(no subject)

There's not really so much going on that I've felt the need to update here. Stuff does happen every day. Nice things or things that are really frustrating or, maybe just stuff that's kind of amusing. Stuff that's amusing to everyone or, maybe things that need so much contextual information that only someone who was there would be interested. What's frustrating for me is that when I sit down to write something, I can't think of anything interesting to write. It's got to be interesting to write here, and I can't think of anything except for the same old stuff. November and December are busy months, so it's like, "Well, work is pretty intense. Covered in warehouse dust again." or something like that.

So, I dunno.

I'm reading this book, "Working" by Studs Terkel. It was released in the late 70's. At the time it was published, it was a pretty big deal and it's a pretty hefty tome that's just full of short interviews with regular people from a lot of different walks of life where the author just kind of let them talk about what it was like to do what they do and how it makes them feel. My opinion on it is almost universally good. I mean, it's really a pretty amazing book. What I was really struck with is the similarity between then and now in terms of how people feel about their work. Feelings like alienation, hopelessness, and pride are pretty common. Resignation is common. There's a lot of people who express that they feel they're waiting their job out until they can retire. Some are already aware that there's no likelihood of real retirement for them. If you think it sounds like a dull premise, it really isn't. One of the really interesting bits is how people talk and how stilted dialog is in most books in comparison. I feel like I understand people a little better after reading a solid amount of this, so I guess if you're the kind of person who writes dialog or does a fair amount of role-playing, this is almost a reference document for you, but I'd recommend reading it to anyone who's interested in people, really.

Anyway, I turned 30 last Friday, which was Black Friday for those of you paying attention to that sort of thing. What did we do as celebration? Nada. We - I mean, Kay and I specifically - work in retail and you pretty much just work on Black Friday. It wasn't really that bad. I work at a furniture store in the warehouse and Kay works at an OfficeMax and both of them wanted us there but most shoppers were fixated on totally different things. So, you know, long hours but nothing exceptional. Still, scheduling means that Katie and I don't have a day together for kind of a while.

How do I feel about 30? I don't really care. I have a lot of stuff to deal with and an arbitrary date describing how old I am doesn't really hold my attention. I feel mildly distressed about it because I feel like I should have met more of my goals by now, that I should be farther along on the path I've selected for myself, but I've also thought long and hard about what I want and what I've already dealt with, and I'm more concerned with dealing with what's in front of me right now than I am that I've turned the big three-oh. I think I got a lot of my concerns out of the way at 29, though. Right now, our financial situation's very stressful, but only in that I'm constantly managing it. It's worlds better than it was last year, and if I had any Thanksgiving statement, I'd probably say that I'm just really thankful that Katie and I both have jobs that aren't great but, at least, are pretty solid. We're making our payments and getting by, and soon we'll be doing pretty well and just being able to look out at the future a little bit and actually see how your life will improve isn't something that I've been able to do in a tangible way for too long.