I love my new friends and I have the sense that I live in the best city on earth and that for once I am exactly where I should be. This is strange because I'm not used to contentment. Ever since I can remember, I've always aspired to be somewhere else, somewhere better, never tiring in my search... And well, I think I've finally found that place. The ideal place for me, where I can be myself and blossom, and be surrounded by wonderful amazing friends who know exactly how I feel because they are here for the very same reasons.
Oddly, it's been easy for me to make new friends. The new little circle I've been inducted into is just as quirky and opinionated as I am, and they're all artists! Joy!!! No longer am I the odd one surrounded by people who still think that "real art" disappeared after the Impressionists.
Amongst my new friends there is excited talk of collaboration, and of course that's what I've been waiting all of my life for. It's amazing the way ideas multiply and grow when you have a group of people who are as enthusiastic as you. The funniest thing about it is that we are all ex-pat country folk, so we all appreciate this sense of an art community that we never enjoyed in the wide open isolating spaces from which we fled. We are unified in our humble beginnings and it is our outrageousness and liberal beliefs that made fleeing a necessity.
Of course, with all these exciting new contacts I haven't forgotten my old friends. The republican ones who either have babies or dream of them. The ones who talk endlessly of the grand wedding they'll have or the grand wedding they already had. Sure, they don't go to museums and they think I'm from another planet, but they've always loved me regardless of our differences, and nothing could make me dislike them. Because even though we vote differently and desire very different things out of life, I know that they're proud of me for following my heart, and I'm proud of them for always being reliably true to themselves, and being supportive of me, even when their traditional mindsets made them think I was a little off. But I'm sane enough to know that I have good friends worth keeping. I love all of them and I always will.
12:40 p.m. - 2006-07-10