Welcome Back?

OK, welcome back – to me and you. A little more than three months later, let’s try this again. Conventional wisdom would have said that I would have written more while
I was still in Venezuela living in a different culture and living those experiences; but, I didn’t. Nor did I pick up immediately on my return to the U.S., nor during the travels that followed. Perhaps I’m the type of person that only turns to writing when he doesn’t have those other things going on, with more time, and the perhaps the inevitable introspection that follows. Either way, I’ve decided that I really enjoy writing words, and am going to do it more often.

A lot has happened in three months. I’m back in Iowa on what I would like to call a “Living the Dream/Return to Roots” tour of the Quad Cities, which are even more impressive in the fact that they span two states. While I had planned on being back in the Caribbean playing on a cruise ship, a number of factors came together to put that plan on the shelf, at least for the time being. So, trying to switch to Plan B mode, I am now living with my mother while I spend my days loafing about unemployed. Today, I completed an application to substitute teach thanks to my newly minted Iowa teaching license, and feel that if this really does come to pass, it should provide me enough random experiences to give me material for this thing for the weeks and months ahead. Needless to say, being out of school for the first time in as long as I can remember, with no immediate plan (I will probably be in graduate school in the Fall; but, until then I have nothing) is certainly new to me. At times it is the best thing, to have so much free time to once again practice my instruments, write, read, reflect, and so on. However, half the time I feel myself so consumed with an anxiety about the very fact that I do NOT have a plan or a current way of gaining the income I will need come this summer, that it is hard to concentrate on these things. I find myself instead invariably stuck in front of my computer screen looking for various job prospects, and spending a lot of time writing letters to jobs that half the time turn out to be scams. Still, I have a few things brewing here, including a chance to teach privately as part of a dance and music studio in town, something that I would welcome as I dearly miss teaching private lessons. This weekend the annual Tallcorn festivities take place at UNI; and, I am looking forward to seeing some friends again. Well, there’s the update post for now to at least get my mind back on this thing and myself writing something again.