If you'll allow me a few minutes to brush away the cobwebs from years of being gone, I'd like to say hello. It wasn't until I started going through my old posts on here (my very first blog, aww) that I realized how much I actually kinda miss this place. It got me through the roughest, most uncertain patch in my life, and having my little community around me is what got me through.

I owe you a proper update, I'm sure. I've been writing over on Blogger since 2008 with a side blog over on Wordpress since... last year? I can't remember. I've become a working drone, having sold my soul to Corporate America for a paycheck. Not nearly as big a paycheck as I'm worth, but that's probably par for the course. I'm not a graphic designer - I'm not sure how many of you could have seen that one coming? I ended up working at Target for almost a year after graduation - no, not the awesome corporate Target, but, like, a store near my apartment. Something to pay the bills. I ended up gaining employment as a project manager for a creative services agency here in central Iowa (as much as I talked about leaving... couldn't do it. This damn town got a hold of my heart and here I shall stay, for now at least.) If I'd have known that being an anal-retentive control-freak was a marketable skill, I might have gone down a different path to begin with. I still do occasional freelance jobs, mostly tshirts and random things... I miss it, though. I've been gone too long to consider going back (I still have CS2 on my computer, for Christ's sake. I think they're on 5 now?!). I forgot how to use InDesign (mostly). My Illustrator skills are as awesome as ever, though, so there's that.

Photography-wise... I still take pictures with the intent for them to be art. To post them here. Even though I haven't done that in years. Maybe I'll come back. Maybe I'll get a website. I doubt it will ever be a profitable endeavor for me. I still love it, though.

Writing has been my true love this whole time. I'm getting closer to shaping something into something worth submitting, though it terrifies the everliving shit out of me. I've been reading a lot more, and the whole time is a nagging feeling, why can't this be me?. Because I have a short attention span, is why. I'm still too busy. I still run a hundred miles until I crash. I still overcommit and can't say no. Someday, though.

I've embraced the social media revolution... before it was even called that. I was an early adopter on facebook; I lived and breathed Twitter for a long time (follow me - @kelalea!) I tinker with the others as they come out. I have a space on Google+ but I can't get in yet because they're all full up. I got really into the blogging community - I even got on a plane to spend four days in Las Vegas with 55 strangers this past spring. It was the best weekend of my life. Not even kidding.

Beyond that... I'm just as restless as I've always been. I'm afraid of settling, but I don't know what I want. I'm afraid of suffocating my creative spirit, but I don't do anything to fan the flame, either. I feel like I'm on the edge and afraid to jump, but I don't have a parachute. I think this is what they call being in your mid-to-late 20's.

Anyway. If any of you that I used to talk to are still around, come say hi! I can't promise how much I'll be here, but dammit, dA, I can't quit you.