I just got back from seeing Shrek the Third, which I thoroughly enjoyed (and highly recommend). So now it is late night...I should be going to bed now since tomorrow I am making a trek to the 'Rents' house for the weekend.

Did I mention I really enjoy the work I'm doing now? The only thing I've noticed is that working as a freelancer tends to be a bit lonely and VERY sedentary. If people are slow to respond to you, if you worked on-site, you could go over to them and say, "SUP yo?????" The effect isn't quite the same via email or phone...I find myself being a bit more guardedly professional now, since I don't know most of my colleagues very well. I think they're still not quite sure what to think of me, so gotta can the racy, humorous side of me until they do. :p

I also have to make the effort to get my fat arse out of the chair and work out every couple of days (gotta love Denise Austen), but that's a good thing overall, I think.

Anyways! One of my favorite authors, Lisa Kleypas recently posted a blog entry about missing her high school reunion, her plans on what she would be at age 17 and beyond, her life now and how she feels about it. Does anyone else besides me think about that too?

At seventeen, I knew I would end up living in my beloved Massachusetts, with a short dark-haired husband (my preferred type) and I would have an active social life. I would go to New York all the time, and be sophisticated and cosmopolitan. My closet would be full of little black dresses. And I hoped that someday I might have a book published.

But life takes us places, gives us experiences, throws us surprises, and no one ever ends up being exactly what they thought they would be. I am living in a small town in Texas with a tall blond husband and two amazing children, and I am a dedicated hermit. I have the most wonderful circle of friends with whom I communicate via the phone and the internet. (At seventeen, I wouldn’t have understood the concept of the internet at all.) And I’ve had many books published. I am happy. Even better, I am content.

I’m not sure if my seventeen year-old self would have entirely liked this vision. There are so many interests I’ve left behind, because you can’t have it all. I only have one little black dress, and I can’t wear it unless I put on a pair of Spanx power panties. And high heels hurt my feet. But I think I’m a more interesting person than high-school-Lisa could have envisioned. I think her expectations, even her dreams, were limited. I’m so glad it all didn’t happen the way she wanted or expected.

At 17, I thought I'd become a missionary to some third world country! Hah! Pretty funny eh since I'm so not that now. Then when I graduated from college in 1994, I was on fire, eager to save the world, having just spent a semester in Washington DC doing an internship at USAID. You remember 1994? I loved Bill Clinton (in a non-Monica Lewinsky way) and I loved DC and I was eager to dive into politics and accomplish something noble and West Wing-esque.

Eons later, I'm 35 and have 2 kids, and the Hubby and living on the opposite coast of where I thought I'd be, California. But thanks to the power of the Internet and cell phones, I can work a few thousand miles away from where my work is located as a writer (technical, but still a writer!) And like Lisa, some of my closest friends are via the Internet.

She concludes with this:

So this is the gift of getting older—we have allowed ourselves the freedom to become something more, something better, something different.

How very true that is.