corporate unknown.  “True wealth is knowledge that enables you to live life as the expression of your inner values.”  Amen, Apeksha, and peace to all of you.