Officially

It’s February 1.

This means:
1) Yesterday was my last day of full-time employment at BCC. It was weird because it felt like my “last day” but it wasn’t really my “last day.” I still work there, just not as often. Chris and Anna gave me the greatest going away card in the history of going away cards.
2) Today is the first day of my half-BCC / half-freelance life and career. I actually have lots of freelance work to do right now for several of my bigger clients. As in, I really have so much freelance that it would make it really hard to keep up if I didn’t have a few extra days a week to devote to it. But that’s how the past couple years have been, juggling a full-time job, freelance graphic design, painting, husbanding, churching, friending, housekeeping, and the very occasional video-gaming. I work in the morning. I work in the evening. And weekends. Now, with this new schedule of mine, my hope is that I can get more freelance and painting done during the day, and will have more time as well to help get our house ready for the baby.
3) The primaries are on Tuesday. Is this the first time Tennessee’s actually been able to vote in this thing? I’m thinking it might be, because I’ve never seen so much local news coverage before the candidates are even picked before.
4) Today marks the beginning of Black History Month. The shortest month of the year. It’s also the coldest month of the year, just in case we wanted to have a parade. (one of the few Chris Rock SNL sketches I remember almost verbatim)
5) My birthday is this month. I’ll be turning 31. That’s a weird number. It reminds me of graduating college … my whole life, I felt like “college” was this huge thing very far off in the future. Then I’m in college. And now college feels like a very long time ago. Same with 30, seeming not old, but very far off. And now my 30th birthday at Kobe seems so very far in the past. Weird. I’ll be three years younger than my dad was when he had me. But then I was his third son.

And for no particular reason, if you’ve never watched this video, first repent, and then hit play: