Are you getting everything you can out of this life?
An insightful, feel-good blog about work, life, and the elusive balance between the two, by career counselor, award-winning resume writer, and existential adventurer, Cliff Flamer
Years ago, I was in court testifying for a friend, and the defense attorney was doing his thing: trying like hell to discredit me. (Good luck with that, bruh.)
“So you’re saying you drank some beer and smoked a few bowls.”
He said this in a lazy faux-SoCal sort of… Read more...
Our public school system shut down for a week and a half so teachers could strike for a living wage and continue living in the city where they teach.
They fought for a lot of other amazing things too, selfless things, like making sure the families in the district have a say in wha… Read more...
My friend found old news footage of a fire in our 7th-grade classroom. The teacher, one of my favorites, was trying to take chlorophyll out of a leaf. Alcohol got on the hot plate and, BOOM, big explosion.
In the newscast, after some panning shots of the charred classroom, the re… Read more...
What else can you call it?
Hazel’s been lucky enough to have after-school care by Temescal Lake, a modest lake with a beach and trees all around. Her child care program meets in a raised meadow that overlooks the lake.
It’s right next to a freeway, but you can’t s… Read more...
I’ve had a cold for the better part of the month. I’m operating at 60%, which sucks.
Everything seems impossible, or, at the most, slightly doable.
Deep down I know it’s the sickness that’s clouding my vision.
Yes that’s it. The real me must be curled … Read more...
Another shooting, this time at a university.
The killer is still at large. My daughter, 16, usually the pragmatic one, surprised me with her response to the news coverage.
“How sad your life must be to kill a buncha people.”
This made me think about something I learned i… Read more...
I wish it were a grander dream.
I wish it had taken up the whole night.
But it was only a moment, a quick flash of a scene.
—
We were all in the Airstream trailer. He was sitting across from me in a fleece vest on a bench seat.
(That should have been my first clue. He couldnR… Read more...
I tend to wake up with a song in my head. Usually a pop song. Not a slow one, a fast one usually. I bop my head to it while I go to the bathroom.
I wonder what it’d be like to sing it out loud. I’m thinking it would perfect, like filling a glass of fruit punch all the … Read more...
An ex-girlfriend once said to me that my voice makes her want to lie down.
(I guess that can be taken several ways.)
From what I can tell, she meant my voice relaxes her.
Total compliment.
But there are drawbacks to eliciting relaxation. I notice sometimes when I talk to people, they… Read more...
Are we innately driven to be kind? Or do we have to work at it?
Is kindness linked to some greater purpose or is it just another goal.
Why am I so obsessed with it?
Where did it come from?
My parents are certainly kind. My mom was a nurse, not just in profession but in her heart. She… Read more...