Tunnel vision

Up and down, up and down. Busy with work and yoga and friends. Avoiding the holidays as much as possible. Thankfully, my family resolved to only do one gift per person, which made my shopping a lot less stressful, but I have a list of people whom I owe gifts, and I'm enjoying the fact that I can afford to be generous. My friends have buoyed me through the past 6 months, and it feels good to give back.

I found an apartment and I move in right after Christmas! When I went back to look at the studio near Porter, one of the residents was sitting outside on the stoop, and she asked me if I was looking for roommates. Figuring why not, I said sure, and she took me inside and introduced me to two women in a lovely 2-bedroom on the second floor. They're both grad students in occupational therapy at Tufts, and one of them is graduating and moving down to New Jersey. The space is really lovely--hardwood floors, big windows, large sills for Scully to sit on and look longingly at squirrels. So it's a done deal--I guess the universe didn't want me in a studio all alone. The girl I'll be living with is very cool, definitely the most normal person I've met in the apartment search. I don't even care if we end up being good friends because I'm happy with the fact that I think we'll live together well. That's all I can ask for.

Work is great. The people are incredibly nice, and I am enjoying the actual work that I do. When I took the job, I felt sort of like a traitor to journalism. Writers who take corporate jobs are seen as sell-outs, and I don't feel like I sold out. I interviewed for 13 journalism jobs before I took this one, and none of them felt right. I enjoy the lack of deadlines, the support of the staff, the fact that I can finally put my business and technology experience to work in a real way. It's great to stretch my wings outside the confines of the inverted pyramid or the carefully crafted feature story. And for the first time, I feel like I'm helping people in an everyday way. My gut tells me that I'm doing exactly the right thing at the right time, and considering how rarely that feeling comes along, I'm going with it.