Personal History – 10.24.2007

A bunch of Habo friends did 30-year summaries after not having seen each other in a long time. Here’s mine from that time.

Hi everyone, well, I find myself with a moment to try to summarize the last 30 years. 🙂 I just read Sue’s and Tami’s, and I’m sure I’ll get to the others, too.

let’s see.  Graduated from NYU in 1984 and fled the country with $2,000 and a guitar.  Back to the holy land for 3 months and a neat little gig at a resort for some of it, then a 6 month or so trip through Europe – Greece, Yugoslavia, Austria, Germany, Italy, France, and England.  I busked (played guitar on the streets) to pay my way, made lots of friends, and had one of those time-of-your-life experiences.  Came back to the States and went to work for Peterson’s Guides for a couple of months and then worked as a surveyor for a couple of months before heading back to Europe – this time to the UK, Scotland, Holland, Belgium, and ending in Paris for about 6 months total.

I went back to the States and thought I’d try my luck with DC and using my pol science degree. That didn’t exactly happen, so I ended up being the head waiter at a new restaurant (Owned by a Moshnik), then worked at the Hyatt and then for Wang Laboratories as a Jr. Secretary.  This was before the time of e-mail, or much else in the high-tech world, but they had e-mail.  On secretary’s day, I sent a note to 2,500 other secretaries in the company, and had some fun chats from that one note… that was in 1986.  During this time Tammi and I dated a little bit, too 🙂  Spent a year in DC, then moved in with Adam Laden in Hoboken, NJ.

That started a 3-year stint of temping – mostly in the investment banking and perfume industries.  I worked for a while in Tower 2 of the World Trade Center – amazing views, sunsets… and feeling the building sway.  Actually, during my NYU days (80-84) a friend and I went and wandered around on floors of the WTC that were not finished yet, that was a trip.  anyway, $18/hr. to do word processing was good money in the late 80s and kept me in sushi and my fine place in Hoboken.

in 1989 I realized it was time to go back to Grad school and applied to a bunch of places, but then a friend from NYU was suddenly single and suggested we go to south America for a trip together.  got shots, put off grad school in my mind, anyway, and we headed off to Venezuela.  About 3 weeks into the trip, which was much like a honeymoon, and I figured this was the beginning of a new relationship that could last a lifetime, she decided to head home and heal from the relationship that had just ended for her.  I was heartbroken, traveled for a little while longer, but then ended what was supposed to be a 6-month trip and came back and started grad school at Rutgers in New Brunswick, NJ.

This is where I met Susi.  Weiss.  from Germany.  an exchange student.  A very beautiful and smart exchange student from Munich.  Well, we hit it off and eventually started something that ended up lasting the next 5 years and beyond in some ways, though I’m currently out of touch (back in touch in 2020’s).  grad school was in international relations.  After one year, Susi was heading back to Germany and so I followed.  ended up in a small town called Konstanz, on the Lake Bodensee in the SW of Germany.  I played music to pay to stay, in restaurants and cafes.  stayed for 6 months and then moved back to the States to finish my degree, then back to Germany for another 9 months and back to the US to take an exam and then ended up back in Munich, where we lived together for 2.5 years, almost got married; almost bought an apartment, but in the end, I’m glad it didn’t happen.  Germany is a nice place except for some of the obvious problems.  Dachau being close by… the language…

Anyway, I came back to the States and didn’t know what to do.  this was 1995.  Ended up traveling to Costa Rica with Elisa, she of the previous Venezuela trip.  this time the tables were turned – she was into me, but I was not into her.  great trip, though.  spent 3.5 months there.  amazing place.  played probably the best music of my life, actually.  learned a lot.  got better at Spanish.

I came back and rented a place in SF for a month.  Then, Susi came over and we toured the Northwest.  somewhere in all of this, I learned Re-evaluation Counseling, during grad school.  That has made a big impact on my life.  It’s also called RC or co-counseling.  That’s one of the reasons we toured the Pacific NW, to practice co-counseling in Seattle.  I ended up moving to Seattle after the trip was over and that’s also where I reconnnected with the high-tech world.  I started with a job with Keane doing tech support for Windows 95, then onto a position as a contractor with Microsoft, a great place to work.  since that time my work life for the past 12 years has mostly been as a software tester – I test to make sure software works like it’s supposed to.  It’s often very easy work, often very isolating…

Seattle was also really good for me as an activist.  I learned a lot, fought some amazing fights – against the FAA, closed down a VA medical waste incinerator, led an effort to keep a Latino community center afloat and thriving… and led an outreach effort in a minority neighborhood with my girlfriend of the time, Freddie, who I lived with for 3 years and went out with for 4.  She is an incredible and strong woman.  It was a tough relationship in some ways, but a very committed one.  After Freddie, I went out with a woman named Tracey who I’m still close with.  Tracey is an angel, faerie, or something like that.  A very sweet and gentle person, that lasted about a year and a half, but was precious.

I have lots of pictures of that time up on the web.

Eventually, I grew tired of the intensity of politics in Seattle and the difficulties I was having in my activist life and also felt I wasn’t really finding my partner there, so I decided to move to Portland, Oregon, where I now live.  I’ve been here for 5 or 6 years…  and, I think I’m home.  I love it here.

Right when I moved here, I got together with a woman named Erica.  someone who is chemically-sensitive, so I learned a lot about that world.  and, she lives in a co-housing community, where I eventually moved in.  So, got to re-experience life on Kibbutz US -style.

That ended after about 3 years.  it was probably the toughest relationship I was ever in.  I think there’s part of me that’s just done with really hard relationships.

I’m kind of in one now, but I think it might be salvaged, cause I feel like I’m with a life partner.  her name is Eecole.  she’s really quite incredible.  vibrant, we love to dance and sing together.  musical.  cares about the world.  we share a lot of friends and are part of a very tight dance community.  we dance together at least every Sunday.  that’s another story for another day, but it’s quite incredible – I’ve never really felt so close to a group of people perhaps since habo days…

and now, sitting listening to radioparadise.com and thinking of what I  have left to do today, and also how much I’ve left out.

Burning Man.  I could write about the 8 times I’ve been there and how that’s shaped my life.

Ayahuasca and my recent journies in that arena.

travel that I’ve left out – Thailand, Hong Kong, VietNam, and various road trips around the US.

the fact that I don’t have kids.  Eecole would like to have some.  we’ll see if we get to that stage.  I’m open to that with her.

most recent work was with the Bonneville Power Administration, as a contractor making the most money I’ve ever made.  $46/hr.  So, I was able to save about $30K and now recently laid off from that gig, collecting unemployment and pondering.

also was just in my first major car accident, so am doing chiro, acupuncture, and massage to heal from that.  I’m fine, but a little shaken still and the accident was 3 weeks ago.

Life has been really good for me.  and this has been a great exercise for me, thanks for taking the time to read.

it’s put me into a nice thoughtful place.

Albert