I know you’re curious

Long ago, I would have itemized and described every single portion of my life in explicit detail for all the world to see, but somewhere along the way, I got out of that habit.  Maybe that’s because I like the idea of using my blog for potentially professional space, maybe I just learned to appreciate privacy.

Okay, let me define that:  I don’t really give a crap about my privacy, which I know sounds a little strange.  I’m not going to even indicate the existence of anything I don’t want you to know about.  The privacy that I respect the most is other people’s, and since my life is filled with other people, that’s what I try really hard not to discuss.

But… things are crazy, and people are giving me weird looks because I’ve been so tight-lipped about so much.  The last couple of weeks especially have been utterly insane, so here’s the scoop on the new Look of Life:

1) I can’t find a decent paying job to save my life.  I’m assuming it’s the economy, but the only jobs I can find that I can get into are either scams, variations on scams, or paying minimum wage to be scams.  And that’s not counting the ones that pay less than minimum wage (commission-only sales).  Unfortunately, this lack of income has led to…

2) I’m getting evicted.  My house in Irving is going away, I’m putting all my stuff in storage, downsizing the household, etc.  (I will likely be running a garage sale sometime this week and/or putting things up for grabs on Craigslist.)  And, yes, that means that…

3) The kids are dispersing.  Joseph and Daniel are going to stay with their dad full-time now (not counting next week when Daniel will be in the hospital to start the ketogenic diet), Lili and Miles are staying with my sister Debbie for the time being, because…

4) I’m staying with my boyfriend who only has limited space.

This last statement is the weirdest one for me by far because as I look back over time, I have only cohabitated with people I’ve been married to or were just roommates with, and while there’s that little tiny part of my brain that’s screaming about personal space and proper procedures for Getting Serious, the other 99.99999999% of my brain is totally fine with this and, in fact, is utterly delighted, happy, blissful… even around the emotional freak-out of not having the kids right here.

Remember when I said that exclusivity was something that would have to come with in a pretty effin’ amazing package?

Yeah.  THAT.

So, everything is adjusting and moving and fixing itself, and I do still have a plan, but it’s more of a hodge-podge of backup plans and pipe dreams that are revealing themselves to be the only viable options (at least until I can find something more stable employment-wise):

1) I started a tattoo apprenticeship again, finally.  It’s in Sherman (for now), and I’m very, very excited.

2) As part of that, I’ve started arting again.  (Yes, that’s a legitimate verb because I bloody well said so.)  It feels fantastic.  I believe I will be using Banana Freckles for my artwork outside of writing, which will mostly stay here on Normality Factor.  Might as well.

3) I’m putting out more and more stories every week.  I have three out for consideration right now, not counting the novel and the screenplay.

4) I’m going for two degrees for school – Entrepreneurship and e-Marketing – because especially as an artist/writer/freelancer, I can’t think of a better approach to business in the long run.

Now, all that having been said, it’s back to a lot of quiet time for me on this blog while I run around like mad, trying to get everything handled up before next week.  I have to have everything moved and put in its proper place by Labor Day, so if anyone wants to step up and help (and maybe get some mad loot of out it since I don’t really want to move it all again), let me know.