It's Tuesday! I've been looking forward to it... not as much as Joe has (he just worked 7 days without a break... or is it 8? Either way, he finally has tomorrow off)... but all the same I'm really glad it's here. :) The last two days have been crazy. Sunday I tutored ALL DAY and yesterday was worse... eight hours of work, followed by a trip to the DMV, followed by three MORE hours of tutoring... I left the house at 7AM and didn't get back home till 10 at night. Whew! Now I don't have it bad, but still... eleven hours of work sucks, no matter who you are or how much you like what you're doing. (Especially when you'd like nothing better than to just drop everything and read your brand-new book! :P) So I am glad it's Tuesday. :) We BOTH have tonight off, and we're going to r-e-l-a-x. Mmmmm. I can't wait! :)

I've had a lot on my mind the past few days. First off... I got my first REAL paycheck on Friday. I make a living now. I mean, I actually make enough money to live on. I picked up my own car insurance last week, and took over ownership of the Taurus yesterday... I think that might make me completely independent now. That's kinda cool. :)

It's really cool actually. I think it's affecting my mindset on life in general now -- well that makes sense, if you think about it. Finally I've made it. I'm out on my own and completely responsible for myself. I've reached adulthood at last. It's not as scary, now that I'm here, as I thought it would be. I like it. Here I am, on the verge of the rest of my life. I used to dread it. When I first left home, right after I graduated high school, I was terrified. I didn't want to leave the nest, my family, my friends, my life, my whole childhood I guess. I liked my life just the way it was and I couldn't see how it would possibly get any better. I didn't have the first clue how to be an adult and do adult things like get my own insurance. I still don't. :P The point is that now I'm not afraid of it anymore. :) Everything's a challenge and I like the idea of conquering them. And I'm getting there (with a little help from certain people who love me, of course). :)

So with all this new responsibility and this newfound adulthood... wouldn't you think I'd be going crazy and dreaming wistfully of the days when I never had to worry about any of it? Nah. Because I have so much more FREEDOM now. The only person I have to answer to is me. :)

Besides that... the fact that I've taken resposibility for myself now is an indication that I'm ready to start thinking about what comes next. Not that I haven't been 'thinking' about it for years. :P But you know what I mean. It's HERE. I can start actually planning for it all -- marriage, children, our house, all those things that I know I want that weren't much more than faraway dreams until now.

It's cool to be here. It's cool to have things I'm actually working for, and not just sitting around and daydreaming about. It's REALLY cool to have somebody else right there working toward the same things with me. (Face it, marriage isn't really much of a goal to work for if there's only one of ya working for it, ya know? That's a two-person deal.) ;) I love my life at the moment and I love where I see it going and I love that I SEE it going... it's not just sitting still.

I wish I could express all this stuff better. :)

Last Friday Joe and I went out to visit his friends and their new baby. Aside from the fact that it was just cool to meet this guy Joe's known since they were about 5... it was also kinda an interesting new experience for me, for the simple reason that, I actually realized that people my age are mature enough to start families. :P Okay, obvious, there are people my age who've got kids in elementary school for heaven's sake. But this is different... it was like for the first time I realized my generation is moving on to a new stage in our lives. Also... obvious. *rolls eyes* Okay so there's really no way I can get this across without sounding completely stupid. At any rate, I had fun on Friday meeting Joe's friends and I think it's really cool that they have a baby, and I think it's cool that one of our other friends and his wife are expecting this fall, and I think it's cool that I get to be part of my best friend's wedding in just a couple of months. I think it's cool that people my age are something other than just "college kids" now. We are career oriented. We are husbands and wives. We are even parents. We are adults. I still sound like an idiot but I don't care. :P

One last thing about Friday before I go find some work to do: after seeing Joe with his friend's baby girl... well... I can't wait to see him with his own kids. ;) (So I hope they're my kids too!) He's going to be a great dad. (Yes babe... girls pay attention to these kinds of things... and you're a keeper. No doubt about that!) :D

Well I think that's enough cheesiness for one day! :P

*shuffles back to work*

*daydreams about the evening to come*

*daydreams about the boy with mustard on his nose who smiles up from my desk*

*daydreams about all the great stuff we have to look forward to together*

*stops writing for real before somebody reads this and pukes*