Update 02.21.2012 5:30ish PM — Dude you are way a neat freak. Fly your freak flag with dust-free gusto!

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So Ran was here for a few days this week, it was a kick-back and easy visit. He’s a lot less dour than I anticipated. I had a lot of fun bullshitting with him about everything from bigfoot to manga porn. He really does make an apple pie every single day and eats most of it himself because — get this — he needs to keep his weight up. Pffffft.

I learned a few things from Ran while he was here:

• How to fix my garbage disposal. Yay! Thanks man!
• The Virgo definition of “slob” roughly correlates to the Aries definition of “borderline neat-freak neurotic”
• Trader Joe’s has the best dumpsters
• How to play Scrabble, and how to strategize the game
• Traffic jams suck far worse than I remembered. Maybe they’ve actually gotten worse since the 1990s. It’s no wonder people get out of their cars and walk up and down the highway shooting other motorists. Absolutely nothing is worth doing that twice a day, every day, for 40 years in a row.

One of the more important things I learned was not something new, but something which I’d forgotten. My lifestyle in Portland was so different than it’s been since I came back, and in particular my diet… I used to detox-fast periodically while I was there, I made much of my own allergen-free food and got pretty good at it, and it’s possible to do without spending a small fortune. Or a large fortune for that matter. I’ve gotten away from that for ten years now. Ran’s ultra-healthy road food really brought all this back. Nutrient-dense food that’s free of industrial nasties has a certain quality about it that’s hard to pinpoint but unmistakeable, and while it takes a bit of getting used to after being accustomed to industrial food, I can almost hear my blood cells thanking me in audible English. I didn’t have a single stomach issue this week — after having two of the worst gall bladder attacks I’ve ever had in my life within the past month, and in spite of the fact that we were eating wheat every day which I never ever do. The fog in my brain was even starting to lift a bit. I definitely need to get back to that. When the weather gets warmer I am going to do a springtime detox-fast for the first time since about Y2K. I am very much looking forward to it.

The big takeaway though was just being away from work and going analog for a few days, while sharing a bit of mental environment with someone who never got sucked into the middle class grind. I’ve been stuck on the fringe of the middle class grind since I quit my last full-time “career” job back in Y2K, always struggling with this or that, never quite realizing the reason for my struggle is because I’ve got one foot planted in money-world and one foot planted in freedom-world. I have the worst of both and the best of neither. Since I was 20 years old I’ve known exactly what I want to do and how I want to live. I didn’t realize how close I am to these very old goals until Ran observed that among the various good folks he’s stayed with, I’m pretty far out in the margin. Not sure I would have known that without an outsider’s eye.

So, from here getting myself extricated from money-world tentacles is little more than a matter of planning and discipline to stick with the plan, working on my health, and getting creatively resourceful. I’m excited and motivated.

Addendum

Ran’s stay here at my semi-squat worked out so well that I’m considering opening up that bedroom to other dropout minded passers-through. I definitely do not want a long-term roommate, so that is out of the question. However, I really enjoyed having a generally like-minded person here to hang and banter with for a short time. If you’re near or passing through Pittsburgh and would be interested in visiting me in the abandoned house for a couple-few days sometime around April-ish, let me know in the comments and I’ll email you back.