If You Were to Ask Me How Life is Right Now

I'd say something to the effect of.....it's pretty damn good.

Tonight I went to bookclub, which was kickass because people seemed to get way more drunk that usual, annnnd we had a white elephant gift exchange and clothes swap. Besides coming away from the evening with:

One frog-esque piggy bank (gift exchange)
One Zara purse
One pair of cheap pearl earrings
Two old copies of Lucky magazine
(treasures, all of them!)

...I also walked away feeling great about life, friends, and the future. My job is getting much better...it seems the growing pains are subsiding and I'm settling in well with my clients, responsibilities, and skills. And when jobs get better, life seems to get better (a sad, but accurate, correlation). I'm getting back into the habit of going to the gym, reading more, listening to music more, talking to and seeing friends more....it's just more more more of the intangible things that keep me going and allow me to put my head down and get through tougher times. I'm incredibly grateful for the friends I'm making and the ones I already have, and I'm thankful to have a family that loves and supports me, especially my mother, whom I can call crying and, 45 minutes later, hang up feeling calm again.

Sometimes I feel like what I write about here is something of a broken record...things are great, then awful, then great again. It has, admittedly, been a very difficult 6 months. The post-college transition was taxing, and being in a new city made me feel especially isolated at a time when all I wanted to do was run home for the weekend or into the arms of loving friends. Now, I am so, so excited for 2009. I have resolutions to make (yes, I'm doing them, and yes, I plan on keeping track of my progress here), and an entire year laid out in front of me where I am transition-less. How I welcome it! Ask those close to me and they will tell you that I am a planner by nature. I love thinking in the long term and dreaming up new ideas, trips, career paths, even what I want to cook. Now, I can have a year where I can plan to my heart's content, but with the comfort of knowing that, no, I don't need to act on this immediately. For the next 12 months I get to settle in, relax, and see what this whole growing up thing is about.

To bring it all full circle, I'm the baby of my book club by about 4 years. Tonight I told a few of them "If I'm anything like you guys when I'm older, I'll be more than happy," and it couldn't be more true. If growing up means turning into someone more comfortable in my own skin, more confident in my abilities, and more willing to cut through the bullshit then I'll take it. They're a lovely group of girls, and if that's what I have to look forward to, so be it.