rocks into roses

Looking at the date on my last post, I feel like I’ve been living in the Twilight Zone for a couple of years! But so much has changed… mostly for the better.

Tilling the Soil

I “went with the flow” for a few months longer before I received information confirming many of my suspicions regarding conditions in my office, at which time I had to devote quite a bit of energy toward setting those things right. I don’t know whether that specific goal was achieved, but at least those involved became better aware (or, at least, they should now be).

That was followed by a year or so in which my energies were divided between seeking new employment and meeting the responsibilities of my job. Ultimately, I decided that I had to go ahead and leave my job without having a new employer to go to. My health had plateaued, and each time I met with members of my office, new episodes were triggered. There are just too many memories there; too many issues in that culture.

At this stage, I’m moving in several directions, watching and waiting for one of them to take hold. I call this post “tilling the soil” because that is how it feels: all of the ideas and possible achievements I’ve been considering for a decade got buried under the debris of day-to-day life. This past couple of weeks I’ve been able to remove the debris and start digging up those ideas, bring them to the surface so they can potentially see the light of day.

One of my endeavors is establishing an LLC to serve as an umbrella for those many possible directions. I expect that – to one who has done this before – the process is fairly simple, and in the course of my career over the past decade, I picked up a lot of tidbits about it. But the way it has come about, I’ve approached it more or less like someone who does not know about the process at all.

Rather than go through the convoluted steps I’ve walked, I’ll summarize the milestones achieved thus far:

• Confirmed that although I could achieve the same things as a “Sole Proprietor” of businesses I’m interested in, an LLC serves as an extra level of protection against litigious types;
• Learned that the LLC should be able to operate as both retailer and landlord (using separate DBAs);
• Learned that – in the Commonwealth of Kentucky – one must have a “Registered Agent”, and that the simplest way to go about this is to pay an agency (such as kentuckyregisteredagent.com – but one must be careful because there are lots of scammers!);
• Obtained legal assistance through a very unexpected and interesting method (contact me if you’re curious :D);
• Confirmed that using https://onestop.ky.gov is by far the simplest method for registering (vs. using an attorney or paper forms obtained elsewhere);
• Learned that the more internet research you do in this area, the more your information gets sold, spread and compromised.

I’ve also learned that due to the convoluted mess that our country has become, people are like thirsty souls when it comes to having help navigating it all. I’m looking forward to further putting my experience to work to help them!

So this morning, as I prepare for a job interview and my first psychiatrist visit in over six months (to discuss further medication reduction), my prayers are of gratitude for the experience of it all, and thanks for the energy to want to use that experience to benefit others!