"Come and Sit Here Awhile Ere You Leave Us..."

Mama said to us last night, Why are you girls doing so much baking? Is this some kind of pre-Lenten binge?

And I said, No, these are individual expressions of joy.

And that's true.

The car--it can be fixed. The man said he could put it up to inspection standard, he said obviously it won't look very good, in fact it's likely to look wretched, but it'll pass inspection and we can go on driving it--a godsend, I'm truly telling you. And I'm quitting my job, giving my two weeks' notice on Thursday. I am so tired of feeling filthy from touching other people's money all day, just to sell them cigarettes and lottery tickets, just to inflate a corporate conglomerate that's been driving local gas stations and convenience stores out of business since it came. And I'm done--that's all, I'm done. So I'm quitting. And so's Mama quitting--she just submitted her resume half a dozen places that are closer to home (it's a seventy-five mile round trip for her to go to work these days).

Mama's not paying me back my savings that she had to borrow to finish paying for the house, but she's going to use the money that she would pay me back to fix the car, so that's perfectly fine. It makes good sense. And I can go to the library party in a few weeks, which I think will be really nice, and I'm making a hedgehog cake on Friday to celebrate--it's just a good thing.

I can bicycle down to the Oriental store every day if I want; I asked them if they needed anybody to work there, but they said not until summer, they said, 'we'll keep you in mind', which I think actually means 'go away', but that's fine. There are lots of places in Newport I am going to try and look at.

And now, since ostensibly I'm here to work on my history exam while Daddy's busy in Duncannon, I'm going to do that. Be a good girl, Soujin!

But I wanted you to know that things are coming even now, and it's a good thing.