Yesterday, all at once...

I accepted a new in-house publishing position after I negotiated a fairer in-house rate. On my way home, I stopped at an auto parts store (car issues, but what's new). I was able to narrow down the elusive part name I need to replace; it's called a flange. Why do I keep thinking it sounds like something you'd buy at a slap-and-tickle store? My slight present hangover causes me to digress - starting next week I'll be gainfully employed! Jeez, I've been unemployed for what, ten months? If it wasn't for Brian, I'd probably be lamenting my sorry existence back in NYC, under my mom's roof right now. Shudder...

So, I get home and find it empty, but Brian and Jeff's things are laying about. Jeff came over to hang out, post-beach. I was a bit sad at not being able to impart the news immediately for all of one nanosecond, when I heard them come in. A shot of rum toast later we were celebrating!

Can you believe they actually combined efforts to go to to the supermarket, and pick up dinner stuff for me? I'm not talking "here's a bag of chips" either. They bought me a salmon steak, brown rice, bacon, and vanilla ice cream. While they prepared my meal in secret (I wasn't allowed in the kitchen) the drinks kept coming.

I can't not mention the card they bought me either, congratulating me on having successfully negotiated my way into a good job with more pay. Moments like this is why I believe happiness is a transitory state (and yes, a state of mind). But wow, talk about a perfect perfect afternoon/evening! It was a beautiful night, too.

Let me interject that my feet are firmly planted on the ground. I know shit can go wrong. Believe me, I've been on the receiving end of that before, big time. But for now? I'm just...happy.

Thanks guys for one of the best, most phenomenal dinners of my life. Fellow foodies know we put a historical time stamp on extraspecialdelish meals. Last night was one of my top three, because my senses, state of mind and palate were fully engaged. Did I mention that for dessert, they made me a maple syrup bacon sundae?

On my first day of high school, sophomore year...

My mother and I were standing in some bureaucratic line with all the other students and their parents, waiting to fill out some paperwork. The first high school I attended was small, private and in upstate New York.

Of course I was terrified. Who'd say hi to me, who'd be new? Would my old friends come back this year? Would they still be my friends? There was a really pretty girl in line in front of me, a fellow classmate. I looked on silently at the back of her perfectly feathered brown hair (it was the 80's) and stood fidgeting next to my mother. How I prayed the lime-green wall I was leaning against would open up and transport me to a less anxiety-ridden dimension...

A super cute boy (who'd started the year before, I think) walked right past me and up to the pretty brunette with the perfect hair and said hello to her. She shrugged daintily, and pretended to be annoyed at him. When he tried to grab her hand, my fleeting crush on him died. This public announcement of affection informed all our curious teenaged eyes they were a couple.

"But, come on," he insisted, "I was busy before with my family, but I'm saying hi now."
"No, I won't hold your hand," she said playfully, "your hand is too big."
"No it isn't, hold yours up to mine and you'll see they match," he said. When she relented his face broke into a big, goofy grin.

My mother was watching all of this with interest and chuckling. The pretty brunette pulled her hand away from the boy's and told him  "no, it's too late, you'll never get to hold my hand ever again." The boy walked away smiling.

My mother then turned to me with a big, amused smile on her face and said, "children are so fucking stupid."