Who am I?

Who are these people?

What's the piping plover got to do with it?

What do the words mean?

Conifers? What about conifers?


I guess a better title for the current incarnation of the journal would be "Journal of a Sabbatical with a Brief Interlude of Gainful Employment". The back story starts in February of 1995 when I left "high-tech" to find out if there is life outside the office. That was the sabbatical part. The online journal part started in July 1996 for sharing with friends my discovery that there is life outside high-tech. The "brief interlude of gainful employment part" came in mid-2001 and lasted thru 2002. High-tech ain't what it used to be and neither am I. As 2003 unfolds, I am once again trying to figure out what it means to have a life and how to earn a living while having a life.

I began 2001 asking myself: "Will I make it to 2002 without a return to corporate life? Will I find out what I want to be when I grow up? Will I grow up before my nieces do? Will the piping plover population ever get above the "endangered" level? Will Jaguar really live forever? How many species of birds will I add to my life list? Will Zsolt & István finish documenting the temperate zone conifers before they lose my excellent unpaid services to the siren song of high-tech big bucks?" Well, the siren song of the startup turned my head in July 2001. A mere two weeks after I started there, my little nest egg of stock that was supposed to take me to 2002 dropped 35% in one day and that turned out to be only the beginning.

So, no I didn't make it to 2002 without a return to corporate life, I haven't figured out what I want to be when I grow up, the nieces have grown up but I haven't, the piping plover population on my little stretch of beach reached replacement level in the 2001 season, Jaguar died, the dendrologists still haven't finished the conifer book, and the startup came and went.

So it's back to chronicling my quest to achieve enlightenment through washing dishes and litter boxes. Cats and conifers rejoice!


 



Who am I? Why am I here? || Journal of a Sabbatical || The Piping Plover Page || Plum Island Bird List
Watchemoket Cove Bird List || Antarctica Trip Bird List || Anza-Borrego/Salton Sea Trip Bird List

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Copyright © 1998-2002 Janet I. Egan