Day 28 - Mo Money, Mo Problems

Whoever said that money didn't buy happiness obviously had A LOT of money. I'd love to give that saying a try.

I slept in today, all the way to 9:30. My typical wake up call is around 8:00, but I don't usually go to sleep too late seeing that I don't go to the bar 4 times a week now that I've given up drinking during the week and cut back on the weekends too. It isn't because I don't have a job and incoming income, but more of the fact that I really don't have a reason to drink during the week. When I was let go, I did what a lot of people do on that day... I went to the bar with some friends. But my night was a "celebration" as I had let everyone know that I was excited, not worried, about what lied (?) ahead.

That night, a few of my friends came to the bar and we didn't actually discuss anything about the job or where I might go. Instead, we discussed everything else. I went home early that night actually and woke up early the next day. My previous routine consisted of getting up at 7:00 AM, taking a shower, getting lunch together (usually one of the pre-made microwave meals. Mmm, Salt!!!), and then heading to the the #8 bus to head to work. I have the unlimited CTA pass here in Chicago which I consider my car. I like to think that I have so many different "vehicles" at my disposal. Who needs Porsche's and Beamers when you can ride the wave of the El or ride on one of the many busses throughout the city? Plus, you will always seem to come off of the ride with a new story about some crazy person on that respective vehicle.

I would get to work around 8:00 and then fire up the computer. I'd wait for the log-in screen, type in my information, and then put my frozen meal in the packed fridge hoping no one would steal it (and food did get stolen). I would then take a look at my email inbox and sigh...

Have you ever looked at your email box and just wanted to hit the "Delete" key until it was ALL gone? And when somebody asks you why you didn't answer their email, you could say, "I don't know, I guess it got lost in the mail". And then you would get a strange look and that person would walk away. Well, I thought that every day. Instead, I would do what most people would do and wrote politically correct emails to everybody even if they were dicks in their emails. After awhile, I wasn't nice anymore and just wrote three word answers to some of their questions.

Around 11:00 I would hit the gym. I went at that time because it was less crowded and I could come back and get food at one of our vendors or take care of what I needed to with most of the office gone on their "official" 12-1 lunch. I've always done things differently, so going to the gym at this time was the norm for me. After lunch, I would take care of what needed to be done, be it mindless emails or conference calls to discuss the conference that we just had. I swear, some people just want to hear themselves talk so they schedule an hour long meeting that could be resolved in 5 minutes. Talk, Talk, Talk, Talk.

Around 5:00, the office exploded!!!! Everybody wanted out!!!! And I can't blame them. I mean, it is Chicago and there is always something going on so getting out of work is a really big deal. Especially when you have to catch that shuttle. There is nothing funnier than seeing a 45-60 man or women literally sprinting to catch a shuttle. That's probably the most they have run in the past 20 years! I can say one thing about public transportation though; at least you don't have to drive with the other crazies in this city.

Now that is over, and I spent my Monday packing for this weekends trip to Sonoma, applying for jobs, calling the Teleserve (only three times before I got through the busy signal!!) to certify my unemployment, and going to the gym.

I will watch MNF tonight, but after the game, TV OFF! I do realize now that I would rather be in front of a fire than watching TV, but we have wood floors... so starting a fire probably would not be the smartest thing to do. I guess I will just have to turn on my grill on the deck and pretend.

Deep Thoughts for Monday:

As far as the Midwest as a whole is concerned, the least we could have is more mountains for the avid skiers and snowboarders during our 9 months of winter. Perhaps we need to throw away more trash so we can build some new dump piles and call those mountains?