I'm a 10aire!

I know there are people who struggle with the whole 'ads on blogs' thing. I also know that there is nothing more boring than bloggers talking about their struggle with the whole 'ads on blogs' thing. I know that first statement is true because I often see bloggers struggling with it. I know that second statement is true because I'm one of those people who are bored with that struggle. It bores me because I cannot think of a single good reason why someone shouldn't put ads on a blog. Maybe that's because I have had a career in magazine journalism, where the number of ads was directly proportional to the stability of my job, and where lack thereof has meant my spending time in the career counseling center of my local unemployment office having my resume critiqued by a woman who can't pronounce the word 'ask.'

So it was with a complete lack of ambivalence that I recently received my first ad revenue check on Friday. My blog! Bringing in the bacon. A check with four figures on it...if you count the two that come after the decimal point. Four months of ad revenues, averaging well under $10 a month. And yet...I cannot tell you how much silly joy this teensy little check, currently displayed on my computer monitor in the same place of honor that was once occupied by my very first advance check from a publisher, has brought me. I told Baroy that I'm thinking about going to a different bank in our neighborhood and starting a mad money savings account just for me. (I gave up my individual account a few years back when things got too tight for it to seem fair to have money squirreled away.) Baroy pointed out that most banks no longer open accounts for the equivalent of pocket change, but I just stuck my tongue out at him. I'm mature that way.

Hey, do you think I can talk them into giving me my very own passbook, just like the one I had back at P.S. 26, where every week we'd deposit another dollar, and the teller would stamp the new balance for me? I really loved that passbook.