It has been a minute…or a month, but who’s counting?

It is a rainy day in my city and for the first time in weeks, I feel sunny. Yesterday morning I received the news that I had been hoping and working toward since March: I have a new, full-time position and will make enough money to be stable and to pay off my recent debts by the middle/end of June.

April was busier for me than I expected: I had a new part-time job that I had to quit because of my mother’s sudden illness and because I couldn’t handle it physically. I’ve been doing miscellaneous odd jobs and tutoring as well. But mostly I’ve been going to interviews. My interview count hit double digits in April, and my stress increased with each rejection.

It was hard to write for this blog because I wasn’t doing anything worth writing about, and nearly all of my thoughts revolved around money. But I’m now so relieved that stability has a concrete start date, which is two weeks from now.

One kind of writing that I did a bunch of this past month was poetry. The volume of poetry that I write correlates with my emotions, and man I have been quite emotional lately. I have two chapbooks’ worth of work, along with a half dozen other poems meant to be performed out loud. As for the chapbooks, I have mostly designed them, but in the next few days need to resolve some errors that keep happening when I try to print them.

I was a featured poet on one show, am booked to do “live spoken word” at an ambient show next week, and have laid down the details for my own show, which I am running next month at a local coffee shop.

I even had some success with my painting! I have two on display at a coffee shop art exhibit and made my first Etsy sale.

My creative life has been at an all-time high in the past few months, but only now am I able to see a better balance between it and my survival/financial side. But I also realize that I will now have to work much harder to maintain a work/life balance that doesn’t result in me hating either. With discipline and a better attitude, I hope to finally get on the right track and get shit done. 🙂

• Current drink: copious amounts of water
• Current book: Horrorstor by Hendrix Grady
• Current audio book: Swing Time by Zadie Smith
• Current music: Khruangbin – Dern Kala