Our Lady of Syntax

Today I was handed a big box full of personalized notepads, complete with my name, job title, and contact information, as well as the company logo. I am unreasonably pleased about this. It's like I really exist now, not just on the outskirts as a temp, but as a real person with my own notepads and a functioning nameplate and a cubicle I can decorate however I want. The fact that I got so many notepads--more than I can expect to go through for a long, long time--means, somehow, that I'm expected to stick around long enough to use them up. It's a good feeling.

Well, my time as a spreadsheet monkey is officially over. My last day consisted of hanging out with my replacement and answering questions when he had them (he didn't have many), talking to my mom on my cellphone from the private bathroom, visiting with my friend who runs my weekly knitting circle and is leaving to join the foreign services (her last day is tomorrow), stealing office supplies, and knitting. A LOT. Oh yeah, and my boss took me out for a fancy expense account lunch, which was nice. It's a little bizarre to me that there are people who have business lunches at places like that on a regular basis. I gacked on said friend's going away happy hour madness, mostly because she's been there for seven years and thus rates a tab, and was proud of myself for sticking out the initial OMG-I-only-know-one-person-here awkwardness and making conversation with random people until my (now former, sniffle!) boss showed up and rescued me.

So that's that. I left work a little early and immediately went to B&N, renewed my lapsed membership, and purchased a hardcover book (The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak) in celebration. I'm good at being frugal when I have to be, but I'm a big believer in the importance of doing little nice things for myself when the situation calls for it--and boy, does this one ever. I plan to spend a good part of my upcoming five-day weekend curled up in my pajamas and reading like a fiend. See also: buying pretty new office-appropriate clothes that I can't yet afford.

Have I mentioned yet how freaking excited I am about this job? I mean, not just for the salary and the benefits and all that stuff (though I'm excited as hell about that, don't get me wrong), but for the actual job itself. I am going to be copyediting children's and YA books. Someone is going to pay me a grown-up salary to do something that I would gladly do for free. I'll be working with someone who loved me so much that she went after the Powers That Be with a whip and a chair to create a position just for me. I just... don't even know how to express the awesomeness.

P.S. To those of you who were informally invited to a celebratory potluck this weekend: we're officially rescheduling for next Saturday because I'm an asshole and didn't get the invitation out in time. I'll send out an official e-mail tomorrow, I promise.