The Joy Of The 8-Hour Day

(Originally Nov 12 2005)

........

Because after all, most people work this way. And they do it 5 days a week, whereas I am only scheduled to do it four.
When I did it in Trenton, the day was broken up into enough variety that it seemed to go by quickly. Especially when I had to race the week to finish paperwork.
When I did it as a Realtor in NYC last month, it was a VERY 8 hours because I travelled throught Manhattan and some of Brooklyn, and I could get to my destinations fast enough.
But when I was @ Starbucks, I was never scheduled for 8 hrs in any given day.
Now?
Now I go into work (just my 2nd full day, mind you) thinking that I'm heading into a bottomless pit. The prospect of eight hours of stationery labor feels like a sentence in jail. I did take to the barista position like a dolphin to water, and when the drinks were coming fast and heavy, time passed quickly enough--I even accidentally stayed forty minutes last night past my check out time! But it's all in the warmup that I have trouble.

Yeah. It's not the minutes or hours during the challenge. It's the time beforehand, when my mind is trying to dictate and order my plans for the upcoming day, and it finds itself swamped. Then it has the nerve to give me attitude, and make me anxious. Just because IT can't figure out what it's supposed to be doing, it wants to get all of me flustered and sweatty and fearful. It wants me to avoid and resist the projects instead of tackle them. It wants me to play City of Heroes instead of live a real life.

It's gotten me to the age of 41 without helping me to grow up.

Hey, mind--you're supposed to be on MY side!

Well, I look back and see that I have taken on some of the challenges that were necessary, although I haven't taken on enough. I've only taken on enough challenge to keep me in jellybeans and junkfood, but not enough to pay my rent or my car tickets. I avoided just the right amount of things to keep myself down and poor and immature. That's a comfortable place to be, but....not so good for the longrun.

Okay, I learned something else about Me today. Let's see what I can do to change it.