Well, I had intended this next blog post to be a triumphant "I've found a job!" sort of post. Instead it's going to be a much less enthusiastic "I'm trying to keep busy, I swear," post. The thrill of gradumacation has faded a tad bit, what with the no jobs situation and all, but I've been making the most of it, touring town dropping my resumes off where ever I can think of, joining a couple employment agencies and keeping the eyes peeled for any leads. I was encouraged by how relatively healthy the job market appeared to be in Wichita compared to a lot of places, but have been discouraged by how insular it also seems to be. I guess it's the same anywhere, ya gotta know somebody! Of course, I have had some freelance projects coming my way and may have a semi-perminant freelance gig to keep me busy going forward, so that's something I guess. 
So anyway, like I said I have been trying to keep myself busy. There's the Artist Residency I was awarded from Newman which has given me the opportunity to work on my art and I've produced a bunch of new pieces for an upcoming show. The students keep looking at me like "when are they going to call security and escort him from the building already. Pretty sure you're not supposed to just keep hanging around like that." But it's been fun having the youthful energy of the students around me still to keep me inspired. It's a little less lonely than the garage. I've had fun resurrecting Newman's long disused
Oh, and did I mention I'm preparing for my first real art show?! Yay Team Me! I'm pretty dang excited/nervous about that. It's called STREET LVL and is going to be at the Go Away Garage, in my opinion, the coolest art gallery in town. I've invited another fairly new local artist, Armando Minjarez, to share the space with me and we'll have musical guests at both the opening on Friday July 12, and the closing on Final Friday July 26th. Since I probably didn't have nearly enough good work to fill entire gallery, I've been taking full advantage of my continuing time at Newman to git 'er done!Oh, and speaking of being busy, there was also that month I spent on the couch after getting hernia surgery. Did I mention that? Yeah that was fun and it put a slight damper on my job hunt. Apparently I got it around last November or so when I was training Taekwondo. The symptoms were remarkably mild to the point that it took me a while to even notice that anything was wrong and it never actually hurt or inhibited me at all. Anyway, about six weeks ago it was time to get sliced open and everything went fine and I'm pretty much back to normal now, though I haven't had the courage to start training again just yet. We'll wait 'til I'm extra special healed!
For reasons I will never understand I was recently honored at the annual Awards Convocation at Newman where they give honors to exceptional students and faculty (security really dropped the ball there). I was expecting the award for the residency, since I'd basically been living it for the past few months, but I ended up being co-awarded the Creative Achievement Award for some of the other work I've done (along with Megan, one of the English departments top students). Since the awards were given out one right after the other, I was rather confused for a while and thought there had been some kind of mixup. I really enjoyed my time at Newman and worked my butt off just for the fun of it, but it's really pretty awesome to be recognized. I even got to receive the award from Sue which I'm sure didn't seem at all biased!
I will admit that not having the grueling day-to-day schedule to stay on top of has presented me with some challenges. Taking a shower and shaving don't seem like the pressing priorities they once did. So, keep sending me your positive vibes to keep me going until something comes along, which hopefully won't be too much longer! In the meantime, we look forwarded to seeing as many of you as we can in a month's time. Be well and happy Spring!
