Hectic Schedule

I haven't posted much lately.  Of course, I haven't modeled much lately either.  The last gig I had was the Sunday drawing lab at the Dallas Creative Arts Center on April 21st.  My new job provides no paid time off during the first 90 days of employment.  I started on March 13th, so I will hit that 90 day mark this week.  After that, I will have one floating holiday and five vacation days to take until the end of the year.  I've already scheduled three days for a baseball road trip with my family the first week of August.  We plan on hitting the Louisville Slugger factory and museum, going to a Reds game in Cincinnati and a couple of Pirates-Rockies games in Pittsburgh.  I'm really looking forward to it since I need time away from everything here in Texas.

My older son's baseball schedule has kept us busy most weekends, and he usually has at least one week night practice a week.  My boss at my new job wants the IT staff to work at least 43 hours per week this summer.  My commute home from work can best be described as construction hell.  It seems as if every freeway in Tarrant County, Texas is under construction.  A new project just started on I-35W, just north of Loop 820.  Of course, none of the other projects (Loop 820, I-20 near the Hulen Mall, 183 in the mid-cities, 121 in Grapevine, I-30 near downtown Fort Worth, etc.) are even close to being finished.  My route home takes me through two of those construction projects.  If there happens to be a wreck  or a breakdown somewhere on the way, traffic is tied up for miles.  With all the concrete construction barriers, there is nowhere for cars to pull off.

I sit in traffic every day and think about leaving the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  I have applied for two jobs in Wyoming and one in Colorado, and I'll probably apply for a few more.  Such a move might put the brakes on any modeling I might do, simply because of the lack of opportunity in a state like Wyoming.  But the slower pace, the much lower population density, the cooler summers, the beautiful mountain scenery, the proximity to ski resorts, all appeals to me.  I lived in Colorado for over a year in 1994-95, and I loved it.  It has been a dream of mine to get back to the Rocky Mountain region, and Wyoming sounds wonderful (the lack of a state income tax there helps).

I don't know if any of these opportunities will come to fruition, but I keep dreaming...