March Chicken

What in the tarnation, how did it get to be 2017? And March, no less. The lack of posting is frankly, embarrassing. But also, ain't nobody reading this, so what is the point of even feeling embarrassed? There is none, but I try to do the things I say I am going to do, and I failed miserably on this end.

Anyway, here we are. March. 2017. Year of the chicken, and back to square one. Everything is different, but everything is the same. Let's do a quick re-cap of the past..year? Last time I posted was August, and things have taken a drastic turn since then.

Ok, so for starters, I got married! That is obviously huge, and I can't even begin to summarize, so maybe I'll just make a whole other post for that. I mean, probably not, given my track record, but it definitely deserves it's own stand alone post. A wedding is kind of a big deal and mine was a DOOZY. Korean weddings, yall. It's been five months and I still don't think I have completely processed the whole ordeal. So yeah, let's get back to that at another time.

Oh, and back in August I had a job at an after-school program and now..I don't! I could. not. stand. it. It was beyond boring and turns out, I hate teaching! I think I kind of always knew that, but it hit me in a BIG way at this job and I just couldn't handle it anymore. My brain was rotting. I don't *hate* kids, persay, but I also don't really find them amusing/inspiring/worthy of my time, the way that teachers should. And the older they get, the less appealing they are, so it was really just not a good situation, for me or the kids. Plus, dear lord, the Korean academy system is so broken...that is also a whole other post I probably wont' write, but anyway. I'm not teaching anymore.

So yea, I quit at the end of September, which kind of worked out perfect because then I could focus on my wedding and "planning" everything. I wrote "planning" because there isn't much actual planning involved in a Korean wedding, at least for mine. I did have to prepare for both sets of my parents coming, so I pretended making an itinerary needed my full devotion. It didn't, but it was nice to have some time to prepare myself for the madness. My parents came, we explored, I got married, they left and I was left jobless, without anything to plan. So, I started a pie business!

A Pie Story launched in October and it's been a nice little learning experience. Just FYI, pies are not that popular, or easy to come by, in Korea, and since I am pretty good at making them, I decided to fill a niche. I like all the business stuff, promoting and all that, but actually making pie is not super fun for me. I don't dislike it, but it's not my life's passion. Also, I have a tiny kitchen and washing dishes is such a bitch. Anyway, it's been... fine? I had a pretty good run around the holidays, and had steady orders for 2-3 months. It kind of tapered off after Christmas, but I was ok with that because I had found a full-time NON TEACHING job in December. The dream! Turns out, it wasn't actually my dream, I just really didn't want to teach. I enjoyed it ok, but it had a very weird, Korean vibe to it. Yes, that sounds terrible, but if you have ever lived in Korea, or worked at a Korean company, I think you know exactly what I am talking about. My experience is obviously not what happens in every Korean company, but it's not unique here. Everyone worked late, there was no sense of community, people rarely spoke to me, and they didn't even acknowledge Christmas, which made me so sad. And oh my stars, the runaround I had to go through to get anything done. An example:

I am using a machine that requires batteries. I was told to use this machine by Person T. So I tell person T, the batteries in the machine are dying. He says ask Person J. Person J says oh, you have to ask Person B to buy them for you. Ok, got it. Two weeks later, batteries are dead again. I ask Person B. GUESS who she tells me I'm supposed to ask. PERSON T. Give me strength, any deity of higher power. So, yeah, a lot of my days were spent biting my tongue and screaming internally.

Also, I was never given any feedback, praise, or criticisms of any kind, but they decided not to renew my contract after my three month trial contract finished. This came as a shock to everyone, since I was really the only native English speaker left at a company that teaches English. So, yeah. That was some good times for my self esteem. I have been assured it's because the company is actually short on money, and it doesn't really have anything to do with the quality of work I was doing, but I also learned that I don't trust anyone, so you never know. But! It doesn't matter, because I can't dwell on it and I can't change anything. So here I am again, jobless and fat. Now my focus is to not fall into a mental black hole, try to lose some weight, and possibly start my own company.

What?! Another company?! Yes! While my last job was a frustrating mess, it taught me a lot! Also, part of my job there was to watch video interviews and speeches from "business people," and a lot of them were entrepreneurs. And I'm like, oh hey, that sounds like a lovely idea. I've been thinking about and sitting on an idea for about 3 years now and while it kind of started as this crazy, what if.... notion, now I'm like, this could actually work! I literally have no idea what I'm doing, or how to do it, but I've gotten pretty good at the Google Suite, so I think I'm ready for anything! Plus, a lot of the advice I gleaned from the videos were along the lines of, just go for it and you'll figure it out along the way. So, yeah, that's what I'm going to do. I'm overwhelmed trying to figure out even where to start, but gotta start somewhere.

In addition to those 3 goals-start business, be less fat, don't go crazy, I decided I'm also going to try and watch the entire Disney canon (read: animated movies, not every single thing) and write blog posts about it. This will give me a goal, something to focus on and a sense of purpose. Is it important? Not at all. Does it matter? Not in the slightest. Does anyone give a shit? Highly doubtful. But, keeping busy a crucial element of the "don't go crazy" goal, so onward and upwards! I was going to try and go in chronological order, but that might be a little too ambitious. Oh yeah! And literally no one cares. So there's that.

Dream big, people!