gratitude day 9: work

“the privilege to work is a gift.
the power to work is a blessing.
love of work is success.”
-david o. mckay

i love my jobs. yes, that's plural.

the tax job:

i don't know if it's all the power-of-positive-thinking books i've been reading or what, but this tax season i can't stop thinking about how much i love my job preparing taxes.

i like the smell of the paper, i like looking at all the patterns on the security envelopes [just look at the above image. so fascinating]. i like that it's in my neighborhood, my schedule is flexible, there's someone there to watch lucas. easy money, friends! and the things i learn.

speaking of easy money: did you know you really can sell your eggs? i learned this after preparing the taxes of someone who did it. the price for a good egg starts at $5,000 and goes up from there. if only i'd known two years earlier. all my unused eggs could have brought in top dollar, since i have a college education, a healthy bmi, and a high i.q. only, apparently they don't want my dying and mutating 34 year-old eggs. i'm trying not to be offended.

the writing job:

writing lights my brain on fire, energizes me, fills me in a way nothing else does. and i am in such good company. i love my circle of writers, the way it is ever expanding, ever enriching. all my favorite people i have met through books or writing. i have FINALLY finished my first draft of my first novel. [thank you, thank you so much for bringing me balloons and cookies. i totally deserve it.] it is a pile of crappy words right now, but i'm counting on a few poor souls to be my first readers to help me slog through the mush and make it readable for the rest of you.

the design job:

because people say things like this about you [scroll down], and they pay you for it too. there is power in being able to create lovely things.

the piano teaching job:

i taught my last lesson yesterday. our spring recital's tomorrow. i am expecting at least a few major disasters. i will miss all the book reviews, justin bieber adulations, family secrets, junior high episodes and such that i have been privy to over the years. my kids will enjoy having me as a chauffeur in the afternoons now.