Y'know, I'm feeling better about the world. →[More:] I'm working again and I worked my tail off straightening out a complicated section of the store*. My arms and legs are sore since I hadn't exerted them in a long time, but it's a good kind of soreness. The job is OK, and I think my perspective on it is better than I've had on other jobs in my life in that I simply want to do my job well, stay off the radar and go home at the end of the day. Every other job I've had, I've attached unrealistic expectations to: that it's going to launch me into some brave new world, either economically, socially or whatever. On this job, if I move up, cool. If not that's cool, too. If I make a bunch of friends, cool, if not, fine, since I already have a lot and I'm too old for social scenes and office politics.

Listening to peoples' talk in New York (and everywhere else if the internet is any indication), it sometimes seems like everybody in this city is on the make, somehow, raging with ambition of some kind. For a long time I had some of that in me, but mainly because...I felt I was supposed to, if that makes any sense. But I find I'm much happier and more relaxed when I'm not.

*It was the Asian History and Eastern European History sections. I straightened out Asia and Eastern Europe. I should be a diplomat. This concludes my evening ramble.