No, not the TV show. Actually the juvenile sex and nudity on that show are actually right up my alley ;).
To the point. A few of you may know that three weeks ago I took a new job. Its my first professional job, a major adjustment from the many years of slacker college life and bartending gigs. Yes, the money is nice, and I’m certainly making more than I’m worth, while gaining skills to quickly increase that value. On paper it all looks wonderful. But we all know there is more to life than dead presidents.
The overall gist of this post is that I miss the SDMB, but I fear time will tell a much broader story than this.
You all have noticed that I posted quite frequently here, and spent exponentially more time in chat. Now, for the many months I spent not working I had immense amounts of free time and energy. I slept until noon (often later), and still had all the time I wanted to read/post here (and a revolving selection of a few other venues), chat until 6 AM, and still do all my shopping, excercising and partying. I was able to maintain a teriffic social life and play with you people, and still have time to spare.
I have always had the type of personality which directed me to throw myself into everything I do 100%. The things I do, I do right and exhaustively. This is a blessing and a curse. I was a success in school because of this, and was able to take advantage of opportunity. In contrast I like to party, and I like to socialize. This ran in direct conflict with the more responsible aspects of college life. Essentially it was feast or famine, one class/test I’d Ace with virtually no stress or struggle. The next week I’d be consumed in living it up, or having a relationship and as a result dedicate very little effort to class. Luckily even the sparsest of effort was good enough to pass every challenge, and as such I was able soak up every indulgence college living allowed with gusto.
I have no regrets and am content in knowing I did things the right way, lived life with a assumption of the way things would one day be. It recently is becoming clear that most of my predictions/fears/expectaions are accurate. As such I’m expecting to begin feeling the loss that is commonly the toll of everyday life in the Real World. I’m not happy about it.
This personality is persisting in my situation today. The job I’m working is not structured, and I am allowed to generally work the hours I please, though no late night hours. The projects I’m assigned are the only thing defining my hours. So, I get a project and I work like hell to get it done. You can imagine it makes for some long hours, frequently over 10 a day. I enjoy the work and am not the least bit stressed by the hours. I am happy to put in the hours I do. Coupled with the long hours is a very long commute. This is a symptom of my slow progress into the real world. I’ve chosen to live at home after college to allow me to take over a year to do as I please and select the ideal job. As it stands, the commute, until I can afford a really nice place in the city, is a total of about 2.5 hrs round trip. If one does the math its clear I’m only left with about 4 hrs a day to do other things once you subtract my 5 hrs of sleep a night. This isn’t an “I hate work” thread, I don’t really mind the commute or the job at all, I just wish there were more hours in the day.
So, now that I’ve given a painful amount of detail to the ideas bouncing to and fro in my head, I’ll share why it applies to the SDMB.
I miss the SDMB and I am afraid my contact will frequently become less and less. I miss being an overly flirtatious, over sexed, smart ass in chat. I miss offering my sanctimonious opinions in MPSIMS and flexing some trivial or deductive mental muscles in GQ. Now, I suppose I still have time to pop in here for 30 minutes a night, and chat while multitasking for a hour or two every night, but that strikes me as an overly half-assed approach which is unlike my MO outlined above. I could spend alot of time here at work if I wanted, but I get to consumed in my job so it never crosses my mind. My weekends are generally going to be wholly dedicated to my real life friends and spending large amounts of my new found income.
It kinda sucks, I barely know anything about Wally’s tragedy, probably would not have even known if I hadn’t been IMed one evening. Still don’t know how Amy and his family are doing (or if anyone here even knows). I don’t know what little things have been done, or who’s responsible for the Wally smiley or the memorial banner. Hell, maybe no one does, but it strikes me as an example of what I’m missing out on. On a lighter note, Nacho4Sara listed me in her laminated list, I haven’t had time to flirt back and let her know I thought she was pretty hot too (Sorry Coldy, I’m taking that top spot). And most tragically I haven’t had time to follow through on my committment to honour pricciar’s fucking pick up lines challenge.
Now, I don’t want to pretend like this is a big deal, I’m in the “Its just a fucking internet message board…” camp when seemingly huge brewhaha’s get everyone ranting and storming off, but you know sometimes the trivial shit is what is the most fun. I don’t live to work, or make money. I live to enjoy myself and have a good time. Money makes most of the things I enjoy easier, but some free simple things like this MB are good to.
Not sure if I have much of a point, I just kinda miss killing massive amounts of time here, maybe I’ll get used to spending shorter stints here, but if history proves anything I’ll probably end up getting consumed by something else. Who knows, lifes a bitch.
