Ian Chinich is back in NJ, but missing Los Angeles

After being back in New Jersey for a while now, I thought it was important to give an update on what I have been up to.  My dad was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in early march and I felt that it was important to drop out of school, quit my job and move back to be with him.  I know that in a previous blog post, Ian Chinich on Social Media or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Los Angeles, I talked about all the good friends I was making and the way that the working class culture of the city was starting to warm on me.  However, readjusting to NJ has given me a similar feeling.

It wasn't easy to reconnect with people after working so much and dealing with a lot of stressful family situations, but its finally happening and I feel really happy.  Also some of the political folks from NJ/NYC  have really good heads on their shoulders and we have been meeting up and having really useful discussions on a variety of topics that I have been thinking about.

Work has been interesting.  I play soccer every day with my coworkers and its been a huge boost, both to getting back into shape, but also into the comradery at work:

Ian Chinich and Coworkers rock the soccer

Also have a lot of student loans I have to pay off, so money is shaky... but Im getting there!