With my sincerest apologies to Mr. David Bowie, I'm back with some big news. Jesse and I are leaving our beloved Philly and moving back to our equally beloved Baltimore at the end of the summer! Yep, that means selling the house that we spent more time searching for than actually living in and changing jobs. I'll explain from the beginning.

I got offered a full-time teaching position starting next Fall at The Maryland Institute College of Art. It's the school Jesse and I both got our degrees from (and where we met and started dating) and for several years I commuted from Philly to teach there. I didn't really have a huge career plan to become a full-time college professor right away, but this was one of those times when an opportunity presents itself in front of you and it's just so good you can't possibly pass it up. And, except for the new house, it's a great time in our lives to make this big change. I'm still going to continue freelance illustrating, sketching, and blogging, so you'll still see plenty of my drawings around, I'll just be working a lot more. That's not a bad thing. I'm one of those people that relishes a challenge and more work.

The move is a little scary. We haven't had time to make all of the improvements on our house that we intended too, but we're currently scrambling to pretty-up the place a little bit, and then we'll put it back on the market and hope we don't lose money. We're going to have to buy a car. My first car ever. Is it odd that I owned a house before I ever owned a car? Jesse's going to have to look for a new job. He'd been told his current job would probably shrink to a part-time position in the Fall, so he's not too sad to be leaving it and is looking forward to trying to find something more fulfilling. We just hope the tough job market will oblige him. Most of all, though, we're going to miss our friends in town.

On the other hand, we're also really excited. This is a fresh start. We were getting to a point where we could almost guess exactly where we'd be and what we'd be doing over the next five years....which can be very nice, but maybe not nearly as nice as life spontaneously presenting you with some new options. We're both going to be turning 30 in the next year or two (sheesh, I'll be turning 29 in less than a month), so it's time to shake things up!

And, finally, you might be thinking, "yeah, but Baltimore?" Yeah, Baltimore. It's a quirky town, full of flaws, but completely comfortable with itself. I'll have to do a full-on Baltimore post soon to explain my soft spot for this city. Along with a post about the things I'll miss most from Philly. So, really, this move is good for the blog, too. More posts soon to come! I promise. After all, I have to let you know how all of these changes pan out. In the meantime, I should maybe learn this dance in celebration....



(Top image by David Davies via his flickr)

Ch-Ch-Cha-Changes

Posted on

5.10.2011

5 Comments
  1. Congratulations and good luck with the move and the new job. New beginnings are exciting :)

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  2. congratulations!! i hope your move goes smoothly!

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  3. Big congratulations, Deanna! My good friend Shadra (Strickland) just accepted a full time position in the MICA illustration dept., too! I'm sure you two will meet very soon :)

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  4. Thanks everyone!

    I can't wait to meet Shadra, Lauren. Thanks for the tip. I hope I get to see you again, too!

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  5. I'm from the Baltimore area! And I have a lot of friends going to MICA, so I'll definitely ask them if they've seen you around! If you have a chance to visit, Frederick is only an hour away and quite a quaint little town!

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