Harold & Maude

Last night we watched an excellent movie, Harold & Maude. It's an oldie (1971) but definitely a goodie. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It reminded me to enjoy living (not that I don't) and enjoy the journey for what it is, and not to spend your life half or mostly dead.

Related to this, I'm going to make a real effort to "greet the day" happily. It's hard after a night of frequently interrupted sleep, as all I think is "Aaarrgh! I need more sleep!" While that may be true, unfortunately having a negative attitude about it won't make me less sleepy. Though I might reserve the privilege of being grumpy for particularly bad nights.

Assuming all goes according to plan, David should start getting paid September 1st, thus ending our 15 months of poverty, and 8 months of zero income. Hooray!! I can't help but wonder if there were some lessons I should have learned during this time that I didn't. I know that I will not take paychecks for granted in the future. And I was already pretty frugal, but I've learned that you really can do without a lot of things. Our goal is to continue living cheaply so we can save up for a down payment on a house. We have several thousand in our IRAs that we can use for a down payment as well. Which is pretty good considering we saved that while we were both grad students.

One more comment on the movie -- the soundtrack is by Cat Stevens, and features this fabulous song:

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
'Cause there's a million things to be
You know that there are

And if you want to live high, live high
And if you want to live low, live low
'Cause there's a million ways to go
You know that there are

Chorus:
You can do what you want
The opportunity's on
And if you can find a new way
You can do it today
You can make it all true
And you can make it undo
you see ah ah ah
its easy ah ah ah
You only need to know

Well if you want to say yes, say yes
And if you want to say no, say no
'Cause there's a million ways to go
You know that there are

And if you want to be me, be me
And if you want to be you, be you
'Cause there's a million things to do
You know that there are

Chorus

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
'Cause there's a million things to be
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are