(One of the very few friends-locked posts you’ll see in this journal, largely because I haven’t talked about these issues with the folks at the company I work with yet, and don’t want to incite any premature panic.)

So. Atlanta. Not really crazy about it.

I moved to Atlanta several years ago because the electronics company I’m a minority partner in relocated its headquarters here. Since that time, the company has encountered several financial crises, gone through a lot of employees, and just generally made a right mess of things internally. The company’s survival has been touch and go for a while, and on several occasions they’ve been late paying me or haven’t paid me at all.

Now, that’s not really as big a problem as it might have been. I’ve invested a tremendous amount of time and effort into the various other projects I have going–my Web sites, Onyx, stuff like that–and they mostly pay the bills these days. I’m not really dependent on the electronics company for my living. (It’d be nice if my stock in the company were worth more than the paper it’s printed on, but that’s a different issue.)

Had I known three years ago what I know now, I don’t think I would ever have moved to Atlanta. I don’t like that all my relationships are long-distance, I don’t like that I’ve never really been successful in building a community here, and I don’t like Atlanta.

That’s more or less irrelevant now, though. Water under the bridge.

What’s more relevant is I’ve finally reached the point where I can’t abide the idea of staying here any more. So, when my lease is up in June, I’m heading to Portland, Oregon, where I will be living with zaiah (at least that’s the plan) and where I feel I already have more of a community than I have in Atlanta.

My goal from this is nothing short of a complete, ground-up rebuilding of my life. I don’t like the way it looks right now, so I’m going to change it. The goals for the move:

– Not working in an office any more. I want to do 100% of my work completely online (including the work I do for the electronics firm; ideally, I’ll still be doing Web programming for them), whether that be consulting, Web dev, my own Web site, or whatever. That by itself frees up all the other things I’d like to be able to do.

– Spending more time traveling. It sucks having all of my relationships be long-distance; I’d like the freedom to be able to say “You know what? I want to spend the next four weeks with dayo” or “I want to spend some time living with figmentj” and have that be possible.

– Spending more time in poly/BDSM/sexblogging activism, including having a higher profile at conventions, retreats, and that sort of thing. For example, I’ve received about a half-dozen invitations to the Sex 2.0 convention this May in DC, and I won’t be able to go–I’d like to have the ability to attend next year. Ditto for things like SxSW, Loving More, Dragon*Con, and the like.

– A living arrangement that will better accommodate an extended local poly network. zaiah and I would like to create a home that can allow for multiple live-in or near-live-in relationships, should those opportunities present themselves.

– A much more active involvement in local BDSM and poly communities. This is something I had in Tampa but don’t have here.

I’m really excited about moving, and I’m looking forward to having a lot more freedom to travel. Now if only these next few months would pass quickly!