Signed up for the duration!

How cool, how wondrously cool it is! Week after next I will be a member of the cannabis industry!

Now, with that being said, I can't say that it was easy choice to make. Today broke orange, cool yet strangely ominous. I woke up feeling rested and determined to make a choice, to be firm on my decision, but before coffee that decision was not a forgone conclusion . The family split before 8 and headed off into their day, leaving me at home to mull over things. I hit the road at 11, drove through a moderately warm summers day, air a bit hazy but the cornfields blew by as the mountains reared up on my way down and over the highways and byways to Boulder.

My mission? To complete employment paperwork, plow through legalese, read through the employee handbook, cancel a check for direct deposit and, for all intents and purposes, give the ol' heave ho to the idea of taking that long drive to the Southland. In the end, was it a hard decision to make? Not at all. Not a bit. As a matter of fact it feels like a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders. As of today I am an conditional employee of Skinny Pineapple, home of The Farm. My driving position is effective end of the month.

"What about Cali?", you might ask. Don't get me wrong. I went to sleep and woke up with that struggle at the forefront of my mind. I messed about with it this morning as I killed time around the pad, wondering what to do as I got myself ready for my appointment. I jumped in the car, took care of a couple of errands and then hit the road, still perplexed about the course of my future even though I was on my way to signing it over.

Well, I did it and I am very, very happy about the direction I am heading. My future is with cannabis and I hope to help make that future, a life of easy to access, regulated, organic, legalized marijuana, happen for those who want it.

I have to admit signing up today was nothing like signing up for the service. No, this time, if felt like a long overdue job opportunity to work at Disneyland. I even said so to the HR manager on my way out the door. Ever since I gave up a shot to work the park the summer before I shipped out I have always wondered what my life would have been like had I taken that path. I knew right away that I wouldn't have been doing the cool things I hoped to do...monitoring the line at the Haunted Mansion, wearing leider hosen on the Fantasyland side of the Skyway, or even steering a raft back and forth to Tom Sawyer's Island over the Rivers of America.

No, there would be no Mickey costume for me, either, no street sweeping, no burger flipping, no bathroom patrol. They thought highly enough of me to offer up an ice cream cart near the entrance of Tomorrowland. Somehow, man, I have no idea why, but my field supervisor job at the swap meet for the Harbor Blvd Drive In seemed to be more in line with what I wanted to do with my summer. The hours were better, there was more time for the beach, flicks were free, plus there would be plenty more time for the little blondie in my life. Heck, what does an 18 year old boy know?

What I do know now, and what has been drummed into my head and welded into my heart, is that you go with your passions. Mota, now, that's a burning passion if there ever was one. Library work, well, I worked through that one and yet I will always be a powerful advocate for reading, public service and having the door of my business open to all. Disneyland? What that hell was the matter with me back then? Before that job offer I was a tried and true Disney fanatic. I grooved on the Mouse forever, was the envy of all the kids in the family for all the times I hit the park. Heck, I even walked around the parameter of Disneyland once or twice just to pick up paper "souvenirs".What a kid. What a missed chance.

Until today. Today I decided, after a long bit of thought, that the bridge back to my past was effectively detoured. Not burned, just given over to that OTHER fork in the road. The one to my future. I have already done what I can do in the Southland with books, movies, swap meets and storytelling, now it's time to see what I can do to effect change in the marijuana industry here in Colorado. After that drive today I just have to say, I don't know ANYBODY who has given up a job in Boulder just to move to Fullerton.

Here's to going the other way down the highway.

Salud!