Thanksgiving

It took most of last week for me to fully recover from the play I had been in. I was just a member of the ensemble, one of almost fifty onstage, but it was exhausting. Not so much the work--our dancing and singing probably only amounted to fifteen or twenty minutes of each show---but the excitement of undertaking such a large project with so many people and the inevitable celebration after every show took a lot out of me! I wanted to grab every moment of fun that I could, and I'm glad I did; but I'd pace myself more if it had involved more than one weekend.

I'm lucky. I was able to adjust my work schedule last week around the occasional nap, or start later and work later as it suited me.

I watched House last night. It was about a genius who intentionally drugged himself to make himself stupider, so he wouldn't have the pressures of being an overachieving writer and thinker. He says at one point, "I'd rather be happy than rich." I could identify with that. While I wouldn't mind being wealthy, the reduction in stress since I moved from being a kitchen designer to being a cartoonist is huge. I was taking anti-stress medication and Prilosec for indigestion every morning at the end of my designer days; a month later I was off both. The ultimate outcome of QlownTown will, I believe, be a very comfortable income--it's growing already--but I've already received the biggest payoff: I'm happy. I don't know how many times I've received an email or had someone tell me face-to-face that the first thing they do in the morning is check their email-box for the daily cartoon. The idea that I'm directly responsible for starting someone's day off right is exciting. I don't feel pressured by this, but I do feel honored. Of course, if I had a dollar for every time someone felt a lift from reading my cartoon...

So, two days before Thanksgiving, as I struggle to get the calendar all assembled for the printer (several months behind schedule, I know!), I'm thankful for being able to do this. I have a wife who works in partnership with me as I build this dream. I have friends, family and readers who encourage me. And I have a bunch of qlowns who make me laugh every day, even if I have to draw them before they can do that for me.