The gift

So, one of the coolest gals I know, my friend Elis, pointed me in the direction of her Livejournal account in her last e-mail to me. After poking around in her blog I stumbled upon her husband's account as well. It just so happens that the very first thing I noticed was this:

Very Egon Schiele, eh?

I fell in love the moment I saw it and immediately pictured it matted and framed and hanging on one of my olive green walls. Being the generous folks that they are, they are giving me the drawing (those crazy kids won't take money for it!!!) and I can hardly wait to get it in my house. Lurve. Totally. I truly love these people. While we've never met in person they just seem really genuine and I've never wished for Illinois to be closer to New York more than I do now.

This was a pretty damn good day. In addition to the newest piece of art to grace my living room walls, I found out today that I will be offered a buyout package from work next month, which, if my "bid" is accepted, my last day working at hell-on-earth will be October 7th. Can you say happy? Okay, how 'bout ecstatic? More details later as I'm waiting to find out more info from the union reps tomorrow. This is a fantastic opportunity to leave my crap job with a significant amount of money in hand, but it's also a bad, sad thing for those who may be at risk for layoffs. The company announced they want to surplus 600-700 positions across New York state. HOORAY for Corporate America! Nothing like beating a dead horse.