Surge

I'm broke. My quasi-regular job has just assigned me the equivalent of those impossible tasks you read about in fairy tales - collect the feathers of a thousand birds, or find the one silver straw among millions of, well, straw-coloured ones. I need to make friends with mice, or rabbits, or some other helpful work source. Although with this task, I need mice and rabbits that READ.
I am tempted to up and quit today. I am suspicious that this task has been created to make me do that. But, see above, I'm broke. So, I must begin the task. Maybe after lunch.

I am less broke than this morning, however, in that I now have money to pay my rent and other bills that are coming due right now. This morning, I had $58. Total.

Part of the broke-ness is waiting for money that has not yet arrived. Part is a committment I made to put money in responsible places for a while (like, say, an IRA, or towards a debt I have).

I do feel fairly sunny and positive, however, and I think that's because being broke is not the drain being in debt is. Being broke is a bummer. It keeps you from doing things. You cook your own meals from things you have had frozen for months. But being in debt can make you lose sleep, or your hair (which, frankly, you can't afford, I've seen your pillow of a morning), or your ability to think about anything other than the debt.

So, I'm happily broke. It could be worse.