Making my Bed and Commuting In It

It’s nice to wake up in the morning and not dread the work day. The commute is a different story, a new adventure or misadventure everyday, except on those days when I can stay in Centerville, VA with either David & Apryl or the Jeff-ster & Becky. Jenne and I both thank you guys a million times! I really like my new job (it's not perfect, none are), but I’m pretty much like everyone else in that I would rather wake up and not have to go to work, but what else can I do?

I haven’t won the $$ lottery (:-P Clark). No one has left me gobs and gobs of money and I still haven’t received that cashier’s check for “one mill-YEON dollars” from the mysterious benefactor that likes my photography so much that they just want me to run around and take photos for mine and their enjoyment. So it’s off to work I go like all the other Joe Lunch-pails and Mr. Brown Shoes. Why don’t I dread it you wonder? Because the work is interesting, the people are cool (so were my co-workers at the SLJ, I miss you guys), my boss, her boss, his boss and his boss are very cool and appreciative (unlike the bosses at the SLJ*) and we get hour lunches, not half-hour ones like at the SLJ where the boss would practically time it to the minute and then bitch at anyone who dared go over more than a couple of times a week. The owner of this here BSNJ** company has talked to me more in the month I have been here than the owner of the SLJ talked to me in three years. The owner of the SLJ is as personable and as friendly as a cinder block when it comes to his employees. Others at the SLJ would make excuses for his poor social skills all of the time. God that made me ill. He’s a little ass-hat and there’s no excuse for being an ass-hat. PERIOD! He’s the leader of a company and he’s responsible for all aspects of company success and that includes happy and rewarded employees. What a little fuck-wad he is and when I say little I do mean little. He’s a short guy, somewhere around five feet six not that that matters, but because he was such an ass-hat I would make a point of standing to my full six feet two inches when he entered a room. My co-workers should not have revealed to me that he was self conscious about his height. When it comes to ass-hats give me a button to push and I just have to push it. Okay, time to move on and leave that all way behind me. Deep breath… in with the good… out with the jive. Ahhhhh. Another thing that’s nice is to have money in my checking account after three years of barely living paycheck to paycheck and scrounging all of the change out of my change jar; a big ole two gallon pickle jar that I have had for almost twenty years. Umm pickles ahhhh… sorry, I digress. It’s nice to be able to buy a DVD or a CD or some new clothes and not have to think, “…hmm if I buy this consumer product can I put gas in my car, can I pay my share of the monthly expenses, can I eat something besides PB&J?” Now I don’t have to worry about it, although I still keep track of the money. I can also finally, FINALLY pay off the damned credit card that has been hounding me for almost two years. I rarely used the cursed piece of plastic. It became an ‘emergency use only’ card. Every month I sent in way over the minimum payment – sometimes too much that I couldn’t give Jenne what I owed her for the monthly home expenses – and still I couldn’t get it below $1000 or keep it below $1000 for long. Something ALWAYS came up… usually a car expense, but any expense when you’re not making a livable salary is too much of an expense. But now I can pay it off and also put some money in the savings account, even with the new car payment. Most importantly I can stop stressing out because of lack of funds and I can be my relaxed, happy and generous self again. Yes, there is the commute to consider and it is hell. It’s a pretty big trade off and I know some of you would never do what I am doing and I can totally appreciate that and I don’t blame you. I would love to go back to having that short commute again, but I won’t go back to the SLJ to do it, no way, no how. Early on I thought that I should just go back, but the only reasons were because my co-workers are cool and the commute is eight miles. The reasons for not going back are too many and I get hives just thinking about it. I hate the management there, the workload and responsibility are too much for a total lack of fair and just compensation, and the bennies (we’re there bennies?) suck. I was rarely treated as a professional, more like a child. Do parents actually call their kids fucking idiots and fucking liars? The customers – AKA Train Goobers – are huge pains in the ass, I hate subways and I just can’t deal with the Chinese manufacturer. Didn't I just say that I needed to leave that all way behind me? Deep breath… in with the good… out with the jive. Ahhhhh, that's better. It’s all about trade offs and what we can each live with and not live with. I made my bed and now I’ll just commute in it.

*Shitty Little Job, AKA the old job
**Brand Spanking New Job