Pay Day!!!

They pay me for this!! Seriously!

We finally got our first paychecks today. Which means that I can finally pay for the things I've been buying.

And now that I actually know how much I actually get to take home from my salary, I can actually set up a budget. And I discovered that I can actually afford to go to a movie - or even buy a whole can of soup! - withouth experiencing paroxysms of guilt or breaking out in hives. (Shopping hasn't been too pretty these past few weeks)

Ooh, except that I didn't figure in gasoline yet. Scratch that whole can of soup thing.

Today, at work (for which I get paid), I went to the audiology clinic - that's where they test hearing in kids. They've got these scary automaton bears that bang drums and blow whistles. Kind of like hairy, incredibly scary Small World characters. That's supposed to be the 'reward' when kids look in the right direction when they hear a sound.

Hmmm.

And to once more completely change the topic:

Back in about... junior high I decided that I was so far from being cool that I'd just embrace my dorkiness and go with it. For a few years, I was so far from cool that I purposely went anti-cool -- I wouldn't carry the Espirit bag that everyone else had in sixth grade, I didn't like the guy that everyone liked in seventh grade, and well... I never really had a 'fashion sense.' It was an attitude that served me well.

As a matter of fact, it is an attitude that I still heartily embrace. Minus the purposeful anti-cool part. If I happen to stumble into a 'cool' outfit, I'll continue to wear it now.

But it was this attitude of embracing my inner dork taht led me to spending the weekend attending "Lambtown" (a small-town California celebration of... lambs) and going to see a live stage version of "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers."

What I love is that, where ever I go, I manage to find other people who are totally in tune with their own inner dorks.

And now? I'm a paid dork.