The Math Behind "Staying Home"

Sometimes, not often, I forget where I am when I wake up. When it happens I am not sure if this is caused by the novelty of a place, jet lag, constant movement, or the fact that most hotel rooms look, for all practical purposes, the same. It could be general disillusion.

"Stay home more," I said to myself at the start of 2015. Staying home during the weekdays isn't usually an option based on my current profession, which is a reality I am most often prepared to face. This job of mine enables and fuels what I can semi consider a bad habit of wanderlust. Most people plan and save for months to take a trip to Los Angeles, New York, or a trip abroad. I book international flights a week in advance and take weekend trips with no real thought. As much of a pretentious prick I feel like when I say this, it is has been my reality for the past 3 years. 

I was starting to feel displaced. I was starting to feel jaded. I told myself to stay home. 

This year I would not say that I have followed through with my command to myself. I've done this to myself, for a good percentage of the time that I could come home I go elsewhere. It is (in my mind) too hard for me to stay in one place, to stay still, for too long.

What does it even mean to be home though? When people ask me where I live I usually hesitate for a second and then answer "Austin". Home is where the heart is? Home is where you pay rent? Home is where.. what? Houston will always feel like home, but so will Austin, and to a lesser extent many other places I visit. 

I decided I was going to calculate how often I have been home. I dug through my outlook calendar, airline phone applications, and iphoto and was able to determine where I have spent every night since January 1, 2014. I probably could have gone further back, but I think there was less variation at that time, and not worth my tracking. I plotted date vs. city out of curiosity at first then started running some numbers. 

2014 (Jan - Dec)

Cities

-1	AUS	Austin, Texas
-2	SLC	Salt Lake City, Utah
-3	OKC	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
-4	HOU	Houston, Texas
-5	SXM	St. Maarten, Dutch Antilles
-6	PHL	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
-7	NYC	New York City, New York
-8	LAX	Los Angeles, California
-9	BRK	Breckenridge, Colorado
-10	DAL	Dallas, Texas
-11	AIR	In Air
-12	IST	Istanbul, Turkey
-13	PLT	Plitvice National Park, Crotia
-14	SPU	Split, Croatia
-15	Islands	Islands, Croatia
-16	FRA	Frankfurt, Germany
-17	IAD	Washtington DC
-18	BOI	Boise, Idaho
-19	TPA	Tampa, Florida
-20	CHI	Chicago, Illinois
-21	NOLA	New Orleans, Louisiana
-22	SA	San Antonio, Texas
-23	FRED	Fredericksburg, Texas

2015 (Jan - July 10)

-1	OKC	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
-2	AUS	Austin, Texas
-3	LAX	Los Angeles, California
-4	HOU	Houston, Texas
-5	AIR	In Air
-6	IST	Istanbul, Turkey
-7	BOE	Boerne, Texas
-8	BSAS	Buenoes Aires, Argentina
-9	MDZ	Mendoza, Argentina
-10	BOG	Bogota, Colombia
-11	CRT	Cartagena, Colombia
-12	MIA	Miami, Florida
-13	STX	St. Croix, USVI
-14	CST	Charleston, South Carolina

_____________________________________________________________

Calculations:

2014

Total Home Time: 42.74% 

(Houston: 26.21%, Austin 31.36% time at home when lived in each city)

Client Site: 40.55%

Remote Work Destinations: 1.64%

Vacation: 5.48%

Alt Travel/Weekends Away:10.68% 

Nights in Transit: 0.27%

2015

Austin Residence, Total Home Time: 29.32% YTD

Client Site: 36.65%

Remote Work Destinations: 5.24%

Vacation:7.33%

Alt Travel/Weekends Away: 15.71%

Nights in Transit: 4.9%

Overall Conclusion: Comparing 2015 YTD to total 2014 year I have been home 13.42% less. There are 174 days left in 2015, and I don't really plan on coming home too much more. Reasons to be detailed at another time. 

2014 IN ARREARS

rang in the new year in Austin

shredded some gnar or checked my instagram 

went to Austin looked at houses

went to St. Maarten, made new friends

watched the sun set

sat in our pool

south by south wested

went to Breck

ate some crawfish (not pictured)

went to NYC

hung out with these girls at a "sunset" happy hour

went to Hermosa

to see these babes

bought a house (and eventually bought furniture)

kitty came to texas 

we went to Istanbul 

walked with head scarf and bare foot through blue mosque

watched a guy fish at Galata bridge

sat rooftop between hagia sophia and blue mosque and had fresh fish for din

went to bazaar, bought a tapestry, went to Emirgan park, eventually hung tapestry on my wall

watched kids jump into the Bosphorus, the body of water splitting Europe and Asia

flew to Zagreb, took a bus to a national park

saw the most amount of waterfalls

ate sausage and beer in Plitvicka National Park

carried my beer a bit past lunch 

drove to Split and sailed away

stole a skipper hat and then gave it back

again sailed with these beauties

met Betsco 7 years too late and on the other side of the world 

went back to Hermosa and drank over priced mimosas with AJ

rode bikes in DC

worked in Boise for a few hours and fell in love

went to Tampa and can't find any pictures

went to Chicago and took a party bus 1 mile to Blake's bday

found some fall trees

went to f1

went as "the birds and the bees" for Halloween

went to New Orleans to see Casey and Jared get married

wined, dined and jazzed

hiked with Keith

girls weekend in NYC

went to breck and didnt go on the mountain

spent NYE in OKC accompanied by my wonderful friends

A Pirate Looks at 24

After every 365 sunsets over the ocean, a pirate must carve another little line in the bunk of their cabin on the ship to track the years they have collected.

Years, much like treasure, are valuable and collected somewhat in the same way; usually with trial and tribulation, storms and sunny days, with rum, or more likely champagne, and more importantly both bring adventure and solace. Some years are perceived to hold more value and adventure (21), while some we view with slight apprehension (30). 

When i came to update my blog today I realized that this pirate was no longer looking at 23, but now 24. I felt slightly uneasy at first having to make this change and I have no idea why I had this fleeting feeling. Twenty four years of life is a treasure in itself. 

Twenty three years of making decisions, adjusting the sails, heading into seemingly treacherous waters and coming out fine, has lead me to the exact place I am in. Whole Foods in Austin, Texas waiting to go to the title company to sign the loan on my first house. 

I have lived a highly nomadic life in the past two years. Last September I told myself I would work through the summer of 2014, quit my job, go work on a berry farm in Argentina until my Spanish was good enough, then go find a job in Santiago or somewhere. What did I do instead? I decided to buy a house. That's the beauty of it. This age and opportunity and freedom to dictate these decisions is more valuable than anything.

I want to make a conscious effort to embrace the beauty of every day this year. They say not all that glitters is gold, and that is completely true, but the water glitters at sunset and that is close enough to gold for me. 

Steve Jobs

I always found Steve Jobs interesting but in a very superficial, surface level way. In the way that he was the face of Apple and that I liked the pretty white laptop when I was 17 and wouldn't dare own one of the ugly grey or black ones.

I have been reading Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs' life recently and it has been very eye opening to me. So far my biggest reflections have been on the design elements that 99% of the population will probably never notice or consider, the passion and intensity with which Steve Jobs lived both in regard to his life and his work, and the overwhelming effect he had on the way I am interacting with technology at this very moment. And the way that I will interact with another piece of technology in about 2 minutes when I pick up my iPhone.

One of my favorite this about Jobs is that we had the ability/delusion to somewhat bend reality to inspire others to do things in an expedited manner, or do do these they may have never though possible in the first place.

I am writing this post from my 2007 MacBook that was purchased for me as a gift to go to university. At that point I took so much for granted. One that I should just be given a laptop for college, especially one of the higher priced machines that I really knew nothing about. I took for granted the progression of technology and time itself.

The machine that I am typing on now feels especially locked in the times of my 17th-22nd years of life. It stayed largely unused the first months that I owned it as my family did not have a wireless router. This was the first laptop in the house and as it was for my use in college there was no real need to get a router for me to do exactly what I could on our desktop.

This machine holds all of the photo booth selfies of me sitting in my room of my parent's house and in the background the progression of murals that I used to paint on my walls. My high school resume and copies of the essays I wrote to apply for college. There are pictures from senior year of high school, prom, freshman orientation, the first parties it went to at UT, everything. Everything from those beautiful formative years that I was "out on my own" physically, but not in regard to monetary own-ness. There are the pictures from my ventures abroad, quotes spilled onto sticky notes that inspired or encouraged me at whatever time I found them perusing the internet. The hundreds of pictures I downloaded of all kinds of places and things that I wanted to one day visit or recreate in some way.

For the past two years I have predominantly used a Lenovo T210. It is black and rigid and probably the biggest metaphor that I can come up with in opposition of the MacBook of the my younger, simple, carefree life. The Lenovo introduced a certain level of structure and stipulation of "life" from the man, Mr. Corporate America himself. I obviously still have my Mac, and to continue the metaphor, have not lost that "MacBook" side of my life, but in reality it is the Lenovo I use everyday, and the Macbook that I charge maybe once a month to use for fun.

Something has stirred in me as I continue to read jobs biography. It is symbolically the need to keep this  Macbook around. Not not every fully succumb to to the Lenovos of the world. To push the limits of what you think is possible. To pursue knowledge, to pursue yourself, to find my guru. To not fall back or depend on a secure corporate job if that is not where my passions lie, or to find a balance between, passion, productivity and stability.

The literal need, just as Jobs saw in an add in a magazine and spoke at his Standford Commencement speech, to "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

Juanuary

2014 is going to be very promising because this is what I wore to buy tacos on the morning of January 1^st. Actually 2014 is very promising due to everything listed below.

6am the second of January I went to Bergstrom to catch a flight to Salt Lake City, Utah. I nearly missed my flight, but I got on the plane to land only a few hours later in the semi-snow covered mountains of Park City. A short scenic ride in our black Tahoe (no champagne included) to the Hyatt Escala and Caroline and I were ready to enjoy a nice relaxing bro trip that we had somehow ended up joining.

We shredded some pow pow and there were no yard sales! Actually I rented a snowboard, took a lesson from a cool guy from New Zealand,  boarded about 2 days total and didn’t require any stitches and walked away with no contusions. We were there with an awesome group of guys who stayed in a really cool house. We threw icicles off of the balcony, so that was really mature/fun. Saturday night we ate some Mexican food and went to some bars.The Hyatt had a nice hot tub and sauna so that was definitely my favorite post mountain activity. I started reading Divergent and then Insurgent and then Allegiant. Short trip but very fun trip!

myself looking very interested in mountain games

I got promoted! I found a financial advisor and I am going to start investing some of that new money when it starts to roll in.

I found my British husband, Laurence Mosley, on Linkedin. For years I have received emails from a man named Laurence to someone who he believes is his wife, assumedly me, Julie Mosley. The issue that I am not the Julie Mosley that is his wife, but receive his emails anyway. Pictures of the kids, prescriptions that are ready at the pharmacy, his new position at work, his calf tattoo, the fact that I have now have a personal trainer and will be running a marathon. Years back I responded to one of his emails letting him know he had the wrong girl, but I guess he overlooked that? So here he is, Julie Mosley’s loving husband, Laurence.

After all of this excitement nearly half of January past just in time to plan for more excitement. Caroline, Kathleen and I decided that we needed to go on another yacht week- it was now or never, so we pulled the trigger on joining a crew about 30 minutes after deciding on it all. We are going with a group of American TYW Veterans, some of whom I have already met up with and really like. I can’t wait to meet the rest and go play on the other side of the world.

The next Monday Caroline text me and asked if I was down to go to St. Maarten the first week in March for the Heineken Regatta. Was that even a question. Now we are going with another group of friends to the Dutch Antilles to watch some sailors, rent mopeds and have brunch mimosas with a side of ocean. The countdown is somewhere near 32 days and I cannot wait! I need to practice my Dutch and French.

The third weekend of the month was one of the most entertaining for several reasons. The original plan for the weekend was to go to my company’s holiday party. Then it was decided that Caroline would be Britton’s date, so she came to town and we went to dinner with the SXM crew of Friday night. Nice restaurant, nice drinks, nice people. All very promising.

Saturday evening we were supposed to eat dinner at The Grotto across from Hotel Derek, the location of the holiday party. I picked this restaurant because it was literally across the street. We arrive ten minutes after our reservation to find out that I had made a reservation at the Dallas location. COOL! So Blake picked Caroline, Britton and I up and we ate at Escalante’s. The holiday party was nice and then we went out in midtown.



 Sounds like a great weekend, but wait, it gets better. Caroline, Zach, Britton, Blake and I go to brunch at Aladdin’s on Westheimer—delicious but really enough food for three days. We then planned to go to Memorial Park, but after a few wrong turns we decided to go to Buffalo Bayou Dog Park. I used to go there with my friend Bobby and his dogs so I called him and told him to come and he told me they were closing the park the next day. 

We go to the park and then KHOU news interviewed me about the dog park’s closing. I don’t own a dog, which makes so an interesting start to the interview especially when what they put in print is “Julie Mosley doesn’t even own a dog” which might as well be the equivalent of the popular Mean Girl’s quote “she doesn’t even go here!” I also say on TV that I want a dog army but what I really meant was dog mafia! I messed that one up. I may or may not have also said that at the park we make “dog friends” and “people friends”.  My strange love of dog parks sans dog ownership has now been broadcast and I sort of love it.

What better way to close out the month than by going to see Disclosure in Austin? Also going to the Disclosure after show.

Saturday followed with brunch and mimosas at TNT, a BBQ at Carly's featuring delicious food and Jackson's drone attempting a barrel roll, Rainey St., Tapas, and a bit of east side fun. On Sunday I had the best Bloody Mary of my life-- Frank's in DT Austin. Go now.

Crashed (?) two super bowls and had a great time despite the fact the game was absolutely terrible.