SF->ATX->SF->ATX->SF->ATX->SF->ATX->SF->ATX->SF->ATX->SF

The equation above: SF->ATX->SF->ATX->SF->ATX->SF->ATX->SF->ATX->SF->ATX->SF is exactly what I have done so far this year. I am serious. Seven times since February. There have been other pit stops here and there (New York, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Burning Man and Mendocino) but more or less my year can be summed up in that spin cycle. And, you know what, I have loved it.

It is not what I thought my life would look like at this point. I thought for sure I would be settled in to a city (nyc, sf or la) and be working on building my client list. I would send out mailers on a consistent schedule (to show my stability), tote my portfolio around to agencies and magazines, go to art shows and shmooze with other industry creatives. I would build a network of ambitious artists friends and we would collaborate on a series of wild projects drummed up to create a buzz from an audience of people (with more money and no creativity) interested in paying us to do awesome things. Oh and I would probably have an art director boyfriend or something.

Instead I went to Austin with two suitcases on a 3 week writing sabbatical and now I live there. As far as photography goes I have sort of taken a detour (see aforementioned 'writing sabbatical'). I am still completely in love with image making, but I decided it was time (with the encouragement of the recession) to put my nose to the grindstone and work on the book I have had rattling around in my brain. So I wrote and wrote and now I have 106,000 words of a memoir and am about to start (what I envision to be) a sixth month editing phase with considerably less travel... maybe.

Austin has been treating me well. The town is overflowing with affordable music shows, I have made a few friends and picked up some video work from a steady client. The work isn't what I *love* to do but it has afforded me a trip back to SF every 6 weeks... and two apartments. That's right. The first is a one bedroom house and the second is a single room cottage. They are on the same block. Really they are just an outward sign of my inward excessiveness, however, man they are cute. (And combined they are cheaper than three of the flats I lived in in the Bay Area.)

All of this has reinforced a couple things.
1) you can do anything if you are willing to do the hustle.
2) learn a skill or trade that you can use while traveling to make money.
3) learn how to ask for help and give it back freely.
4) let the Universe carry you.

Much love,

Frankie