you get what you put out there

I had such a lovely birthday. I woke up and went through the day showered with love from family, friends and coworkers and got so many warm wishes from you guys, too. And I got badass stuff in the mail! Oh, how I love getting nonbills/nonjunk in the mail! Especially with exotic postmarks like The Netherlands and California and The City of Chicago! H sent me way too much stuff, including one item he put together himself that probably took a very long time, which I adore. During the day my colleagues took me to Hop Haus, and though I was tempted to try kangaroo or ostrich meat, I went for the excellent beef Bistro cheeseburger and was not disappointed. After work, my godmother brought over the most impressive jasmine tree (yeah, it's that sturdy-looking) with fist-sized fragrant blooms, and my mom got me an ice cream cake just like she has every year since I was three. Yum!

However, all day I had this nagging feeling of guilt ab0ut yesterday's post. I was convinced that unveiling myself as a terrible horrible person to the world like that surely would garner some sort of karmic retribution. But those words came out my fingers to live forever on the Internet, and there's nothing I can do about it now.

Sure enough, it came. Swiftly, semi-unexpectedly and deadly-ly. We got back from that great lunch and had a meeting with the mother office to learn that our entire office is getting laid off, two months (and one day) since I started. Happy Birthday from The Man!

You know how us pessimists like to say they always think negatively because then even if things don't turn out well they can take comfort in knowing they were right? Yeah, I worried that something bad would happen, but I didn't reeeeeeally think it would. Contrary to popular belief, the validation was not all that comforting.