September 13th, 2010: Umberto Giano

Woke up late this morning. I forgave myself, though… or at least I allowed myself a rationalization. I was on the phone last night with my boyfriend Emery. We didn’t hang up till 4 am. It was worth it, of course, but 3.5 hours of sleep makes for a rough wake-up. When I arrived at my office, my assistant called in sick. Of course.

I’m the man who shoulders the responsibility for my business in RL and for most of the activities I participate in on SL. If I don’t step up, there’s a chance the important things won’t get done. My RL business is going to ramp up over the next week, which is why my assistant wanted to take some extra personal time off now.

I don’t have that luxury.

I told Emery last night that I’m tired just anticipating the coming week – trying to balance RL work and SL commitments.

Some background might shed more clarity on how I got to this point.

Two years ago, a hurricane nearly destroyed my RL business. As I struggled to rebuild, I found myself with extra time. I filled this time writing many articles for BOSL Magazine. Frolic eventually invited me to be Editor-in-Chief. I was honored, but I didn’t seek the job; it found me. I just wanted to work, keep busy and block out the chaos surrounding me irl.

Now, irl I am much busier and sometimes think, “what the hell am I doing, running and owning all this stuff on SL?”

Back to my day. Work finally ends, and I immediately log into SL and work. When I’m finally able to extract myself, I go to the pub and eat 3 burgers and a pitcher of beer. Yeah, I eat healthy, too.

Finally I get home and immediately log into SL again. My club’s open tonight, and I can relax now, enjoy the music and chat with friends.

That’s why I joined SL, to relax and chat. Too busy for it these days, and I hate that. But I have accepted the fact I’m a workaholic.

In both my real and virtual worlds, my work defines me. It’s who I am.

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Umberto Giano divides his time between running a small business in RL and a successful in-world magazine. In addition he owns a small country club themed residential estate, a nightclub and co-owns a SL football team. When he is not working, he spends his free time eating, drinking, and hanging with SL and RL friends and his one love, Emery Milneaux.