Back on the Page and Probably Breaking Several HR Rules

Well, hello there.

Yes, I’m back.

Like The Terminator, John Wick, and a stubborn case of genital warts, I have returned.

This was probably the longest writing layoff I’ve ever had. My last post was [thumbing through my stories] posted here in July. However, even that one was just a regurgitation of thoughts and words I had posted before. Nothing fresh or new had been written here on Medium since June of 2025, and that was just another article from me bitching about my job.

Not much has changed. My job still SUCKS.

But it turns out I had lost my sense of humor and my desire to sit down and write.

This was not the first time it’s happened. Coincidentally, the most recent time I found my funny bone had been broken was also during a Presidential Inauguration of Donald Trump.

I’m sensing a theme, here.

Social media, once again filled with hatred and bad grammar, became a platform I no longer enjoyed. The television — usually on as background noise in my house — had been muted in the event the President started speaking during a news story or, God forbid, a press conference.

Meanwhile, my job had become more stressful. I found myself becoming short-tempered in meetings, lashing out at coworkers more than usual, and Googling “How much money do I need to retire” every five minutes while constantly refreshing my 401(k).

Hint: I don’t have nearly enough money unless I want to retire in my car and subsist on a constant diet of cold Spaghetti-Os.

During this time, I received my first Human Resources warning for swearing at a coworker during a meeting. The term, “throwing shit at the wall to see if it sticks,” was front and center at this controversy, and it was the closest I’ve ever come to being fired since the early 90s when I threw another coworker into a wall and broke the sheetrock.

How I am still employable anywhere, I have no idea.

I could not find the humor in most things anymore. And I certainly couldn’t find enough humor to write an article about it.

So I cancelled my Medium membership, withdrew from the editors panel at MuddyUm Publications, and began to roll around in the crap that had become the remainder of 2025.

But, enough of that.

With one eye on my retirement calendar, I decided to make a change in my life to make that date get here faster.

So I became a travel agent.

This, in and of itself, is its own article.

Suffice it to say, I was hired by a travel agency, started my own business as an independent agent, and have been enjoying this gig so much more than the other job, that I find myself Googling “Things to do in Croatia” while coworkers in my software job ramble on about Python, AI, something called a “cloud,” and other boring shit.

I love it.

Turns out, I’m so good at it that I’ve been in the top six of all agency earners three times in my first six months. However, I can tell you honestly that my retirement date still hasn’t budged because I was WAY OFF on how much commission a travel agent gets. Like, way way way off.

Me: [Googles how to buy Spaghetti-Os in bulk and how long they will keep in the trunk of a Subaru Outback]

Long story short, I found something I really enjoy doing. If this travel agent gig paid actual money, I would quit my real job in a heartbeat, let my wife become my Sugar Mama, and spend my days sending out credit card authorization forms.

Lo and behold, I started to feel funny again.

I loosened the reins on how much my job and this Presidential Administration had a hold over my mental well-being. “Go with the flow” became my mantra, and as I began to embrace the good in the here and now — my wife, my family, my adventures, my newfound joy in this travel venture — I realized that the rest of it didn’t need to control my emotions.

Or my humor.

So, this story aside, I will be returning to the written page here on Medium.

If you’re still here, subscribed, and have been waiting for this moment, I’m sorry to disappoint you. Thank you for sticking around, sitting patiently, and giving me this bit of a breather. I appreciate you.

The months of my absence have given me a decent amount of fodder in which to entertain you. It will be hard to stop once I get going.

Speaking of getting going, hit me up at RodTrip Adventures, LLC. I have some great vacation deals I’d like to share with you.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.