My boss, Skip

He's the one on the right and most of what I know about him I've either read or heard secondhand (all good). We've chatted a few times, one of the first being the night I pitched him on this idea (Mom was right about those first impressions). He, Shore (on the left), Matthew and I went to Rendezvous in Central Square to discuss how we'd set this whole thing up. After shuffling through logistics our conversation ended like this:

Me: I've still never heard how you got here, you know? Your story in your own words. Skip: It's a long story. We'll talk about it another time. It might take awhile. (Pause) Probably about a year. (Big grin)

Last Monday, he was on a speaker's panel at Eastern Standard (they go through hundreds of his oysters each week) so I got a sneak preview. A few notes:

- He eats oysters everywhere he goes. "I love the process of eating them in a restaurant. Normally we eat them warm, right out of the water. It's nice to have ice, some lemon, a little wine. Plus I want to taste all the other oysters out there, compare them to one another and to mine."

- On success: "For me it's about having a passion and surrounding yourself with the right people. I graduated from college with a finance degree and had a job lined up in NY. But I thought digging clams was so cool so I just followed that passion. There was an opportunity cost to not having a career and I struggled with it a lot then but now, it's what I believe in."

- After trying to grow clams in Duxbury Bay (they all died), he switched to oysters (everyone thought they would die). "To some degree, I never really thought it would work. And if it stopped working tomorrow, I'd be grateful I had the opportunity."

- On his team: "I worked at my father's garage when I was a kid and the thing I learned there is that one person can really spoil the pot. At work I tell people, 'it's your responsibility to be upbeat every day' and everyone at the company has that. It's very important to keep that alive."

I'm just scratching the surface here, so bear with me. Better details are on the way. My last day with DailyCandy is tomorrow and while it's a bittersweet goodbye, I'm anxious to get down to the farm (despite the 30 degree temps). Dave and I are celebrating at (where else) Eastern Standard tomorrow night with some cocktails and a huge plate of Island Creeks.

It begins.

After months of planning, scheming (in some cases flat-out lying - apologies), I finally announced today that I'm leaving my job as Boston editor of DailyCandy.com to spend a year working at Island Creek Oysters. My last day at DC is Feb 20th; I start at the farm on March 9. My first glimpse of farm life came from a funny email chain started by ICO's director of business development, Shore Gregory. He announced to the growers that I would be joining the team in a few weeks and that I'd be writing about the experience, to which grower Don Merry replied all with: What are her measurements?

I had to laugh. It was followed by a barrage of responses giving him a hard time about replying all. (My response was, "I wear a size 4, thanks for asking.") As Shore later commented, it was classic Don Merry.

I also sent out the obligatory mass email and was bombarded with feedback, all of which was positive, but I was immediately struck by the number of inspired notes I received from women who had thought long and hard about taking a similar life risk. One email in particular stuck out:

I have to admit, when I read your email I became very jealous of you. Lately, I've been feeling the same - a strong urge to unplug from the grid and do something more down to earth and "real". I'd bet you have felt this way for a while, and I think it takes a lot of guts to make the decision you've made. I was just talking with one of my girlfriends last week about how great it would be to check out for a while and do something similar to what you'll be doing at Island Creek.  I just wanted to let you know that reading your email today made me feel a lot less crazy about wanting to unplug and was definitely very motivational for me. I really hope this experience is everything you hope for and more.

I've been planning this in my head for months and not once have I considered needing justification but this statement alone gave it to me. I'm acting on an urge that I think so many of us have felt. There's just no good reason not to do it. Here was my other favorite response:

How freakin' cool are you?! Color me impressed (and can I shuck with you?).Congraulations, Erin; you're living life the way it should be lived.

Exactly what I was going for.