Jobbie Job Job (+ new glasses and raven t)

The Estee Lauder lady at the Navy Exchange (NEX) sold me a beautiful refillable compact of translucent powder that I'm going to send to my mom -- just because. Before I bought it I asked the saleswoman how much is was:

"Twenty-seven dollars."

"But the card in the display case says $45 -$95."

"Oh, that's the price on the outside."

I never realized that the inside price is about half for Estee Lauder cosmetics. And if I had, I would have been a committed Estee Lauder girl years ago. My plan is to go back tomorrow during lunch and ask if they have any plans to sell that lovely Erin Lauder gardenia perfume that I've been coveting for months. Maybe my mom and I will get lucky.

Add half-price Estee Lauder to the list of things I'm going to miss when I hit Anchorage.

My contract is coming to a close and people have started to ask me, in what some days feels like a Mahler chorus, "What are you going to do when you get out?" Tomorrow will be the first day I tell them nonchalantly, "I have a job that starts December 3rd." That's all I'll say, as if I was never nervous so there's no need to elaborate and gush with excitement. But really I'm gushing with excitement and dyeing to elaborate: I do have a job! A job I'm really excited about! The offer letter comes tomorrow and assuming that it's a written confirmation of the salary and benefits we agreed to on the phone Wednesday night, I have everything in the world to look foreword to. My new position is with an engineering firm in Anchorage that, unbeknownst to me when I applied, has the Navy contract for the United States. The Anchorage office handles the West Coast and the Maine office handles the East Coast. In fact, the owner of the firm, who interviewed me on the phone, will be just a few hours south on the 101 in San Clemente next week. It's also worth noting that his son will be a music performance major at college next fall and that I was a music performance major at DePaul in Chicago (as was noted on my resume).

I've always been very lucky; I'm glad that doesn't seem to be changing.