Toasting The New Year

I don't normally spend a lot of time discussing my dislike for my job.  It's not the sort of thing a perky, happy gal such as myself dwells upon.  It also often leads to genuinely helpful people suggesting things that I might do to resolve the situation, all of which are kind of obvious and most of which I have tried to no avail.

No, it is not in keeping with my happy, perky reputation to snap at genuinely helpful people.  Saying things like, "Gosh, I never thought of that!  Wherever would I be without your insight into this matter?  Why, I could've solved this problem years ago had I simply thought to ask for your sage words of wisdom!" is enough to get you kicked out of the Happy Perky Club.

And they have a heck of a convention for members in good standing so I just avoid the topic whenever I can.   And, all kidding aside, people really are just trying to be helpful.  I know that and don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

Hence, I have accepted the fact that for now (and the foreseeable future) I will get up every morning and drive to a job that I spent a lot of grad school time and money to not have to do anymore.  There are a couple of ways a person might handle this situation.  The first involves raising one's fists to the heavens and ranting loudly at an unjust universe.

Now, I like a good rant as much as the next person.  In fact, I think I've raised the whole thing to a genuine art form.  But a true rant is actually kind of hard to maintain for any real length of time.  Furthermore, no one wants to sit next to you at the movies because ranting is noisy and all that shaking of fists causes the popcorn to fly everywhere.

I prefer the second path, the one where I remember that life is short and how important it is to find the happy.  It is up to me to figure out how to get some joy out of my daily life.  Rants may sneak in every now and again, but they don't have to define me.  I look for what works in my current job and celebrate that.

And if that doesn't keep me in the Happy Perky Club, I don't know what will.

That said,  I reserve the right to not like the Back To School advertising which marks the end of summer vacation.  In fact, I mourn just a little bit when I see those ads.  It takes a while for the Happy/Perky to kick in, I guess.

This year, however, might just represent a marked departure from the norm.  Yes, I avoided the Back To School sales just like I do every year.  But I am a bargain shopper and I could hardly avoid the 50% Off School Stuff No One Got Around To Buying table at the grocery store on Saturday.  As the owner of a rapidly dying toaster oven, I was even less able to ignore the sight of box containing that exact same appliance huddled on the back of the shelf.  Frankly, I think it is my right to not suffer with half-browned English muffins each morning as I start my teaching day.  I deserve a well-toasted breakfast, by God!!!

I am not even going to question why my local grocery store had a lone toaster oven.  They don't normally carry that sort of thing.  I don't know why they suddenly decided to adopt a single appliance or what prompted the college student for whom it was surely meant to cast it aside.  I only know this:  It was there, it was half price and it was going in my cart.

Maybe it is sad to not be living the happy-go-lucky dorm life, but it will get over it.  Life with Sheepie can be fun, too.

Yup.  It's Back To School Time and I didn't even have to work all that hard to find the Happy/Perky.  Who knows, next year I might even run across something even better in the half-priced pile!  It could be the trend that sees me through to retirement...

SA