And the Birthday Begins Early!

So I get home at a non-descript hour yesterday, like 5:30 or so. And it's been a non-descript workday, a Wednesday. I'm wearing non-descript work clothes, black pants, a black top with something colorful embroidered on it, and a blue cardigan, and no makeup or jewelry other than my glasses. I had a nondescript crappy hospital cafeteria salad and diet coke for lunch. I got home and had a nondescript frozen meal for dinner. Big deal.

At some point G comes home and hands me a typically non-descript brown box, clearly from Amazon.com. "Did you order something?" I asked him?

"It's for you," he said, grinning.

"I didn't order anything," I said. So I rip it open, and whatever is inside is shrink-wrapped to a piece of cardboard. I managed to extricate it, and now the thing is wrapped in green paper. Pretty green! With a very pretty green satin ribbon. And a piece of paper taped to it that says "Don't spoil the surprise - open your gift first!"

"OH MY GOD SOMEBODY GOT ME SOMETHING OFF MY AMAZON.COM WISHLIST!" I shreiked. I stared at it, grinning for a couple of minutes. "It's a book! I wonder which one it is!?"

"Open it." G commanded.

So it's this - I know, sounds cheesy, but I have a friend who is a life coach, and people pay her a lot of money to help them work through major life changes and transitions, and she recommended I buy this book. I figure when someone does something for a living and recommends something that someone else did, it must be pretty good. And I certainly have been going through some big life changes and transitions. Hell, I have been for almost three years now.

I jumped up and down, and proceeded to tell G exactly what I explained in the previous paragraph. "This is SO AWESOME!" I screeched.

My first birthday present of 2005! And the name on the card? This lovely man.

I immediately started leafing through the book, reading bits of it aloud to G as he munched on grilled cheese:

What, specifically, am I willing to do to make an investment in myself and my transition?

Well, I'm willing to drive to and from New Jersey four nights a week and some weekends and Friday nights for 13 months, and take out a new package of student loans. I'm willing to work whatever day jobs I can get to finance what those loans don't cover. I'm willing to pretty much give up one year of my life to this training. And I'm so excited to do it.

Exercise: Write Your Fiction

...put on your best novelist's hat. Write five different and distinct scenarios that are possible ways that you can get from where you are to where you'd like to be. Your fiction can be close to your real life, or it can be outrageous. Whatever occurs to you as a joyful way to have your possibility become a reality is fair game.

Oh yeah. I have no problem with this. Why waste time? Here's my Fiction:

I'll find a temp job that pays better than the MBIA gig did, and on top of that, I'll finally meet the right bunch of fellas and sing gigs at music clubs on Saturday nights. This will enable me to pay more of my debt off faster and get through school with a light heart. I'll get the highest marks in my classes. I'll pass my National Certification Exam AND the New York State Licensing Exam with the highest scores on the first try. I'll be hired by stressed-out executives in Westchester county, and make obscene amounts of money. I'll eventually join a clinic and specialize in pregnancy massage, which will pay less, but will be twice as rewarding.

I'll buy a small house on the Metro-North line, move my grandpa's piano, the rest of my furniture, Marge and G into it, and live happily ever after.

This feels like the Mondo Beyondo list that I created last year. Funny, Brian was responsible for that too.

Thanks, Brian, for making a nondescript Wednesday very special, and very inspirational.