I haven’t posted anything on here for a month. Got caught up with life in Chicago, and then got carried away by my feelings. Had a moment where I bought a one way ticket to visit my family in California, unsure if I had any intention of continuing to live in Chicago. Calmed down a bit and purchased a return flight. 

I leave for California on the 13th and am excited to see my very pregnant older sister before she has her baby. I’m also glad I sorted things out to come back to Chicago the following week. 

Right now, I have a few too many jobs. Prior to the pandemic, I was working full-time as a freelance artist. Mainly making album artwork for local musicians and magazine covers for small printing presses. 

Last year, I had basically zero income. I think I made under $500 total last year. My savings took a big hit & I was ineligible for unemployment. I’m still recovering financially from all of that. 

My second week here in Chicago, I got a job for a company called Photogenic that takes photos of tourists at various locations like the Shedd Aquarium and Navy Pier. I take photos at Skydeck on the 103rd floor of the Sears Tower. It’s a remarkable view and a pretty interesting job. Lots of customer service and consoling scared visitors, coaching them into the glass ledge. 

This past week, I was offered jobs at the YMCA as an art and science specialist for their summer camps, a Persian restaurant called Noon O Kabab as a server and at the Creative Chicago Reuse Exchange. 

I’m most excited about working at the creative reuse, sorting through various materials. The stack of National Geographics has me excited about future collage projects of my own, and I’m also really looking forward to meeting other local artists. 

I also applied for an internship with Green Star Movement. They create gorgeous mosaic murals around town. I turned down the spring internship and deferred it to summer, so that I’ll start in July and have a couple more months to get acquainted with the city. 

This past week, I made my first new collage of 2021. It is part of a fundraiser for THIRST, raising money for humanitarian aid across the Arizona/Mexico border. 

Things have been extremely busy lately and I’m grateful to be carving out a little space for myself here in Chicago. 

Made a few new friends recently. Just got my second dose of Moderna two days ago. And I am back to writing letters more frequently and finally feeling a bit more settled in. 

More updates soon.