Are you getting everything you can out of this life?
A self-less, feel-good blog about love, life, and work by career coach and existential adventurer, Cliff Flamer
Every morning, blanketed in the black before sunrise, I walk into my office, and I’m faced with the same decision:
Do I start digging into my work pile and get a jump on my to-do’s,
OR
Do I stop and do something that seems both self-indulgent and impractical? In other wo… Read more...
Sometimes, gratitude isn’t so easy to come by.
If you’re having trouble finding it, here’s some advice: take a crappy vacation.
You don’t have to actually go anywhere; just plan it. Plan it in your head.
Where are you staying?
Are you inside or outside?
What ca… Read more...
I was hard at work prepping for a school fundraiser at my house.
I had just finished calibrating the stereo and microphones. I still needed to set up the auxiliary A/V system (just in case), make blackberry rosemary syrup for the cocktails, trim back the ivy on the stoop, vacuum t… Read more...
My daughter gave me a homework assignment before she fluttered off to Santa Cruz for a Girl Scout sleepover:
“I need to catch a fly for Biotech class.”
Easy enough.
Flies seem to find their way into our sunroom all the time. If one didn’t end lifeless on the window… Read more...
I finally ran out of staples.
It took 25 years.
In my first job as a temp at the Writer’s Guild of America in Los Angeles, I went into the supply closet after hours and stole a crate of staples. Not a box, a whole crate.
The staples were for my manuscripts.
Writing was my thing… Read more...
I never was one to care much about cuss words.
I use them in front of my kids.
My main concern is that they impede upon their vocabulary development.
Especially the eff-bomb. That word is a bit too versatile. You can use it 4 times in a single sentence.
But these so-called cuss words… Read more...
I sensed the clerk at the grocery store wasn’t much up for talking, so I grabbed some bags and started bagging.
Beep beep.
Bag bag.
We got into a rhythm like two strangers picking up instruments on the corner.
No words.
Beep Beep.
Bag bag.
His coworker came by, and I was given the… Read more...
Being laid back can affect your vision.
I learned this in my doctor’s office.
I had been having trouble with my new progressives – the snazzy moswen name for bifocals. I was getting completely dizzy and it wasn’t wearing off. I had trouble seeing clearly.
She asked… Read more...
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...
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...