ElmoFromOK not a muppet

As many of you already know, I am a founding partner of the okcCoCo, the Oklahoma City Coworking Collaborative, in Midtown. It is amazing to realize that a year ago I sat around a table with my friends and partners and worked out how we would bring this vision to reality. We found a location and somehow figured out a way to make the finances work and then we reached out to the community and were amazed at the response we received.

Some of the best moments of the year were long exhausting days surrounded by friends and peers painting and cleaning and assembling and building the okcCoCo around us. That is where the real heart of the place came from. It was the people who volunteered their time for no other reason that they wanted it to happen. They simply believed. Because of those wonderful people, I have had one of the most amazing years of my life.

It was not always easy. In fact, it was often quite hard. There were egos to coddle and agendas to redirect and mistakes to overcome. Communities of passionate people are never easy, but when they come together, they are a power to behold. In the end, the good has vastly out wieghed the bad. The okcCoCo is coming into it's own and heading into 2010 with a head of steam and serious case of 'hell yeah!'

One of my jobs at the coco was to handle the evening shift. This involved arriving at 6pm and keeping the fort safe from the savages until 9 or so. Luckily the savages where typically only armed with nerf guns and sarcasm, so it wasn't so bad.

It was hard on my wife to have me gone so much, often not getting home until 10 or later. She was really patient with me and with the situation, and I cannot express how thankful I am for her. Basically, I was working two full time jobs and could not have handled it without her behind me.

So you can imagine my sheer clear joy at the thought that tomorrow night I have the ability to leave work and go ... home.

We have decided to rearrange how we handle our hours and because of this I am no longer required to be at the okcCoCo every night at 6pm. I will still be up there often, for events, or to work on freelance projects, or to shoot people with nerf guns. But now I will have a more balanced personal life with my family and friends, which gives me a big goofy grin.

Ironically, tomorrow night, my wife and I will likely go out.

awesome.