A happy little clam

Today, I received the first royalty check from my writing stint on JSA. It was substantially more than I was expecting so I did something I very rarely do with money these days: I irresponsibly wasted a good chunk of it. Don't get me wrong, some of it was tucked into savings but the rest was squandered on the sweet new laptop computer I'm typing this on.

On my couch. In my living room. Via wireless connection.

I feel like a king.

Weird how a new toy can do that, can give a person a feeling of accomplishment or pride. I mean, really, it's just a stupid box with a screen on it that my wife is going to use for schoolwork or I will write and email from. But it's also something that I've secretly wanted for a while but could never really justify as an expense. Because it's not something I needed, it was just something I wanted and being a one income family, that's not enough of a reason to buy something anymore.

I'm trying hard not to feel guilty because there are easily 5600 more responsible ways I could have used that money. At the same time, I'm also trying to justify my purchase with the rationale that I work damn hard and damn long and there's nothing wrong with rewarding oneself once in a great while. I'm soothing myself with the idea that there will be two more royalty checks in the next couple of months and I'll be more responsible with those.

But mostly I'm just relaxing with my feet up before I go to bed.