Who knows. Perhaps two weeks of not earning any money should make me nervous, but so far it’s been awesome. Perhaps that is also because I slogged to save up money all last year so I wasn’t two paychecks short of homelessness. However, this week it was great to go back to my old job for a couple of days to train my replacement (who is awesome) and earn a little of the stuff what pays the mortgage. I’m hopeful that I can continue to strike a balance between poverty and artistic flexibility.
It has been strangely freeing to go back to the unpredictable lifestyle. I had this kind of life for nearly a year when I originally moved to the States, thanks to immigration beauracracy leaving me unable to get a social security number, a bank account or a real job for about 8 months. I bopped around doing all kinds of interesting (and memorable) odd jobs to help us stay afloat during that time. Ask me after you’ve bought me a beer if you want the stories. While it was sometimes a bit financially scary, I had a lot of fun and felt like I had a lot of control over my life – when I worked, what I did, when I left. A stable paycheck is always nice, but the regularity of the 9-5 life has never been something I aspired to (probably another reason I like the itinerant lifestyle of the actor/musician). After 4 years of it, it’s been so fantastic to get back to the potentially terrifying, wonderfully liberating world of the freelancer.
We’ll see if I feel like this in 6 months.
