Well, for those of you who read in the morning, I posted again yesterday afternoon with a much more cheerful note, so if you haven't read about our new table, go back and do so.

The radio station I listen to has two primary DJs in the morning, with a third who comes in a little later than they do and reads the news. Just so I can tell this story without sounding like a complete idiot, the names of the primary DJs are Jeff and MC (MC is female), and the newsreader is Mike.

When I got in the car this morning, Jeff and MC were on the phone with Mike's wife. Apparently, Mike had recently been named Employee of the Month at the radio station, and they were quizzing Mike's wife like it was the Newlywed Game. It turned out that Employee of the Month is worth a bonus, and that Mike hadn't been entirely truthful with his wife about the amount of the bonus, so they got him in trouble. Or at least pretended to; I'm never really sure with this crowd.

But what drew listener calls was the fact that apparently Mike's wife handles the money for them, and Mike gets a $5/week allowance. The call I heard was some woman who demanded to know - if Mike was just driving back and forth to work and his wife packed him a lunch every day, then what did he even need $5 for? I thought this was really funny, myself, because I know I would go crazy if I didn't get to manage my own money.

When I was in college and dating P., he always said that he wanted to get a job and turn over his paycheck to his wife, and draw some sort of allowance for general expenditures. Though he was thinking of $50 or $100 a week. That idea didn't bother me as long as I was the one handling the money, but I couldn't imagine working to make money and then being told that I only got a tiny fraction of it to myself.

Matt and I have six different bank accounts: My savings and checking, his savings and checking, and our savings and checking. We use the joint accounts to pay for things that are jointly ours: the rent, the utilities, groceries, furniture, Babylon 5 videos, etc. We use our own accounts to buy things that aren't household expenses or that belong to only one of us: books, comics, doctor's visits, prescription drugs, gifts for each other, digital cameras, etc. These rules aren't hard and fast - when we go to Sam's Club and buy several joint items and a few individual items, we pay for everything from the joint account and don't worry about it. But in general, that's how it works.

There are a lot of people who think Matt and I have made our lives unnecessarily complicated with our financial setup. K.T. used to say that we were "divorce-ready" and my mother shakes her head in despair every time I say, "my money" or "his money."

But it works for us. I get wild hairs about once every three months and buy something weird and expensive - a Zip drive or a digital camera. Since I buy them with my money, Matt isn't allowed to accuse me of being a spendthrift, and I'm not dipping into money that we've set aside for the important things. I suspect that, the longer we go, the more we'll come to use the joint account. Sometime soon, we'll probably get a joint credit card so we can make larger household purchases (like furniture). But I like having money that I don't have to account to anyone else for, and I suspect Matt feels the same way, and so we'll probably always have our own accounts. And I like it that Matt has his own money, so I don't have to resent money "wasted" on things I'll never use, like comic books that I don't like.

I've heard that the most-cited reason for the breakup of marriages is money. When you've had control of your money for your whole life, it is very difficult to simply turn it over to someone else, or even to drop it into a pot from which this other person can buy things that you would never have bought on your own. Coming to a good agreement that both people are comfortable with - not merely resigned to - is quite possibly one of the more important decisions a new couple has to make. I'm happy with our system, for all its clunky awkwardness.

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1:00pm
I have achieved enlightenment.

Oh, I confess, I'm slightly surprised that enlightenment took the form of a company-wide e-mail offering tips on ways for us to cut down on the costs of conference-calling, but there it was, right at the end of the e-mail, the font changed to a bright purple so that we would be sure not to miss it: Hope this enlightens!!!

I suppose in my enlightened state, I could quit my job and go live on a mountaintop somewhere, taking only those students brave and determined enough to seek me out. But no, I feel that to truly spread the peace of my life, I must stay here and teach by example.

Of course, since it was a company-wide memo, I'm sure most of my fellow employees are likewise enlightened, but who says that the spiritually enhanced cannot learn from one another, eh?