Right. So we've gotten to the end of your skooter trip.....and your month in Asia......and......??


Well.....I made it back home in to The Hills of Cedar in mid-August. So....what was I to do??

Basically, after being nudged out the door by the managers that I had worked for in the municipality that I was employed by (where one consultant described the Human Resources department there as ".....surreal....unlike anything I had ever seen before...."), I had decided to cash in a shitload of frequent flyer miles, spend a month in China and Vietnam, then ride my skooter around the perimeter of the U.S and parts of Canada.

A couple people had told me THAT was bullshit and that I should look into Civil Litigation (e.g. - lawsuit).


Upon consulting wiff my attorney, the attorney had stated that -


"......uhhhh.....I know of the upper echelon management in ---------, and I'm familiar with the elected officials there......and, yeah.....yeah....you'll win twenty....thirty G's.........................................................................................

....................................................

....................................................

..............but I know how these people work. And if you engage in litigation against them.......???





You'll never get another planning position in the State of Oregon again.............at least not in the Public Sector.

Ahhhhh.........remember a certain annexation proposal of a certain large sportswear manufacturing company?"



Errrmmm........right.



Uhhhh.....yeah. The attorney DID know how these people did things.......






So, decided to cut my losses, hit the road, and come back wiff a BUNCH of plans when I got home in August.


Plan A - Obtain employment with The City of Portland in an Urban Planning position.

Plan B - Obtain employment in a Public Sector municipality in a suburb of the City of Portland in an Urban Planning position.

Plan C - Obtain employment in the private sector in the City of Portland in an Urban Planning position.

Plan D - Obtain employment with a Public Sector municipality in the Pacific NorthWest in an Urban Planning position.



......................


............OK............

.................

You git the idea......

Basically, I had plans that literally did go down to NIGHTMARE Plan Z - which was, all else fails, go to Michigan and go to Graduate skool.


HOWEVER, I was intrigued by what I was told by some Vietnamese folks in Hanoi........which was that basically that natives of one of the Big Seven English-speaking nations (U.K., Ireland, U.S.A., Canada, Sowf Africa, Australia and New Zealand) can prosper QUITE nicely in Viet Nam teaching English to people for 20 hours a week.


Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....................................


.....very intriguing! But as much as I really, really enjoyed Viet Nam and the people there......I had really zero desire to leave Portlandia!

But what the hell???? Why not?? Heck......I'll make THAT idea Plan "Y"! Why not?? THEE last-ditch before the nightmare scenario of Plan Z!!!





Came back home to Portlandia in Mid-August...............



............Uhhhhhhhh.....Errrmmmm..............yeah. Nobody told me that we were going to enter an economic DEpression..................



Well, needless to state, Plans "A" through "X" didn't quite pan out the way that I'd expected, and, as things ended up.......I could not obtain employ in the Lower Forty-Eight states!!!

And I got four months of busting my ass searching forra job and a huge ole stack, literally, no exaggeration, a STACK of rejection form letters to show for it.

First, I thought about what a fuck-up that I am!!! Jesus.....sad, really......

THEN - I see reports of illegal immigrants going back home VOLUNTERIALY??????

THEN - I read a story in the bOregonain about an Urban Planning professional with degrees from Harvard AND M-I-fucking-T who can't git a job.....

Uhhh....yeah....then I knew it wasn't me and that we have got some serious economic issues in The United States!!

Plan "Y" was looking more and more attractive as the days of unemployment rolled by.

Did a LOT of online research, made a few contacts (which ALMOST actually ended up with me being in Korea)...................


...............and in seven hours from now.......................


....................I'm off on a flight to Hai Phong, Viet Nam to teach English.

Job offers in Viet Nam??

One.

Job offers of ANY sort in the lower forty-eight states of the U.S.A.???

Zero.





Oh God......


....What the hell WAS I thinking????









Jes' the beginning of a new adventure, I guess.............






More on here after I land.


-E-