Today was a big day for me.
To the casual observer, it looked a lot like many other days, but I celebrated Something Major:
I got paid today.
I have a new paying job (well, two actually, but the other one hasn’t technically started yet). This is pretty big news, since I haven’t worked in The Real World since way back in the twentieth century. When they used fax machines with waxy paper. And…typewriters.
I gotta tell you, it really felt good to get paid for my work in Actual Legal Tender. So, like any warm-blooded Capitalistic American Girl would, I celebrated a bit today. Rodalena style:
I went on a lunch date.
“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” -Thich Nhat Hanh
I did a little shopping with some new friends:
“A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.” -Leo Tolstoy
“He said that we belonged together because he was born with a flower and I was born with a butterfly and that flowers and butterflies need each other for survival.” -Gemma Mailey, The Declaration
I bought myself a couple of presents.
“I must have flowers, always, and always.” -
Claude Monet
I started a new book.
“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” -Mark Twain
And I was taken aback by the color purple.
“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it. People think pleasing God is all God cares about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.” -Alice Walker, The Color Purple
And, in mid-post, I got invited to dinner by two wonderful friends.
All in all, it’s been a pretty, good day.