Three Months Ago

Three months ago I had never visited the Dallas Makerspace, had coffee with Siobhan, or printed a business card for myself.  I had never 'networked'.  I had never worn eye makeup.  Three months ago I never would have harassed Funimation with doughnuts or dreamed about living with strangers on the east coast.  I had actually all but given up on becoming an animator.

I had such a normal life.  I folded paper cranes at my little gray desk and went home angry and stressed like most of the women that work at ChildCareGroup still do.  The new software was buggy and inefficient, and the subsidies we doled were egregiously behind schedule.  I would apologize and troubleshoot over the phone all day than collapse atop my boyfriend to an evening of cartoons and video games.  I loved him so much.

That was three months ago.

The week before Christmas 2011, my safe, dull, comfortable world was shaken loose.  I was fired for the first time in my life.  Not three days later, the unthinkable happened: my boyfriend put in his resignation.  Ten beautiful, happy, tumultuous and painful years of my life were permanently trivialized and are gone forever.  The central ally in my world proved to be the most false.

I twisted in the wind.  I reached out blind and terrified without him and I was simply SHOCKED at how many people reached out to catch me, people who didn't even know me three months ago.

So this is for you guys.  On March 31, 2012, I leave for my internship at Larry's Band in Manhattan, NY.  I will dump stories, comics, and photos here to chronicle what you have done for me.  This is my adventure, but in a way, it is also yours, because I never could have done it without you.