Merry Christmas, Here's a Job!

Ahh... Smell that? That is the smell of success. It smells vaguely like garlic salt.

After months of enduring unemployment, borderline-poverty, illness, and the eventual Great Sadness of the Decade, we've finally caught a break: J has a new job.

If we were both women / possibly sisters and had a trampoline, we'd be doing this.

Does this make everything all better? Hardly. But it's a start. A HELLUVA start. A new start, hopefully, that will no longer entail the possibility of having to put all of our crap in storage and move in (e.g. crash on the sofa) with my mom and her terrier in a 1bd apartment-turned-condo some 35 miles away from our current location. Cause, y'know, that would've gone splendidly.

Above all else, I'm grateful for J. He's being rewarded for his patience, perseverance, ability to handle inordinate stress and pressure, and intelligence. I couldn't be more proud of / happy for him.

This cat is also quite happy and proud. Rainbow pride!

Now that I've gotten the 'pride' emotion out of my system, let's delve into the next one in line, shall we? I call it 'grelief.' A mixture of the words 'greed,' and 'relief,' it's designed to encompass the messy emotions associated with being able to resume a certain lifestyle.
.......(i.e.).......

'I can get my HAIR DONE and go to TARGET and we can MOVE! and EAT OUT and I CAN GO TO TARGET, and we can send Maggie to the GROOMER and I can get my CAR FIXED, and ICANGOTOTARGET!!!!'

Ohh, Confessions of a Shopaholic. The Sophie Kinsella book series is so superior to the movie. Sorry, Isla Fisher.

I realize that I'm jumping off the deep end here and making it seem like we'll now be rich and famous and go swimming in all of our Target purchases. Or if not, that we'll at least be firmly back in the middle class. To insinuate as much would be incorrect; we're definitely still flying by the seat of our pants (in coach), and we won't be buying anything extravagant in the near future -- Christmas is still very much canceled (and we won't be flying back East). But hey, I'm just happy that I can pay my monthly medical premium now... Ten days late. Oh well. Suck it, Health Net*.

*Who just raised my rates. Again.

The Knot that binds. Or makes you crazy.

Let it be said: The Knot makes me crazy.

Flowers! Cake! Photographer! Chocolate-Hazelnut-Biscotti-Vanilla Ice Sculpture! Of a swan!

Honestly, where do people get the money for a wedding? Does every bride's family have $40,000 to throw away on prosciutto-wrapped asparagus appetizers and a harpist? If so, they should be shot. Or at the very least, chastised for not giving that money to charity or using it constructively somehow.

When did weddings become less about the joining of two lives into one and more about how many acrobats one would need to aptly make the shape of the bride and groom's monogrammed initials?

I suppose it doesn't help that I live in Los Angeles, where the "average" wedding entails a couture gown and an ocean view. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I'm slightly jealous. Ok, more than slightly. I have an appreciation for the finer things in life; I know my 2-ply cashmere from my single ply, what order to use my silverware in, the virtues of used-brick and ivy, and that a trip to the Kentucky Derby requires a big, expensive, well-made hat.

Alas, the silver spoon in my mouth is actually made of stainless steel. And we got it at Pic-and-Save -- oh wait, Big Lots. Aaah, to grow up in Van Nuys. As such, I have to come to terms with the fact that if I am to have a wedding at all, it will have to be of the K-Mart variety.

Ahh, but wait! What about parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and other generous contributors? Well, here's how our familial wealth (or lack thereof) breaks down:

• Mom = makes $12,000 a year in alimony. Uses credit cards to support herself.
• Dad = makes a lot more, but is a douchebag who loves money more than anything.
• Grandparents = people whom I have no real relationship with, on either side.
• Aunts/Uncles = I only have two uncles, and I never see either of them.

And my future husband's family?

• His mom = is living happily and simply on a little animal farm.
• His dad = thrice divorced, took in his own father after his wife passed away last year.
• His grandparents = retired, living simply month-to-month.
  
• His extended family = live scattered around the country.
  

As for me... I'm graduating from University in the fall after 7 long years of simultaneously working and going to school full-time. In the meantime, I work for $12 an hour at a physically and emotionally demanding job that has nothing to do with my career path, which will hopefully be radio/TV related. I owe $5,000 on credit cards and am eligible for food stamps.

As for him... He pays most of the household bills because I'm not in a position to. As such, even though he has a great job as a television producer, he's kind of sucked dry. To boot, we have two lovely but pain-in-the-ass dogs who cost us an arm and a leg in ongoing vet bills. (If they're not pooping in the house and requiring an antibiotic, they're going crazy with separation anxiety and biting each other in the face. But anyway...)

We have no money. I have no time to be a DIY'r, and we're attending our friends' beach side violin-infused ceremonies at a rate of three times a year.

I think I may be going mad.