Shallow grief

Is it wrong to want to go back to work so you can dress up in nice clothes, earn the money to buy more nice clothes, then go on holidays – also bankrolled by paid employment – in those nice clothes? Probably not wrong, but definitely shallow. I’ve never made any secret of the fact I’m a bit shallow. My idea of a relaxing social occasion is not one spent discussing the finer points of the US financial crisis – I leave that up to Husband, the intellectual in the family. I mean, I know there is some sort of can’t-possibly-be-happening-but-is loan defaulty thing going on and I’m a bit stunned by it, but I’d prefer to blather socially than make pithy remarks. Further evidence of my lack of depth – give me a movie over a play any day. Husband has been forced to find another, more theatrically inclined redhead to accompany him to plays, a little tricky/confusing/intriguing to explain when he runs into someone he knows who immediately thinks it’s either a) Me, or b) His mistress. Oh, and here’s further proof: when I go to the newsagent in the morning for the papers it’s always a broadsheet for him and a tabloid for me. I like my news quick and dirty. He likes his long and worthy.
Anyway … getting a job isn’t just about restoring my ability to go shopping. But it’s definitely a factor. I felt a bit embarrassed this morning after confessing it at a mums’ morning tea. Sure, everyone laughed when I said it, but I’ve worried ever since that they’ve been thinking … “Shallow bint – only wants to go back to work and abandon her poor, little children so she can buy nice Country Road dresses instead of just stroking them longingly in shops.” I’ll have to come up with a more satisfying explanation. Something like, “I need a mentally stimulating job I can really sink my teeth into while the kids are at school.” Although a friend who’s taking a sabbatical in Byron Bay reckons “I simply don’t understand these people who say they must work or they’d get bored. Lack of imagination, that.”
TONIGHT’S MENU: Roasted tomato soup again (Sprog 1), God knows (Sprog 2).