Damn, has it really been 2 years since my last journal entry? Well, in that case my subject is all the more tailored to this entry. Much has happened in the last couple years, and I find myself at a fresh start. Alas, I am getting ahead of myself. Let me back track a wee bit first.

BLFC is now the main convention I attend each year. It has become my yearly escape from the everyday, and in the last two years I have both hosted panels and volunteered to help with the convention. In fact, last year I signed up for 8, but ended up putting in about 12 hours give or take of volunteer time and I look forward to possibly serving as staff next year. I wholeheartedly support this convention and hope it continues to flourish in the future.

I lost my Santa Fe. I MISS that car/SUV. All because an idiot in an Audi ignored a police siren/lights and rear ended me. There was an imprint of the Audi symbol on my back bumper, and she hit me hard enough to dislodge the spare tire from under the car. Both cars ended up being total losses, oh and to add insult to injury she did not have insurance at the time of the incident. They say you don't realize how good something is until it is gone, well, the usefulness of my Santa Fe was definitely missed in recent weeks. More on that later.

With my husband out of work for over a year, my stress went to a whole new level and it led to me taking a leave of absence from work as I could no longer help him and keep my own stress in check. I went back to work after a few months and some special training to learn some better coping mechanisms. My workplace is a whole other long story in and of itself, but in short I made a decision for my future that changed everything.

Fast forward to about 2 months ago. My parents were coming back out to AZ to get the rest of their stuff that they had left behind when they went back to Maine. This one idea became the catalyst for a major change. After many discussions with my mate, and some research, the decision was made to leave AZ and go back to Maine with my parents. This meant leaving/retiring from my job as the company did not have jobs local to Maine. I was with them for about 12 years, and it was not an easy goodbye.

The move was full of obstacles, the biggest being that the valley was having a record breaking heat spell in the 115+ range, which not only limited the time of day we could load the truck, but it also caused multiple of our packing totes to warp and melt as well. Thanks to my mom's connections though we were able to get help loading the truck and one long road trip later in a Elantra with my mate and our 5 cats (REALLY miss that Santa Fe), we arrived in Maine.

We've been in Maine for about 2 weeks give or take now, and I am slowly getting re-acclimated to the humidity change. There is no A/C at the current residence, but we do have alot of fans, and the breeze at night feels wonderful. The grocery store is taking some getting used to as with a different region comes different brand names and flavors and such. I will say that I am addicted to cinnamon chip muffins and have a hard time not keeping some in the house. I've done some general searches for jobs and have had a few promising postings pop up so I hope to have a job again soon.

Oh my I wasn't intending for this journal to be quite so long, but there ya go. I hope to start posting new art soon as well as I have been sketching in the down time, and have a couple of new characters I need to introduce. Till next time!