(or, "One of those rare glimpses into my personal side that Roger so eloquently speaks about")
It was this past Thursday night, at the Granville Red Line station, when something finally dawned on me.
I had just attended the Comics 201 event sponsored by Chicago Nerds Social Club (having recently joined their Comics Subcommittee) at Third Coast Comics. While I was there, I did the usual thing - talk to one friend who is job seeking, having some other conversations about future Chicago Nerds activities, and then realized quite a few things had happened.
First, it was coming on my third year of living in Chicago after the great move back from St. Louis. I hadn't realized how much time had passed...or how much I had accomplished. Because of - and not despite - my love of comics.
My professional life has been, despite a few bumps, quite interesting - mostly, I'm developing a similar, but more diverse, network of contacts within Chicago. Nothing against my St. Louis colleagues, but there was something cool about the fact that what took me forever to do in St. Louis seemed to move much more quickly here in Chicago. In fact, my comics and television-related expertise has come in handy in ways that I cannot describe, mostly because...it would be long, and boring, but has helped me become a "subject matter expert".
Personally, I have to say that my social circle is not only expanding, but I'm actually beginning to feel a little more comfortable in my environs. Not only am I reacquainting myself with old high school friends, but have been building a pretty good collection of friends and people to generally "hang" with. I don't compare it to my STL activity, because that was a little different - mostly, my life here isn't as busy (and that's self-imposed - pretty much Chicago Nerds and Net Tuesday are my only time commitments). Although my only deficit is in the romantic department...I'm working on it.
Finally, my blogging life is becoming much more enriched and, well, busier. Several weeks ago, had a major breakthrough about the podcast (and Roger, don't worry, the music part stays - just going to be a little different). In addition, had an opportunity open up that makes me glad that, much like my work for Comic Related, makes me grateful to be able to write about the things I enjoy.
(One note about Comic Related - I still dig writing the monthly column. Comic Related is definitely cooler than Newsarama. And I may regret saying that later.)
But at that L station, on a bitterly cold evening, I realized that my life was coming together much more strongly than anything else would, and that for the first time in awhile, I really felt like I had a full life.
The next day, I had realized that I had left my cell phone at the comics store. A few Tweets (and several hours) later, I headed back to Third Coast, picked up the phone, bought some books (because all I had bought was one or two issues from a dollar bin months ago), and headed home.
Just one of those moments that prove that great moments can happen because - and outside - of comics.
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