It’s early. Dark outside, kinda cool for the last day of August, but where I’m sitting, it’s white—the clinic is full of white light. I’m in the seating area of the plasma donation clinic, waiting. It looks like there’s a lot of waiting involved. Wait to get in line, wait in line, and then wait while donating. There are probably more stations of waiting that I don’t know about.
Like waiting to be told that I can’t donate.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
I'm the Do-Nothing-Man
What’s the date on this document? August 10, 2010 5:03 AM . Let’s see, today is the 25th (I have no effing clue); no, it’s the 27th. That means it’s been seventeen days since I wrote in this document. I just re-read everything and I think there is more that needs to be said. I’m actually taking a break from work. Just clearing my mind.
I was hanging out with some friends last night and I explained this idea, this social experiment, to one of them while we munched on Taco Bell at one-in-the-morning. After explaining my situation and my curiosity, I asked him about the plasma bank. Jeremy used to donate plasma and get about fifty bucks a week. I knew this and I think I’m going to make use of the service to help get some cash. He explained the best times to go and that I needed a piece of mail to prove that I wasn’t homeless. The funny thing is: I never get mail. Well, I used to never get mail.
Kroger (it’s a grocery store around here) has been sending me coupons in the mail lately. I don’t know how my apartment address ended up in their data banks, but I’m cool with it. Coupons are a great way to save money.
So the idea is growing in the womb of my brain as this: “I’m the do-nothing-man.” That’s going to be the subtext to “The Chronicles of F. S.” Again, this is another story, and I’ll get to it later. Right now, it’s shaping up as a blog where I can keep a record of my activities and document the research in which I delve. But I think I’m going to start in September, while I still have the safety net of a pay check. The plan is to do all this while working my final month at the university, just to get a sense of how hard it will actually be. Not that it’s going to be taxing, but the experiment will be difficult financially. Ideally, I’d find a cheaper place to live, to lower my expenses (which aren’t really that high), and get rid of some luxuries.
To be perfectly honest, I’m not ready to do that yet. I love my living arrangements (my roommate and my apartment), but as I stated previously, expenses aren’t that high; I’ll layout my budget later. In other words, I think I can meet all my financial obligations.
I was hanging out with some friends last night and I explained this idea, this social experiment, to one of them while we munched on Taco Bell at one-in-the-morning. After explaining my situation and my curiosity, I asked him about the plasma bank. Jeremy used to donate plasma and get about fifty bucks a week. I knew this and I think I’m going to make use of the service to help get some cash. He explained the best times to go and that I needed a piece of mail to prove that I wasn’t homeless. The funny thing is: I never get mail. Well, I used to never get mail.
Kroger (it’s a grocery store around here) has been sending me coupons in the mail lately. I don’t know how my apartment address ended up in their data banks, but I’m cool with it. Coupons are a great way to save money.
So the idea is growing in the womb of my brain as this: “I’m the do-nothing-man.” That’s going to be the subtext to “The Chronicles of F. S.” Again, this is another story, and I’ll get to it later. Right now, it’s shaping up as a blog where I can keep a record of my activities and document the research in which I delve. But I think I’m going to start in September, while I still have the safety net of a pay check. The plan is to do all this while working my final month at the university, just to get a sense of how hard it will actually be. Not that it’s going to be taxing, but the experiment will be difficult financially. Ideally, I’d find a cheaper place to live, to lower my expenses (which aren’t really that high), and get rid of some luxuries.
To be perfectly honest, I’m not ready to do that yet. I love my living arrangements (my roommate and my apartment), but as I stated previously, expenses aren’t that high; I’ll layout my budget later. In other words, I think I can meet all my financial obligations.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
The Ultimate Lazy Question
This morning I called my boss and left her a message; I said that I would be unable to be at work because I would be helping my grandmother for most of the day. After lying about spending the day with my dying grandmother (if you ask me, she’s already dead, but that’s a tale for another day) in her nursing home, I hung up the phone and went back to sleep. This has become a typical, if not regular routine. I’m rather happy that my grandmother is stuck in a nursing home; it gives me a reason to occasionally miss work.
I slept in until noon. I didn’t get up because I was getting hungry, but because I needed to shower. It’s August in Columbus, Ohio and that means it’s really effing hot. Especially for those of us who sleep in lofted beds. See, that means I’m higher off the ground and well, heat rises, so I get pretty hot in my bed.
Heat and summer and August aside, I think I made a good decision by staying home today to do nothing. Literally nothing. I did go and get a burrito and a soda to satisfy my glutton and sugar addiction, but that only requires a fifteen minute car ride and a swipe of my credit card. Nothing too difficult there. As I was munching on my burrito and watching some show that I downloaded, I realized that if I had all the wealth and power in the world, my day would not have been any different. That was the first epiphany of the lazy day.
The movie Office Space may ring a bell here; however, I think I fall on a deeper level than Ron Livingston. At the end of the movie, Peter was actually doing something. I, on the other hand, don’t want to do anything. Ever. The challenge behind this quest is that while I don’t want to do anything, I still want to get paid; I still want to make money. Rent and bills still need to be paid, there are some video games that need to be purchased, and a car may need to be bought in the future. So the ultimate question becomes: How do I do nothing and still make money? Humans have been seeking this answer for decades, maybe even centuries and I want to find the answer. I think it’s a lot harder to be lazy than what it seems. The ground work must be laid for laziness to occur and that ground work is costly, time-consuming, and difficult.
In the end, if done correctly, it must be worth it. Look at me; I’m already wondering if I can do the same thing tomorrow morning. It would be stupid to try, but my mind is already wandering there. It wants to stay home, sleep until one or two in the afternoon, and then play video games and watch movies or read and maybe type some stupid soliloquy about life. Today has been a good, lazy day. Unfortunately, I can’t repeat it yet. I still don’t know the answer to the ultimate lazy question. I’ll keep looking though.
And why is it so effing hot in August. Rhetorical question there. Doesn’t change anything. It’s still hot and I hate summer. The perfect solution for hot summer nights is a long, cold shower where I can shiver and think and pray. Yes, I actually pray all the time in the shower. Plus, the shower is a great place to begin another day of August. If there is one piece of truth out of this entire collection of bits and bytes, it’s that I will never name my daughter after this cursed, hellish month.
I slept in until noon. I didn’t get up because I was getting hungry, but because I needed to shower. It’s August in Columbus, Ohio and that means it’s really effing hot. Especially for those of us who sleep in lofted beds. See, that means I’m higher off the ground and well, heat rises, so I get pretty hot in my bed.
Heat and summer and August aside, I think I made a good decision by staying home today to do nothing. Literally nothing. I did go and get a burrito and a soda to satisfy my glutton and sugar addiction, but that only requires a fifteen minute car ride and a swipe of my credit card. Nothing too difficult there. As I was munching on my burrito and watching some show that I downloaded, I realized that if I had all the wealth and power in the world, my day would not have been any different. That was the first epiphany of the lazy day.
The movie Office Space may ring a bell here; however, I think I fall on a deeper level than Ron Livingston. At the end of the movie, Peter was actually doing something. I, on the other hand, don’t want to do anything. Ever. The challenge behind this quest is that while I don’t want to do anything, I still want to get paid; I still want to make money. Rent and bills still need to be paid, there are some video games that need to be purchased, and a car may need to be bought in the future. So the ultimate question becomes: How do I do nothing and still make money? Humans have been seeking this answer for decades, maybe even centuries and I want to find the answer. I think it’s a lot harder to be lazy than what it seems. The ground work must be laid for laziness to occur and that ground work is costly, time-consuming, and difficult.
In the end, if done correctly, it must be worth it. Look at me; I’m already wondering if I can do the same thing tomorrow morning. It would be stupid to try, but my mind is already wandering there. It wants to stay home, sleep until one or two in the afternoon, and then play video games and watch movies or read and maybe type some stupid soliloquy about life. Today has been a good, lazy day. Unfortunately, I can’t repeat it yet. I still don’t know the answer to the ultimate lazy question. I’ll keep looking though.
And why is it so effing hot in August. Rhetorical question there. Doesn’t change anything. It’s still hot and I hate summer. The perfect solution for hot summer nights is a long, cold shower where I can shiver and think and pray. Yes, I actually pray all the time in the shower. Plus, the shower is a great place to begin another day of August. If there is one piece of truth out of this entire collection of bits and bytes, it’s that I will never name my daughter after this cursed, hellish month.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)