A Job

This morning I woke up at about 5:50 AM, as I usually do, spent some time coughing up some nastiness as I've come down with a cold, made coffee, showered, and set about taking care of the other mundane tasks of morning.

Oh, and I got dressed in some finery, because I finally have a job in my area of study and interest. And the workplace is in the Loop. And I have benefits, including health insurance (which I've paid for out-of-pocket for months now). I'm working at a small not-for-profit developing media communications and content for a new website. Just enough programming/webwork that I can handle, and plenty of writing, analysis and research to keep me happy and comfortable. I'm excited and finally feel a sense of relief. I've spent the past year working temp jobs, living off of savings, and as of late, loan money. I'm already in debt a fair amount because of school - and I'm glad that I won't have to go further in debt because of a butter-soft job market for journalism/media specialists.

I spent most of the day reading over policy papers, taking care of administrative tasks, setting up my officespace, and going to Maggiano's for the annual holiday luncheon. Yes, I was rewarded with 2.75 hours of work with a family-style Italian meal and a couple glasses of wine.

Tomorrow, I have the feeling that wine will not be the beverage of choice with lunch. A shame, because I am quite a fan of a drink with my mid-day meal: the Europeans do it, why not us? A long time ago, I worked for a lawyer in a small office. Often, all us in the office would go to lunch – a three hour lunch – and would come back adequately toasted, so much that the rest of the day's work was worthless. Those days were rare, but they were still fun, nonetheless.