SPBURKE

When I wrote my post on this blog a few weeks ago about the Worst Night of My Life, when I almost crashed my ex-girlfriend’s car and she broke up with me, I felt a real weight lifted off me in the weeks after.  I had been carrying that dark, depressing story in me for so long, it felt good to get it out of me.  I felt “cleansed”.

…But in the weeks afterward, I started to wonder: “Is it possible to be in an abusive relationship with something intangiable?  Like a city, or a position in life?”  I remember last summer being depressed out of my mind in-between conventions (and even when shows came up, they weren’t that great).  I pretty much spent all my time alone in my parents’ basement, working on “Oh Goodie! Volume 2” while drinking too much.

While I’m proud of what I came up with, forgive me if I don’t want to put myself through that.  So it’s time for a change.

I’m going to be spending my summer volunteering at the Independent Publishing Resource Center in Portland, Oregon.  The same day I go in to meet their resource coordinator Mike D’Alessandro, I’ll be attending RACC‘s bi-monthly Art Spark event.  All while trying to meet up with Devi, Charlotte, Alexa, and Jen when I can.  I want to hit the ground running making new contacts and meeting new artists in my field and others.  My friend Tyler has been kind enough to extend an invitation (apparently already being an “Oh Goodie!” fan when we met), and I’m in his debt for his offer.

For the record, I do intend to start updating “Oh Goodie!” regularly again very soon.  In fact, Alexa will be helping me punch up the website and making it brand new in a few weeks, and I’m intending for updates to resume shortly after that.  I’ll also be splitting my time with projects I’ve had in the works for a while with Eric Adams and Pab Sungenis, which I also hope to get done during that time.

I’ve thought about all of this for a long time and I’m happy to see it all finally come to fruition.  It doesn’t feel like taking a plunge.  Instead, it feels like going down a long, dark tunnel that gradually gets wider and brighter the closer you get to the end.  In short, it’s a risk.  But it’s a calculated risk, and I’m in the mood to make such a move.

If it works out, great!  If not, I can always come home to Chicago.

So here’s to May 15th.  Ides of May baby!  Ides of May!