Life Outside the Funhouse

Now that I'm finally done with my JET application, I can finally get back to writing. But first...

Taken last week, this is the cleanest my desk will ever be

As you may or may not know, I got a job! Its just temp work, but I could get hired full time as long as I don't let my personality get in the way. So that's something to look forward to in case my application for a trip to Japan isn't accepted.

In case you cared, as most of my relatives seem to, the job is mostly as a mail boy (receiving and filing faxes, faxing and mailing exams when they've been processed) but the pay is good, the soda is free, I can listen to my iPod as long as no one needs me, I take regular smoke breaks, and I get to make annoying reminder calls to the clients to make sure they show up for their disability examination. All in all, its a pretty good job to have right now.

Unfortunately, a couple of the perks have come back around to bite me in the ass...

Yeah, I still haven't taken off the Halloween ribbon

As you can see, they gave me my own phone. Not only is the number a direct line to my desk, but it comes with a headset, voicemail, and it even has my name on it! I thought this was the coolest thing I'd ever gotten (if you didn't know, my last job was washing cars at UH Manoa, all day). It seemed great at first, until the shit started to hit the fan when I gained responsibilities (I hate when that happens). All the calls coming in became my problems to deal with, and by deal with I mean listen to doctors bitch, complain, and bitch again to me about new procedures I have no control over and ask questions I don't have the answers to. This has sadly taught me to become a lot more professional when taking calls but for a while there I would release a string of profanities every single time the phone rang (its safer to do it before answering).

Those paychecks I'm receiving also come with their price. Now that I actually have a substantial (just not sustainable) income, I now have money I don't feel guilty about spending on beer, cigarettes, whiskey, videogames, a round of shots, or comic books. Downside: to earn these paychecks means that I not only need to work while at work, but I need to show up to work so that I can work. In short, I now have drinking money but no time to go out and drink. Even while I was only earning cash from three days at the orchid farm I would still manage a happy hour once a week. I can't tell you how many times in just the last month that I've turned down going out because I was either too tired from work or knew that going out would mean not waking up on time the next morning.

Now that I've got a job, my wants have also been reduced to some pretty simple things:
1. An empty seat on the bus I can sleep on to and from work
2. Good specials at the two plate lunch places I eat at
3. My iPod to last the rest of the day (especially when I forget to charge it the night before)
4. A hot pot of coffee
and finally,
5. A clean, working toilet for when I release the mudsharks ("Legend of Neil" reference)