Pay Day! YAY!

It's only been two years since I experienced the thrill of direct deposit paydays, but how soon I've forgotton. At my new job we are paid every other Wednesday. NICE! It feels official now and it's starting to set in that I am on a new career track. I have been listening to the classical radio station in my office (I also leave it on at home for the puggies while I am at work, so in some weird way, I am "with them from work" by listening to the same music). Sometimes an operatic piece will come on (more often than not an overture or interlude, but not actual singing) and I immediately know the piece. The intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana, the overture to Der fliegender Hollander, etc. It's an immediate response. I hum along without even thinking about it. And then I realize...this is no longer what I do. I am now in an office, typing emails, researching requests and fielding phone calls. Opera singing...is that my hobby now? Weird. Will we be the ones dusting off old DVDs of our stage performances to break the ice as we host a dinner party? Will it be, "back when we were opera singers..." upon which the faces of our newly made friends here in Tulsa (hypothetical friends at this point) twist up into a little question mark? Here we are not opera singers (well, J is...at least to the crowd he met during Porgy and Bess here last season), but just everyday newlyweds, with a passion for pugs and wine and a funny accent. (Yes, here, our hint of Cali accent is the funny one!) Oh, and we just happen to know a little more about Mozart recitative and Verdi cadenzas than your average 30-something. Good for small talk as we wait in line at Starbucks, I guess. And for winning Jeopardy! Lay it on me, Alex Trebek!

Today, I saw the mark-up of my new business card. It listed my name (with J's last name now officially added after mine) with Director of Education in official looking tpeset listed below it. Weird. For many years it was my maiden name, followed by soprano. Something new. A lot of things new. And right now it feels a little raw. Like I want the newness, but it is still not 100%comfortble yet. Sort of like the new shoes I have been wearing for work. They are cute yet professional. I want to wear them. But they hurt. Just a little. And I have the beginnings of blisters on the places that they rub. So I bought some special silicone blister bandaids for my feet and blister blocking moleskin to line the ouchy places in my new shoes. And, the more I wear them, the less they hurt. I guess changing career tracks will be the same. Direct deposit surely helps to soothe the hurt of breaking in this new position a bit!