"Fifteen."

PostSecret is wonderful, sometimes.

I really am thrilled with the person I'm becoming. I bought pants today in a size that I'm sure I haven't worn since high school. I picked up a pair of denim jeans billed as "slim straight fit", three words that have never been used to describe me.

Multiple people are giving me unsolicited kudos for effectively rebirthing myself out here, and it's empowering to see each new direction from which all this positive energy comes. I have to wonder where all this optimism was when I was thirty pounds overweight and brimming with self-loathing, but then I awake with a start and realize that it was there all along, waiting for me to recognize it.

In a way, we're all our own little Isaac Newtons in this regard. Apples have always fallen in exactly the same direction, it just takes a keen-eyed person to be in the right place at the right time to notice it and figure out how.

I have the house to myself tonight. I shall spend it reading, doing laundry, listening to the vinyl Costello album I picked up for myself for Valentine's Day this year, and playing GTA4.

All around me, the cats watch with curiosity at the dulcet up-tempo sounds of a very young The Other Elvis that emanate from the stereo system, then close their eyes and return to their napping. The hours tick by. Before this week is out I'll own a bed and, in all likelihood, get a significant promotion. Days after that, I expect that my new mattress will arrive. I explicitly chose it for its multiple layers of bedding that make it customizable at will. Vivido, who enjoys sleeping on top of a plush toy resting on a fleece comforter on the back of the couch, would appreciate the idea.

I think I might have to buy some new sheets online tonight. That's what grown ups do, right? Buy sheets? I'm new at this.