Change I Can Believe In
I hate Daylight Savings time.
Growing up in Arizona, I never had to deal with DST beyond adjusting an arrival time in Vegas depending on the time of year. It wasn't until Seattle where I felt the full effects of the time change, the first effect being that eerie feeling in October when I would walk out of work at 4:30pm that first week and it would already be dark.
I still don't fully understand the concept; is the change to give us an hour more of daylight in the evenings during the summer, or an hour more in the mornings during the winter? Either way, I think it's a retarded idea. What's an hour more either way? I may be misunderstood, but I believe that it was enacted to provide farmers more time to work depending on the season. Maybe if we were still a primarily agrarian economy it would make sense (perhaps if this recession really runs deep enough we'll get back to that point) but now, I don't see the point, unless it's part of a enormous conspiracy to fuck with my sleep schedule (which it could very well be).
I didn't really adjust my sleep schedule going into this first week back into the workforce because, even though I was usually getting up no earlier than 10am, I've been able to wake up early on short notice many times before & still function. However, if I had realized sooner that I would be getting up earlier for the work THE SAME WEEK that DST kicked in, then I would have adjusted. Going from waking up at 10am to 6:30am sucks, but it's doable; now that 6:30am is what 5:30am was last week, that's a big difference. I can't think of a more perfect cliche than to say that I'm probably in for a rude awakening this week.
......
Speaking of the new job, I'm definitely excited about this opportunity, but also little bit sad and nervous, equally. One thing I realized during these past 10 months is that, in the event that I somehow became independently wealthy, I wouldn't be one of those people who "has to work" to stay busy or keep from being bored. Most of the time I felt myself being bored during this time wasn't because I didn't know how to spend my time, it was a lack of resources that kept me from spending my time the way I wanted to, and that's not to mention the fact that I didn't even do non-financially dependent activities as much as I should have (i.e. working out, reading, etc.) Yeah, I was a homebody for the majority of my time, but for the most part I enjoyed it. That's not to say that I prefer it, but it wasn't the worst thing in the world either. A small part of me is going to miss my daily routine of waking up late, playing XBox or poker, hanging out with Wac during our brief hours together, then rinsing and repeating.
I'm also a bit nervous because, heading into tomorrow, I don't know what to expect. Well, let me rephrase: I know what to expect, considering my boss already planned out my first week. What I should say is that I don't know how I'm going to feel. Aside from the mental adjustment from being a lazy bum to being a highly productive HR professional, there's also things like fitting in with my first new company in 13 years, getting accustomed to one of the worst commutes in the U.S. three times a week, etc. I don't know how much sense this makes to anyone else, but over these past 10 months, it felt like my job was just to be a professional applicant. Of course the goal was to get a job, but because it was so prolonged, I kind of forgot about that end result. Now that it's all coming to an end, it feels...weird.
......
I already celebrated my new job several weeks ago when I first accepted the position, but since this past weekend was kind of my "last weekend of freedom", I took one more opportunity to get hammered on Friday night. It didn't end poorly, but it didn't end well either. Wac found me sitting on the floor at 5am, cross-legged, hiccuping and searching frantically for my glasses; I remember none of this. I also vaguely remember the various drunken messages I left on some internet social mediums, one message which resulted in having to confront a former friend of mine one last time about why we're no longer friends. Granted, most of these messages were hysterical and harmless, but the feeling of waking up and forgetting so many of my actions isn't as funny as it used to be. Not to mention the aches in my bones and the disappointment that my Saturdays weren't starting until around Noon; the price of drinking has certainly gone up as I've gotten older.
I also got some weird idea in my head to lose weight again. I've fallen off the physical fitness wagon pretty hard since the 1\2 marathon in January, and I've hit a point where I'm finally starting to appreciate the time when I was on that wagon. Certainly one culprit of all this is how much I've been drinking. I wouldn't come anywhere close to saying I've got a problem; 95% of my drinking is concentrated between the hours of 5pm-1am on Fridays. But alcoholism aside, drinking directly conflicts with any healthy objectives I set for myself.
So, as if I didn't need enough changes in my life this week, I'm setting one more. Complete sobriety until Memorial Day weekend. I can't hold it any longer than that, because we've got a music festival planned that weekend, with one of the days devoted specifically to getting wasted at the campsite. Until then, however, I'm back to being boring and sober. No more knocking down signs, no more falling asleep at bars, no more putting random objects in other people's beers, no more drunken messages in the middle of the night.
I know, no more fun. Just bear with me until Memorial Day. After that, I promise you: things will change.
Growing up in Arizona, I never had to deal with DST beyond adjusting an arrival time in Vegas depending on the time of year. It wasn't until Seattle where I felt the full effects of the time change, the first effect being that eerie feeling in October when I would walk out of work at 4:30pm that first week and it would already be dark.
I still don't fully understand the concept; is the change to give us an hour more of daylight in the evenings during the summer, or an hour more in the mornings during the winter? Either way, I think it's a retarded idea. What's an hour more either way? I may be misunderstood, but I believe that it was enacted to provide farmers more time to work depending on the season. Maybe if we were still a primarily agrarian economy it would make sense (perhaps if this recession really runs deep enough we'll get back to that point) but now, I don't see the point, unless it's part of a enormous conspiracy to fuck with my sleep schedule (which it could very well be).
I didn't really adjust my sleep schedule going into this first week back into the workforce because, even though I was usually getting up no earlier than 10am, I've been able to wake up early on short notice many times before & still function. However, if I had realized sooner that I would be getting up earlier for the work THE SAME WEEK that DST kicked in, then I would have adjusted. Going from waking up at 10am to 6:30am sucks, but it's doable; now that 6:30am is what 5:30am was last week, that's a big difference. I can't think of a more perfect cliche than to say that I'm probably in for a rude awakening this week.
......
Speaking of the new job, I'm definitely excited about this opportunity, but also little bit sad and nervous, equally. One thing I realized during these past 10 months is that, in the event that I somehow became independently wealthy, I wouldn't be one of those people who "has to work" to stay busy or keep from being bored. Most of the time I felt myself being bored during this time wasn't because I didn't know how to spend my time, it was a lack of resources that kept me from spending my time the way I wanted to, and that's not to mention the fact that I didn't even do non-financially dependent activities as much as I should have (i.e. working out, reading, etc.) Yeah, I was a homebody for the majority of my time, but for the most part I enjoyed it. That's not to say that I prefer it, but it wasn't the worst thing in the world either. A small part of me is going to miss my daily routine of waking up late, playing XBox or poker, hanging out with Wac during our brief hours together, then rinsing and repeating.
I'm also a bit nervous because, heading into tomorrow, I don't know what to expect. Well, let me rephrase: I know what to expect, considering my boss already planned out my first week. What I should say is that I don't know how I'm going to feel. Aside from the mental adjustment from being a lazy bum to being a highly productive HR professional, there's also things like fitting in with my first new company in 13 years, getting accustomed to one of the worst commutes in the U.S. three times a week, etc. I don't know how much sense this makes to anyone else, but over these past 10 months, it felt like my job was just to be a professional applicant. Of course the goal was to get a job, but because it was so prolonged, I kind of forgot about that end result. Now that it's all coming to an end, it feels...weird.
......
I already celebrated my new job several weeks ago when I first accepted the position, but since this past weekend was kind of my "last weekend of freedom", I took one more opportunity to get hammered on Friday night. It didn't end poorly, but it didn't end well either. Wac found me sitting on the floor at 5am, cross-legged, hiccuping and searching frantically for my glasses; I remember none of this. I also vaguely remember the various drunken messages I left on some internet social mediums, one message which resulted in having to confront a former friend of mine one last time about why we're no longer friends. Granted, most of these messages were hysterical and harmless, but the feeling of waking up and forgetting so many of my actions isn't as funny as it used to be. Not to mention the aches in my bones and the disappointment that my Saturdays weren't starting until around Noon; the price of drinking has certainly gone up as I've gotten older.
I also got some weird idea in my head to lose weight again. I've fallen off the physical fitness wagon pretty hard since the 1\2 marathon in January, and I've hit a point where I'm finally starting to appreciate the time when I was on that wagon. Certainly one culprit of all this is how much I've been drinking. I wouldn't come anywhere close to saying I've got a problem; 95% of my drinking is concentrated between the hours of 5pm-1am on Fridays. But alcoholism aside, drinking directly conflicts with any healthy objectives I set for myself.
So, as if I didn't need enough changes in my life this week, I'm setting one more. Complete sobriety until Memorial Day weekend. I can't hold it any longer than that, because we've got a music festival planned that weekend, with one of the days devoted specifically to getting wasted at the campsite. Until then, however, I'm back to being boring and sober. No more knocking down signs, no more falling asleep at bars, no more putting random objects in other people's beers, no more drunken messages in the middle of the night.
I know, no more fun. Just bear with me until Memorial Day. After that, I promise you: things will change.
posted by Matt at
12:00 PM
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