Following Signs

January 20th, 2009 | Posted in Journal | 1 Comment »

Some­times I hate this area. I mean absolutely despise it. Par­tic­u­larly when job hunt­ing. I look on sites like The Cre­ative Group, and even on Indeed, which lists prac­ti­cally every­thing– and can’t find a sin­gle thing for a Graphic Designer in a 50 mile radius of Gal­lia. Seri­ously. That’s what I have my email alerts on Job­ster set to. You know what Jobster’s been send­ing me? Movie Extra ads for West Virginia.

Then I fol­low this dirty Jeep-looking-thing, prob­a­bly owned by a teenager, out of my old Alma Mater on my way home from ma-n-pa’s (who’s farm land, by the way, has been sur­rounded by the neigh­bor­ing power plant’s buy out. Once tree-covered hills are now bare with dump trucks). “Life Is Good” it tells me. Okay, I think. I’m stuck in a dying town in “The Black Hole of Cul­ture.” I’m stuck in a greasy kitchen work­ing 8 hours for lit­tle pay, and even less cre­ative sat­is­fac­tion every sin­gle week­end. I have two 12 hour days this semes­ter, and they both end in Sta­tis­tics. I miss my lit­tle girl like crazy.

“Life is Good.”

I have a lit­tle girl who misses me like crazy too. I also have a best friend who has been noth­ing but good to me for 3 years, who is just as cre­ative as I am, if in slightly shifted ways. I’m get­ting an edu­ca­tion in a career that lends itself well to work­ing from home, his­tor­i­cally speak­ing… life’s start­ing to look better.

Okay Dirty Jeep, show me thy wisdom.

I am not, how­ever it may seem, alone in the uni­verse. I’ve been see­ing blogs all over the inter­net of peo­ple who think like me. I’m sure I’m not alone in SE Ohio. In fact, I’m sure of it. There just hasn’t been a place to come together. I’m going to test this theory.

In my “spare” moments in the next month or two, I’ll be devel­op­ing some­thing new. It’s going to be a blog/forum, and it’s going to be a site for those of us who are try­ing to sur­vive in the Black Hole. I’m going to call it FASE Ohio (Fine Arts South East Ohio) for now. An acronym, but also some­thing of a com­mand­ment. If I’m going to stay here– I’m going to face it full on. Or else I might miss signs like this one.

Is it pos­si­ble to obtain Divine Inter­ven­tion from the back of a vehi­cle which has prob­a­bly spent a good deal of its recent time mud-running in the strip mines? I think so. Prov­ing that even in Gal­lia County any­thing is possible.

Tags: Just a Story