Month: May 2008

I found myself in a pretty bad mood yesterday, driving home from the gym.

Here’s what I was thinking about. Most weekdays, I have to wake up at 5:45 to be at work on time. If I sleep fewer than seven hours, I really can’t get out of bed at all, so that means I’m going to bed by 10:30 at the latest, and desperately hoping to fall asleep quickly. It’s much safer to go to bed by 9:30, but I never really manage that.

5:00 is the earliest I get home, in spite of my early start to the day, and then going to the gym (which I’m now trying to do six days a week), means the earlier I really get home is 7:00. 7:30 is a lot more common.

That leaves me two hours to have dinner and relax (or, under more normal circumstances, try to get something important accomplished at home), and I usually take at least three hours to do that, so I’m tired all the time.

I get weekends, when I’m not in Tulsa or Wichita or Little Rock (or hosting family from Little Rock or Wichita). I do get a regular day off, every other Friday, but it’s usually spent taking in large part taking care of all the responsibilities of life outside work that I don’t have time for on any of those incredibly short evenings.

I complained about all of this to K– recently, and he shrugged and said, “That’s life.” And I get that. It just sucks. What a miserable life that is. I get two hours a day of it, plus occasional weekends. In a week where I get all my evenings free (after the gym), and have no responsibilities incumbent on me for the weekend, I get to look forward to about 49 hours of time at liberty, doing as I will, in a week. That comes to about 30% of my life that I get to lead.

I’ve got a good job. I get that. I understand that going to the gym and getting in shape will add years onto my life (and increase my quality of life in the meantime). But it chafes, having so little free will. Driving home from the gym last night, I got myself into a pretty bad mood over it.

Then the storm certainly didn’t help any. Most of our sitcoms for the week come on Thursday nights, and every single one of them was preempted for storm coverage that didn’t impact us. We watched an old Lost instead, and then a new one (that, at least, they chose to show), and then two more old ones before I was ready to go to bed, and by that time it was already 11:00 and I had no chance of being anything but exhausted today.

The wind and the thunder kept me awake until after midnight, anyway, and I was late getting in to work this morning. Fridays are pretty laid back around here, so I’ll get away with it, but I hate being late at all.

Then on the drive to lunch today (D– had to cancel on plans for Bennigan’s, so I went to Mazzio’s on my own), I passed a little dentist’s office with a duck pond out front the more frequently sports geese, and out right by the edge of the road was a big mama goose resting in the sun and half a dozen little baby geese running around, their fur-like down all fluffed out, just adorably cute. That made me smile.

Then, at the light, I waited patiently for the long passage of a funeral procession. That was sad. Then I finished Watership Down while I was there, and, let me tell you, it’s just about the best book I’ve ever read. It’s an amazingly-crafted story, and I think pretty much everybody should read it.

So, that’s good. I definitely like the book. I don’t think we’ve got a lot scheduled for the weekend, so I’m going to take a valiant stab at getting my game finished before I pick up another novel sometime Sunday afternoon. I’m not making any promises, but it would be fun to put finished to it.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

My freshman year in college (so, 10 years ago, now), I started a tradition because of my deep, life-long love of cheap Mexican food.

Specifically, it was Enchilada Night at El Chico’s. They used to offer a Wednesday night special enchilada platter for $2.99. These days, I’m pretty sure it’s running $4.99, but any time I’ve been to El Chico recently, it’s been the tamales for me.

Anyway, every single Wednesday night I went to El Chico’s for the enchiladas, and as I gradually invited others to join me, it became something of a Thing. I’m not saying that I set a trend, but my whole group of friends knew that Wednesday night was Enchilada Night.

Yeah, no big deal, college is about stupid stuff like that. But, since then (and even since El Chico fell from its place of honor), Wednesday night has remained an opportunity to share dinner with friends. If I have the opportunity, I pursue it.

Obviously, anyone reading this blog knows that I manage to spend a lot of time doing stuff with friends, but Wednesday night is the only real scheduled weekday get-together. Now that I’m going to the gym regularly, I see K– and N– on Mondays and Thursdays fairly often, and the rare week that D– doesn’t stop by for at least one full evening is a lonely one, and from time to time we’ll devote a whole season to getting together to watch each new episode of Lost or Stargate, but those come and go, drifting on the whims of various conflicting schedules. Wednesday night dinner, I think, everybody knows about, and knows to plan for. It’s not that everybody always makes it (actually, that’s pretty rare), but everybody knows, and there’s always somebody to share the evening with.

Yesterday, we found ourselves with a buck fifty in the bank, and going out just wasn’t in the cards. I called D– after work to let him know things weren’t going to work out, and he said, “Pshaw,” and went and got dinner for us. He’s a hell of a guy.

After dinner, T– took AB to church, and D– and I spent the evening playing the new MarioKart. It was fun. We unlocked all the race circuits on 50cc (easy mode), and unlocked two new characters. Also: the new Rainbow Road is ass. But what do you expect?

We also got tickets yesterday for K– and N– and Toby and Gwyn (say that out loud) and T– and I to go see Jim Gaffigan when he comes to town in July. That is going to be awesome.

I found out about the appearance at work several days ago when I heard a coworker mention it to another coworker over the cubicle wall. Rather than joining in the conversation (right, because I’m me), I went to jimgaffigan.com and looked up details, then emailed everyone I thought might want to go.

That day, on the drive home, I heard a commercial advertising it. They opened with, “Jim Gaffigan one his new tour brings all new, never-before-heard material to OKC….” Then they played about a minute of clips, all of which I’ve heard dozens of times over the last ten years. I laughed anyway. I really can’t wait.

Word has it B– is having an even worse week than usual. Keep him in your prayers. If you hear of an opportunity for me to go hang out with him, let me know.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.