The Boss

Spent the day bouncing between German government offices—the trade office, the chamber of commerce, the tax office. Made phone calls that seemed to reach every corner of the world. Most of it was tedious, but the genuinely weird part was that everyone I talked to actually knew what they were doing and was helpful, which I wasn’t expecting at all.

When I finally stepped outside after the paperwork was finished and everything was signed, the clouds just broke open and sun poured down over Berlin. That’s when it sank in. This blog is now officially a registered business. I can write proper invoices. I’m the boss. It sounds ridiculous until you’re standing in actual sunlight and it clicks that it’s real, and then it feels kind of sexy. Even my neighbor, who’s pretty far gone mentally, wished me luck when she heard, and in her condition that carries weight.

The first thing I did as my official CEO was buy the Steve Jobs biography. I’m writing it off as a business expense, naturally, calling it professional development or required reading or whatever makes the accountant stop asking questions. I studied business administration once, which apparently prepared me for nothing, but I figured reading about a dead billionaire might magically fill in the gaps. It won’t. But the receipt is getting deducted anyway.