Man. I’m so glad I threw caution to the wind and took my chance to go to Spain last year, because life is certainly not throwing me a bone at the moment. The Camino brought me back to myself, but that knowledge came at a price, and it appears that price is steady employment. It’s probably going to be awhile before I’m able to drop everything and go off to explore the world again.

It appears that my full time job is about to become an hourly position unless something magical happens. Once it goes hourly, I won’t be able to afford rent on one job. Not that I can currently afford rent, since I haven’t been paid in a month, but I’m not going to let myself get too worried yet. I’ve lived through worse. For instance, Hurricane Katrina was MUCH worse. I lost most of my possessions, had to move to a new city with $30 to my name, was disowned by my family (it was short-lived, but really defined an era for me), never did get that damn FEMA check (but my grandparents sent money, which was a real help), and you know what? Despite the pain, loss, and uncertainty, I actually had a pretty good time. I got to explore a new city (Chicago), meet a ton of new friends who are still my friends today, and not being able to afford to eat meant that I lost about 20 lbs and looked fabulous! It also had the side benefit of teaching me that material goods, no matter how expensive, are actually worthless, which helps in times like this when I’m forced by necessity to sell off all of my belongings to pay rent. So there’s that.

All this is actually pretty funny, because the last time I remember feeling empowered and in touch with the Universe this much was roughly Winter 2005. So. Here we are again. This time I’ve got blue hair, two Masters degrees (and the corresponding amount of student loan debt), and luckily, some ideas on how to move forward towards a life I’ll enjoy for some time to come.

This is also the last blog post that I’ll be posting from this computer, since I need to sell it. No worries, I actually put a new Macbook Air on credit for work before I found out that work was drying up. But it’s better to have the new one now instead of getting stuck with an old one that could conk out at any moment. I’ve had too much bad luck with computers to put my faith in a 5-year old Mac, and there’s no way I’m getting stuck with no computer and no backup plan in the middle of an underemployment spell – that’s never a good idea for freelancers.

OK, wish me luck, luvs. I could use all the good energy you’ve got to spare right now.