So where do I start? It’s been weeks since I’ve had thirty seconds to myself. Sleep has come in small doses and the stress of the work-week has put me on a ledge. But here it is the weekend and I have a few seconds to relax and the week ahead looks promising.
The Miami project is coming to a close. I have been all but living in Miami since early May. The next project is O’Hare. So in a few weeks I’ll be living in Chicago for a few months. Why did they decide to work Miami in the summer and Chicago in the winter? Because they’re the government; nothing is allowed to make sense. Boil me and then freeze me. Miami wasn’t so bad because I drove home just about every weekend. That won’t be possible from Chicago. With the market like it is, I’d be foolish to take a new job here in Jacksonville. I’d be first on the lay-off list at a new company and so far my company has really gone out of the way to keep from laying people off. So the job is safe, but it will be the full travel I’ve been dreading for the last few years. Eh, never been to Chicago, lots of history there. I’ll get a chance to check it all out.
I was scheduled to fly up to O’Hare on Monday to start the application process for my badge. Monday being a bank holiday, the security office is closed and the trip is cancelled. Rather than have me drive back to Miami for one day, I’ll be working from home on the O’Hare drawings. I haven’t had a “work from home” day in almost a year!
Wednesday I’m leaving for AutumnMeet ’08. Just about everything is wrong but I’m not worried. My partner in kitchen crime is not going to be able to get there until Friday night, Teresa and Becca won’t be able to make it at all, my camp gear is in a trailer that I still don’t have a hitch for and worst of all, I don’t have my drum. OHHHH the horror!!! My drum head busted a few weeks ago and I haven’t been able to get it re-headed. Wade gave me a skin for it but I haven’t had a chance to figure out how to put it on yet. It is quite an involved process and I’ve never done it before. Reading it on-line is very different from actually doing it.
So, with all these problems, why aren’t I losing my mind? Because for once all of this isn’t nearly as stressful as my day job. If I serve breakfast late at festival, some hippies will yell at me and say horrible things about me. (Yes they do. You wouldn’t believe how fucking vile these “fluffy bunny peace and love” types can get if you don’t serve their eggs and bacon on time or if you don’t have the right kind of wheat grass). So if I serve a late meal it means people living in the woods listening to trees say ugly words to me. But at work, if I fail to coordinate one of the thirty or so steps correctly and it turns out we put in an international checkpoint late, some people living in DC answering to a bunch of initialates (FAA, TSA, DHS, FBI) have ugly things to say to my boss about me. Somehow, I’m not so scared of burning the chicken this time.
And to be honest, as much as I love working the festival kitchen, I’m there to see some good people and to drum by the fire all night. I’ll give it my best shot and I’m not making any excuses or anything but hey, if I drum all night and I end up oversleeping, breakfast will just be a little late. Deal with it or drive the 17 miles to McDonald’s.
Work has been a full-on deal recently. Working all day to sort out last night’s work and to make sure the pieces fall into place for tonight’s work. And then I have to be on site all night as the work is going on so I can report it in the morning. Repeat cycle, sleep when you can. Some idiot was talking about the energy problem and suggested we move to a 4/10 work week rather than a 5/8. That would keep us off the roads an extra day each week. I haven’t had a work week under 60 hours in the last six months!!! Who the fuck is still working 9-5 anymore?
Even at “normal” office jobs, you’re in that office more than 8 hrs a day. If not you’re not looking for a raise are you? Not really looking to advance into the next position, make more money, better yourself… The days of the 40 hour office worker went away a long time ago. The chump that punches his time card on the whistle isn’t around very long. The real workers are stuck in there putting in unpaid OT because the company doesn’t want to pay for another worker. Stuck bringing their work home with them because if that TPS report isn’t done by Friday, the boss will be upset. 4/10… Most of the workforce is already pulling 5/10 and getting paid shit.
This asshole that recommends working 4/10 in an effort to save energy is the same dumbfuck that thinks his electric hybrid car is saving energy. Hey asshat, that electricity came from somewhere and unless you have a windmill farm in your back yard, I’m guessing it came from the same coal-burning plant mine came from. All you’re doing is moving the exhaust from your tailpipe to the power plant. Go crash into a tree.
Ohhh, I’m suddenly angry aren’t I?
Alright, as long as I’m already on the angry roll, let’s go with this one…
It’s election time. That means it’s time for all the Hollywood types and their cult of brainless followers to start saying they’ll move to another country if candidate X or Y wins this year. So in response I say, “GO!!!!! Please! Go now! Don’t wait! I encourage dumb motherfuckers like you to leave all the time. Don’t wait for an election year, just get your shit and go!!!” Or is it all just empty talk? Right. I thought so.
Only the dumbest fucking people on the planet could think that moving to another country is the answer to fixing all our problems. May I suggest moving to some place where all your compassion will be appreciated, like east Europe or just about anywhere in Africa? You could really do some good there. No, these people always say Canada or Costa Rica, or England or some place nice. Somewhere they’d go on vacation. You know what? Fuck you, catch malaria, don’t come back!!!
Actually, I have to amend part of that last rant. I haven’t heard anyone say they were stupid enough to think they’d be better off in a foreign country if Obama wins. I only hear this from people about McCain winning. I’m not coming out as a supporter of either side and I’m not saying that Republicans are smarter that Democrats, but I only hear Democrats say they’ll move away if McCain wins. And in years past the same was said about the Republican candidate. Maybe the Republicans have figured out that hey, the system may be broken, but it’s still pretty fucking good compared to most of the rest of the world.
Ouch, it actually hurt a little bit to say something nice about either political party. I hate Republicans, I hate Democrats. I hate politics. The system IS broken, we do need to fix it. Bluffing that you’ll move away if your particular pet isn’t elected is not the answer. So what is the answer? Well I don’t have one. No one does. Thomas Jefferson had a solution. He said there needed to be a revolution every 200 years or so. We’re overdue.
So I’ll bitch and moan but can I come up with a solution? Sure. The only answer I can think of is for you, me and the person sitting next to you to get up off our asses and run for office. When the average American has a say in the political process, maybe we’ll have a better system. Politicians are born and bred. Very few working-class politicians. There is a few of them out there but we need more. Lots more. And don’t get hung up on your desires, find out what the people want. Not what the people’s churches want. Not what the people’s bosses want. Hit the streets and go door to door. Elect someone who comes from among us. If Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have proven anything, they’ve shown that my mother was right, “ANYONE can become President.”
I’m actually out of breath after that one. I feel like standing on a podium and making a public speech! I missed all of the debates, I had to work during most of them and I was at a Henry Rollins show for the first one. But in the true spirit of modern technology, I followed the debates on my BlackBerry. A few of my e-friends were talking about the debates on Twitter and I got a lot of comments about what was going on. Twitter, Tivo… Nothing ever happens live anymore.
I’ve got a lot more crap to spew out here but I’m tired and there is a beautiful woman who hasn’t seen me very much in the last few weeks lying in the other room who would rather I’d come to bed rather than stay up all night telling the internet it is wrong.
For some reason, some Lennon lyrics have been running through my head while writing this all up. I don’t know if they really fit what I’ve been saying but dammit, it’s how I feel right now…
“I don’t believe in Elvis, I don’t believe in Zimmerman, I don’t believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.”
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