>> He's got a job that suits his talents, and he's doing WELL at it. <<

In fact, he's able to fill multiple positions already: waiter, busboy, substitute bouncer, kitchen assistant, special needs consultant (in the jazz joint) and muscle (in the gang). Meanwhile Boss White has assigned him extra training, some of which Shiv like and some of which he hates, with an eye toward promoting him. That's based not just on Boss White seeing that potential in him early on, but how much Shiv had grown in the few months of prison when he came back.

>> He's not running out of money halfway through a month, and paying his bills. <<

Shiv still thinks of himself as poor, because he never had much growing up, but he's doing a lot better than he realizes.

>> He's keeping TWO apartments clean enough for sudden guests (or even cleaner, when he's worried), <<

He uses the public housing apartment so rarely that it's easier to keep clean, and it's tiny anyhow. The one above Blues Moon is bigger, more lived in, and takes some actual work.

>> taking care of his own physical needs,<<

Learning to, at least. Better than he was before for sure.

>> AND finding new outlets for his creative needs, his sexual needs, and more. <<

Creative needs, yes. What Shiv does with Gray is sensual rather than sexual. Fortunately, Shiv's dick only bothers him once in a while -- he's had sex on purpose, but he doesn't seem to enjoy it the way most people do. Shiv enjoys powergasms the way typical guys enjoy orgasm. They're similar but not identical, and he only likes one of them.

>> Look at where he was before the fight that landed him in prison, and the differences are astronomical. Look at the EMOTIONAL changes in him in the last year or year and a half and it's even MORE dramatic. <<

So very true. \o/