Done With Work, Sadly Also Done With Summer

For the entire summer, with the exception of a week in June, I've been working as a carpenter's assistant for Mac. This involves me working 7-4:30 Mondays through Thursdays. That has meant being up by at least 6:45 every morning. I don't EVER wake up that early. Even if the house was on fire, I'd carefully weigh my options to see if I could escape with an extra few minutes of sleep, even if it meant suffering minor burns. Ok, not really. But it'd be pretty easy to escape from my burning house.

I solemnly vow never again to work at a job that requires me to exert physical effort at hours of the day when I, by all rights, should still be asleep for at least another 2-5 hours. I've told myself that if I ever have to take even an 8:30 class - even if it were required for my major - I would drop the major, and not take the class. Rest is the most important part of being. That, and working for almost 10 hours a day takes up... a lot of time. I would get home from work, and the first hour would be spent pretty much trying to recuperate. If it was not a very difficult day, I would be able to do things - like the dishes, or my laundry. If I was worn out, or if I had been up late the night before, I basically didn't do anything for the rest of the day. Being a slave to money is, honestly, being a slave to money.

Now, however, I have the wonderful opportunity to blow that cash. I'm going to Cedar Point, Ohio for two days with friends from high school. It is the oldest and one of the largest amusement parks in the country, and boasts some of the largest and most fun roller coasters in the world. I am excited. Alas though, it is mid-August, and I will soon have to return to college. My wasteful days of summer will soon be replaced by my wasteful days of fall, and then winter. In the spring, I will graduate, and in the summer, I will once again have to search for and engage in gainful employment. Alas. As Jack Weatherford once told me, "95% of people work for someone else. Those people are probably less happy than they would be working for themselves. Working for someone else is a form of debt, and you should never be in debt. Never have a credit card, pay off your mortgage early, and buy on the cheap." I'm not sure if I believe his facts, but the statement is a sound one. How many songs have been written in the basic formula of work + more work = suck? Lots, is the answer.

So, I now pledge to you - whoever you are, and really it's just my family who reads this - that for the remaining days of summer I shall be productive, and interesting, and do neat and fun things! Provided the humidity stays down and the temperature doesn't exceed 90F. That will shut me down.