January 14

FREAKING JIM. I LOVE, FREAKING LOVE, JIM.

Today’s been a bit of a hectic day. I went to bed Monday at 12:20, I woke up Tuesday at 6, I got to the gym at 6:30 and made the 8:15 shuttle to Bellevue. New guy started Monday so he’s shadowing me and so the pace of getting actual work down has slowed down to a crawl. But he’s cool, and we are going to play chess together, and also has a bobblehead of LBJ on his desk and that’s one easy way to get me on your side.

Today also marks the first day of my second to last semester at USC. Exciting, but man do I feel ready to walk.

Design Chris is my professor for my main class and I could not be more pumped. I’ve never enjoyed anyone’s thought process and interactions more.

But in that class are some very dear friends of mine from USC. I do love seeing the network grow to the core few. And one of them is Jim. And man do I love having a Jim in my life.

Jim is successful. Jim is brutally honest. Jim has a cute little baby and a successful wife.

Jim is a standup guy.

I will probably work for him in the next few years. I am huge on following people who have lessons to teach and Jim comes carrying them. He just tells it like it is. And he likes me as a friend and peer and that makes me proud to a point I cannot describe. I genuinely feel unworthy. He was with me in projects and class and always said what a great experience it was and again, I just feel unworthy. He was with me through a breakup of a critical relationship in my life, through job changes, through my dog’s death, through rough times at work. He always knows what to say, and I will always trust he is right. If I could have him pick every decision for me in life I would without hesitation. Today he told me to QUIT MORE because there is no value in holding on to jobs.

Pause and reflect on that for a moment.

Moving on. I’ve been listening to Penn of Penn & Teller on a podcast while running or commuting recently and he had some little tidbits that stuck out to me as well. One was how much he wrote. Movie reviews. Book reviews. Notes on every conversation. And maybe it is just because I am trying to write more here, but that really resonated. And then he was talking about how writing notes on a conversation helped him engage with it a bit more, like he knew there were going to be things he would want to take note of, and I see my mind doing the same thing just one measly lil fortnight into the year.

He also touted himself for having a calmness and the ability to keep it without backing down. I don’t know where to place that information right now but I thought it was an interesting trait. Maybe I grasped on to it because I am coming to terms with my tendency to be a bit of a people pleaser, and that seems the opposite.

He used to perform in these street crowds and hearing how he collected the audience and got them to build themselves up naturally to a bigger audience was pretty cool. He didn’t shy away from the awkwardness of asking people to help him grow the crowd and had quirky ways to ask for change that just seemed disarming and charming. Even though by the time he was 30 he had a New York Times review about him and his partner’s show, he mentioned his best dressed time being his street performing and homeless days. He said he dressed so dapper to the point where the crowd should feel ashamed to donate anything less than a $20.

Psychology in play.
People are amazing.
Thank goodness for the Jim’s in our lives.