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A confession...or two



   I don’t know how to tell you this.
   I have a job. It’s a part-time job and I’m not sure it will continue after the summer, but I’m counting it anyway.  I know.  It’s the story of my life. You could almost cheer for me but it’s just a little too uncertain to celebrate.  It does mean I shower early every day and put on clothes that match somewhat and it requires a car ride and a door key to the place. That sounds like a real job doesn’t it?
   On top of the blurriness of my employment, I am also doing something I’ve never really done much of before. I am copy editing. Oh, I’ve been an editor. I can decide which story stays and which story goes, and what to put on page 3 but I’ve never worried about using a semicolon so much in my life. Or a capital letter or the space bar. It’s quite something. I’ve already lost several hours sleep over letting Roxberry slip through when it should have been Roxbury.
   I have to admit that the routine feels good. And today I worked on deadline day and the server was out for a couple of hours. I felt the rush of adrenaline just like the old days only this time I realized it wasn’t my rush and I could walk out the door leaving everyone else to deal with the rest of deadline day. Honestly, that part was really, really cool.
   And while we’re discussing new experiences, I want to talk a little bit about sunglasses.
   As my old friend Evelyn Stelmashuck says, wearing sunglasses makes me feel like I am “showing on myself.” That’s right. It’s the same with hats. I just cannot bring myself to wear either one of those props. I’ve gone hatless and sunglassless my whole life.
   Well that’s all changed now. I bought a pair of sunglasses with very smart multicolored frames moments ago at Leslie’s Drugstore where the cashier told me they were “cute.”  I plan to wear them. The sun is so omnipresent here that I really don’t have much choice. It’s the sunglasses or laser surgery within the next few years if I don’t bite my weird phobia and put them on. And I took up wearing the occasional baseball cap months ago but only when there’s a slight drizzle outside.
   Let this be a lesson to you: Indeed, you can change. It all depends on where you are and how you adapt to your surroundings. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go out on the deck and read a book with my new sunglasses. The sun is too bright today for baseball caps. 

 Accuracy to a newspaper is what virtue is to a lady; but a newspaper can always print a retraction. - Adlai E. Stevenson



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