After weeks of staring at my dwindling bank-account and doing my best to be grateful for things like the sun, gravity, and a healthy bladder, I have been presented with a sudden flurry of income producing opportunities (Halleluah!). Not that I'm no longer grateful for the sun, but it's nice to feel like a normal (i.e., gainfully employed) person again. In the past four months since I left my painfully secure (i.e., stagnating) job, I've 1) lived like a recent college grad (someone who stares into restaurants and thinks "who are those people?" 2) nearly completed my screenplay of "Stella's Search for Sanity" 3) contemplated left-overs in the refrigerator for unusually long periods of time 4) lost five pounds 5) cried like a five-year-old in front of my computer.

What I've come to realize is this: 1) living like a recent college-grad at 33 is humbling AND youthenizing (I'm making up words here...see how young I feel) 2) I don't care what anyone says, writing and working-full time DO NOT make for high-volume production 3) left-overs are scary to look at and sometimes to eat, too 4) earning good money is officially more important than lookin' sexy (if you're going to organize your life around shallow principles, you may as well be clear about your priorities...and when I say "you" I mean "I"), and 5) just because I feel like a 5-year-old sometimes doesn't mean I have to earn like one.

In the last four months I have had many wonderful people support me through some very challenging times. People who reminded me that "It will all work out because it always does" and who helped me feel much more than a job or a bank account. In a society where people are identified and labeled by what they do, I'm so grateful to have these people in my life.

Just for today, I'm grateful for the sun, the people in my life, and how far I've come.