Payday

I'm always a bit amused by payday. You wake up, you see the direct deposit in your checking account, which was at $20 when you went to bed, and you feel a little tingle of excitement that you now have MONEY and you don't have to worry about the cat food or gas and maybe you even think about going out to eat with your boyfriend, but by the end of the day, you have transferred that money to all kinds of debt and all of a suddent, you are really only $20 richer then you were when you went to bed.

(PS: But tomorrow brings a paycheck from the bookstore!)

While this year has given me a million little indications that I am entering the world of "grown up-ness" (the "real" job and the house and all being a bit bigger, of course), there have been two more this holiday season: Instead of getting frivolous gifts purely for pleasure (of which I still got plenty), my two "big" presents (and years past those big presents used to be an American Girls doll or a stereo) were checks--one from my parents to pay towards radon ventilation and one from K's parents for a snowblower (which we bought today--it's BIG!). Sigh. (And sadly enough, I'm just as excited about the two as I was when I got my Molly doll.)