Starting Over

  I am just about at the tipping point of needing to start over some place new. Ridding my self of the toxic environment and people around me. Who am I kidding? Tipping point my ass. I'm at the ledge looking down. I'm use to adjusting my comfort level, it's something you have to do when you lived in a large city for decades. But there is no more adjustment left in me, no more wiggle room. I avoid people like they have the plague, I've made certain areas of my neighborhood off-limits and I've adjusted my time walking outside to purposely lower my chances of encountering people but still way too many times these aggravating humans, and their dogs, find me. Sitting quietly in a large park I was almost bitten by two dogs , while another pissed on the bench I was sitting on and it splashed on me. Early this morning I almost made it to my front door when a squatter in my development followed me and began screaming and making threats. All I wanted to do this morning, much like any other day is go for a walk and hopefully take some photos. At this time South Philly or South Dakota seems like a better option than this entitled nut filled purgatory named Chestnut Hill.

  My social life includes my partner, my two cats, a fellow artist that I meet for one hour every Wednesday, and a fellow photographer that lives in Sweden, whom I communicate with by email. Most of my time is spent with my two cats Pia and Keeko. 

 So how can I afford to escape? I'm 55 years old and I've tried to make my living being an artist for the last 20 years, so I have no skillset or work experience that relates to today. Since moving here I haven't been able to make enough to even acquire the supplies that I need, let alone pay bills. Do I play the lottery? Do I sell every single thing that I own? Do sell my thousands of photography prints, a thousand works on paper and about a hundred paintings for $20 each? I sometimes joke that in my old age I could see myself homeless, sitting on a blanket on some city corner selling my work for $10 a piece. That joke is beginning to look more like reality.