Funded!

Money. It's been the biggest obstacle barring me from my end-of-the-year round-the-world voyage. Well, obstacle, consider yourself overcome!

I spent the last week in marathon job interviews and phone calls, and I've now landed a big-boy job with a real live salary, an office, and benefits. No more invoices! No more waiting on the mail for my paycheck! No more calculating my own taxes! No more working next to the snoring guy in the library! I might even go to the dentist! And I'm starting on Monday!

But here's the real kicker - I still get to take the trip. At the end of an über-intimidating, ten person, group interview, my supervisor-to-be asked what the deal was with the three month "vacation" I was taking. I gave it a quick sum-uppance. To which he shrugged his shoulders and simply said, "Okay."

The sweetest two syllables ever to come out of anyone's mouth.

So they're going to let me work while I travel - bonkers, right? I am blessed. Blessed blessed blessed.

Note: I don't want to gloat. I'm privileged. Note my white American maleness. And I now have an obligation to make some contribution to the world that put me into this position. But sometimes, I do have to lean back in my office chair and acknowledge that it is, in fact, good to be me.