Too much time in the city

I'm out in the boonies of Mississippi for a friend's wedding and I had forgotten how unbearably amazing stars are when you're away from cities. Tonight there was Orion and the Pleiades and a shooting star for the first time in years.

Also, this wedding is the perfect antidote to my brother's wedding. Although the family thing did turn out ok, and it was lovely to discover just how many loving people my brother has in his life, the whole affair still rather failed to ring true for me. Whereas this weekend is all about messy, mixed, extended families and friends loving each other in genuine, sloppy ways. It's rather wonderful.

Also, negotiating is kind of awesome. At least, it is in this case. I still hate it, and it makes me feel gross, but in this case they met my counteroffer and my new boss emphasized that I should always feel comfortable coming to him when things don't seem right and I should always ask for what I want, just like I did when it came to salary, so I feel even doubly more awesome about this whole job thing. Which I accepted, somewhat officially (still no signed docs) this afternoon just before driving out to the boonies. Exciting! And scary!

So I'm in MS until Sunday and then back to CA on Wednesday for more job stuff and then, oh right, I'm also supposed to be teaching and writing that pesky fifth chapter. Details.