Happy Monday guys!

I am kind of realizing that I picked the absolute worst possible year to focus my blog posts on material things. I’m more broke this year than the first year I bought my condo (six years ago for the record, and I was making 35% less that year than I am now, but my parents were chipping in a hefty chunk of change, and I have stopped asking them for money in all but the most dire circumstances – and all my expenses seem to have gone WAY up), and I’m still catching up on the last two years of the economy screwing me over and all that ($5k in credit card debt I’m trying to pay down), AND all my friends are getting married and there are a fair amount of expenses that go along with weddings. Money has always stressed me out and I’ve always been very sensitive about my financial position in comparison to my peers. I feel like I don’t get to go on as many trips, go out to nice restaurants, have nice clothes like everyone else does.

BUT!!

I am really just a big whiny crying baby because the reality is: I do go on trips. I do go to nice restaurants. I do have nice clothes. Not as many or as often as I might like to, but more than a lot of people. And most of all, I have a roof over my head and food in my belly and places to go and ways to get there and friends to see and people I love who love me back. And this last thing is the most important to me. I’ve been saying it a lot recently, and may sound like a broken record, but I don’t care. I am happier now than I ever remember being, despite frustrations and setbacks and daily annoyances. I appreciate everything and everyone I have and when I get grumpy or frustrated I try to remember to actively enjoy the good stuff. I feel like culturally (or maybe it’s a human problem across the board) we are geared towards discounting happy feelings that last too long – like it’s something that is temporary rather than a way of life. I’m trying to shake the feeling that I should steel myself for the imminent depression, because that’s not how it should be. Maybe I’ll be this happy – or happier – for the rest of my life! I hope so, anyway.

Here are a tiny fraction of the good folks who have been there with me through thick and thin, and this is my opposite-of-materialistic monday luxury: friends.

Xes and Os,

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