It's been a while...

Hi everyone!

It has been ages since I have been on deviantART - nearly two years have passed since I was last active! First of all, I apologize sincerely, and I will try to catch up with messages. I have 12115 notifications right now! Read on if you want to hear my excuses...

I moved back from Taiwan in summer of 2013, and I got a job as a TA at a school! While the job itself was great, the commute was not. It was an hour, one way, with no traffic, which meant that with normal Bay Area traffic, I was spending upwards of 4 hours a day in a car. Extremely exhausting - couldn't keep my eyes open once I got home. 

Secondly, I don't know how many of you are aware of the plight of public school teachers in the US, but it is definitely expected that we take our work home with us. When I taught in Taiwan, I got two afternoons off each week to do professional development and lesson planning. I still went over the allotted time and would work late into the evening occasionally - but it still felt manageable. Here, we barely ever get any planning or prep time allotted to us. So my free time was reduced even more.

Thirdly, even as a person with a master's degree and teaching experience, I still cannot become a lead teacher in California if I do not have a credential. So, at the beginning of last school year, I moved closer to work, cutting down my commute time significantly... but then I also started attending classes again. My amount of free time went up... and then back down to zero. Perhaps even below zero. Currently I spend my evenings and weekends reading textbooks, writing lesson plans, writing essays, and studying for tests. Yay? 

Anyway, I'm done spouting excuses! DeviantArt (that's how it's spelled now, right?) has changed a LOT since I was last on here. It's almost unrecognizable to me. Thanks to my loyal followers (if I still have any) for keeping me on your watch lists. Like I said before, I'll try to catch up on my messages. Due to the "no free time" thing, I have almost no art and very little photography to share, but I have a backlog of photos from Taiwan to upload anyway, and I'll try to get around to that. No promises though.

And by the way, HOW ARE YOU DOING??? Tell me how your life has been these past two years! And share your fave personal art from those years with me! I'd love to hear from you!