It's official! I've graduated, moved to Benton City, WA, got a job and also lost my appendix--all in less than a week!
Moving back home was bittersweet, as I left my partner Phillip and our cat Buffy behind as he is pursuing his own business endeavor. It's a good thing that social media and fancy phones exist to make the transition easier for the both of us, but there's still plenty of stuff in the air (jobs, internships), so returning to Portland may be an option in the future. As for now, I'm back to country living to save some money for grad school, the one thing that is still for certain.
So, I moved back on Tuesday, applied for a job on Wednesday and was interviewed and hired on the spot Thursday. The thing is that I was feeling weird since dinner on Tuesday. I thought it was just bloating or constipation from eating sour cream (lactose intolerant), but the pain was intense. Luckily, my mom persuaded me to go to the doctor, you know, better safe than sorry. Well I'm glad that she made me go, because my appendix was telling me it didn't want to live in my belly anymore. Yikes!
The zinger is that I was supposed to start me new job on Friday morning, the exact time my surgery was scheduled. Oh, the irony! Thankfully my new employers are flexible and understanding--especially since there's no way I could foresee I would have appendicitis. So they took my appendix out and I'm a couch potato for the next week, which is a good and bad thing at the same time. Good because it gives me time to adjust, settle and let my body adjust to the dryer climate. Bad because I get stir crazy all too easy, but again, I'm thankful that the internet exists.
My new job is actually pretty damn perfect. It's only a 2-mile walk from where I'm staying, and is perfectly aligned with my skill-set. But, since I signed a NDA, I can't say too much. But it's a print production company where I'll be assisting in designing, pre-press and the actual printing of a variety of products. It's also full-time and starting at $13/hour, and thanks to Washington, the wages aren't as heavily taxed as they are in Oregon (where they take an average of 33% per paycheck). It's pretty cool, and I can transfer a lot of the knowledge gained to my future career in the comic book industry. It's also a job I won't feel too bad saying goodbye to if I get a summer internship, or when I have to say goodbye and set sail for Scotland.
For now, I am just relaxing and trying to catch up on updates and internet what-have-you's. I suppose I can take this required leisure time and work on some art now that school is done. Speaking of school, you see that image above? Yea, I have 5 degrees and a 3.95 (out of 4.0) GPA. I'm pretty darn proud of myself, even if I got an A-. :)
