Last night I went out to dinner at Kaya's Kitchen (a great vegan/vegetarian place that recently moved to Belmar) with some friends from work.

Two things I should fill you in on before I continue: 1. I do have a job; and 2. It's at a health food store (Dean's Natural Food Market) in my hometown. So you've got the picture -- a group of people gathered around an assortment of meat imitations.

I arrived 25 minutes late (typical of me) and wasn't even the last one there... it was going to be a great night.

We all got together to celebrate Jordan, one of my coworkers, and his venture out west to Portland, Oregon. The news was a big deal to me, not only because Jordan is my friend, but 'cause I have been fixated on the idea of moving to Oregon since my sophomore year in college when I became friends with an Oregonian. And another thing you should know is that I spend a fair amount of my spare time researching the city of Portland--all its different neighborhoods and features--especially when I am having a tough time at home, feeling like I'm in a rut. 

 Needless to say, I took Jordan's news as a sign, and I was very excited to hear all about his impending trip.

When we sat down to talk, he told me that he decided to move to Portland just two months ago, and that he is going to stay in a live-work space for artists. That was my second sign.

About a year and a half ago (maaan, time flies!), I reluctantly came back home to New Jersey after studying abroad for 5 months. A year ago, my friend Elana and I started talking about our shared need to go back, and decided to teach English in Thailand. There is a lot more to that story, and I will go there another day; for now, it is important only because it was the first time that I heard about artist live-work spaces.

Elana found that there was an Artists' Commune located near the city we were looking to live in Thailand and thought it might be something I would be interested in. Now, literally a year later, serving vegetable juices and other organic goodness to the masses of Monmouth County, I have rekindled that idea, realizing I need a way out of here; I need to see the world, and an average desk job isn't going to give that to me.

So I started researching.

I found the Alliance of Artists Communities at http://www.artistcommunities.org/about-aac and read through 35 pages of places I could go to live and work on my writing across the country, and throughout the world. What I found was incredible. There are places where you can stay for one weekend or for three years. You can pay to go wherever you would like, or you can apply to a program that works like a fellowship and stay for free. You can go to the center of NYC and LA, or you can go to the middle of the dessert in a National Park, or in a secluded cabin in the woods or a house on the ocean. Before I knew it, I had spent 11 hours straight in front of my computer googling residencies and cities.

My first list of choices was 3-pages long in my Moleskine, chosen strictly on places I wanted to go. My second list was of 13 places in the U.S. (I decided I should live somewhere else in this country before I go live somewhere else abroad again) that I could go for free or for an affordable cost. My final list was three.

I narrowed it down to three places that offer either fellowships or a work-exchange, whose length is a couple of months to start, and offer enough social interaction for me not to go crazy but enough seclusion to focus on my work. All three are also places that give great support to their writers and, while they welcome emerging writers and artists, they are profession-oriented; meaning, they have professionals come work with you and/or have many connections and success stories coming out of their programs.

The final three are: The Norman Mailer Center (Provincetown, MA), Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown, MA), and Sitka Center for Art and Ecology (Otis, OR).

I have spent the last few weeks working on my applications--applying to these programs is like applying to college all over again--and am just about done.  Along the way, I had a lot of trouble downloading the Norman Mailer Center's application, and found through contact with their staff that it was no longer an affordable option for me. So, I am down to the latter two, and I am very optimistic and excited. I am still looking into finding a third place, but am just about set with all my info for the FAWC and Sitka. I recently attended the Dodge Poetry Festival in Newark, NJ with my best friend, Nicole, and we heard an outstanding black poet who teaches at a small college in Staten Island, and who, I noticed in his bio, attended the Fine Arts Work Center. Another sign?

I hope so. I really hope this is just what I need. And in the meantime, I bid my talented friend Jordan the best of luck in this very exciting next step in his life as an artist and a person. I cannot wait to see how he is doing and what he is creating out there. And, luckily for me, I have someone to stay with and show me the ropes when I head out west too... hopefully soon.