The Lion in Winter

When I started this project, I figured it would be the place where I offer sage advice for the prospective expat as I negotiate my escape to South America.

Well, I had a life changing experience today, and I have come through the other side of it with a new mission for this blog.

This evening, after a long day, I decided to check my account balances through my bank's website. This whole financial awakening has become a metaphor, you see: my debts are the ransom I must pay to Corporate America before I can be free from its thrall. So now, I'm exponentially more motivated than I ever thought possible.

So, I access the bank's website and click the link to log in, and . . . the fascists I work for have blocked access to all Financial websites.

The RAGE! The INDIGNATION! I work 6 days a week in that office, up to 10 hours a day. When the HELL am I supposed to pay bills, monitor my finances, and tend to my affairs? And heaven forbid something actually turns up wrong. Is it REALLY better for employee productivity to NOT allow us access to these sites? The alternative is that I have to LEAVE the goddamned building and spend God-knows how long to fix something that would have taken TEN MINUTES online.

They've done this before and we hollered until they lifted the block. But I have really friggin' had it. I am not a child, and I do not need "parental controls" like I'm some horny 13-year old looking at porno sites.

So gentle reader, the exodus is on. But this site is now also the forum for me to vent my spleen about being shackled to cubicle culture.

Every day, I feel more and more like a lion in cage . . .