Just got Paid

Said wedding I went to recently had an open bar, and we were aptly on Long Island so I had 2. I know that's my limit so I stopped, but that was a good time. Anyway, thinking back to some conversations I had during the wedding, and after my first drink, I spoke to a few friends I haven't seen since early in college. The usual came up, "So what have you been doing?" I replied, "well I relocated to Arkansas." Then the usual response, "ARKANSAS???" Me: "Yup, I work for _______." Them: "Doing what?" Me: "Technology research." To which they replied, "Oh, so basically you're saying you're paid right?"

That last line came up in three different conversations, which make all three the same conversation with different people. It made me wonder. There are no complaints here, I have what I wanted, a job doing what I like and a salary to go with it, but it just didn't seem like the best response to receive. Granted its not specific about money, but should money come up at all? I don't know where I'm going with this. I guess part of me thinks that they think I was telling them where I live and work so that they would know I'm paid... but that's based solely on their response, and I know that isn't the case. If it happened once, I wouldn't have thought about it... but 3 times with different people?

Additionally, these 3 all happened to be women, but I can't analyze any further because I can't begin to imagine why that line kept coming up. Anyway, that's the part of the conversation when the quick thinking and the Long Island kicked in. I responded. "Yup, you could say that, I got you on your drink. What are you having?"

;-) Open Bar.

~JL