Grindin'
Construction has begun on IL-53, the highway I take to and from work every day. This is gonna add about 15-20 minutes to the drive each way, increase the wear and tear on my car, and decrease my gas mileage with all the stop and go biznass. >:-o
I'd have to say that right now, the stress in my life is close to an all-time high. It's not even like my job is all that demanding or my supervisors are putting added pressure on me. But working overtime plus the commute takes away my whole week, more or less. I wish I had more time to hang out with friends or just spend alone in peace, but I can't.
The way it is, I come home from work, do a bunch of little things, and before I know it, I'm tired and I need to go to sleep. Eat dinner, wash dishes, make my lunch. Talk to people on IM and maybe write a blog or read other peoples pages. If I feel in the mood to be clean, I'll take a shower. If time permits, I'll play 1 or at most 2 games of Starcraft. Little 15-30 minute things add up and fill up my post-work day to the point where I can't even figure out where my time went at the end of the night.
If I go lift, that's at least an hour right there, plus the time it takes to cook and eat my post-workout Jack's Sausage Pizza. I don't even think about doing anything else on those days.
Kind of stupid, but I'll plan out my week and shoot for doing one task per day. Like this:
Monday - Eat dinner with friend
Tuesday - Stop by Dominicks and buy lunch meat
Wednesday - Bench
Thursday - Fill out rebate forms and pay bills
Friday - Prepare material for teaching Sunday School
On weekends, maybe I'll get to do three or four things:
Saturday - Watch Illini game, change oil/wash car, Barleycorn/Buzz
Sunday - Church, nap, squats, laundry
The sad thing is, I actually feel satisfied and pat myself on the back if I get each of these things done. And I actually feel too tired to do anything else after a grueling session of lunch meat purchasing or rebate form filling out. It's like "dang, I'm so pooped from writing that check and putting the stamp on the envelope. Better call it quits for the day before I get too burned out!"
Notice certain things missing or lacking from the above list:
- Spend time with the girlfriend. Actually, I think she is probably even busier than me. Especially lately, she's had to study for a big wave of exams. No pity for her though - this coming weekend is the beginning of her Spring Break, and she's leaving for Cali on Friday for some playtime. So I won't be hanging out with her then for sure.
- Watch movie. I used to watch at least one movie every week or every other week. But I think the last movie I saw, in either the theater or rented, was 25th Hour. That was around 2 months ago or so. You all know I've been dying to catch "How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days", "Kangaroo Jack", and "Maid In Manhattan" but just haven't had the time.
- Only 2 days of lifting per week. That's not enough. >:-o
- On average, about 2 chances to hang out with friends. In college, I basically lived with friends and did stuff with them all day, every day. Now, it takes extra effort to plan something to do, and maybe a special occasion like someone's birthday to make people motivated to get together. Especially tough with friends who don't live around Darien.
- Read up on Spring Training reports for upcoming fantasy baseball draft. March 16th is the big day for kicking off the 5th season of Dudo/Dizudo league baseball, and I am gonna be ill prepared. >:-o
- Watch TV. Seriously, I barely watch any TV anymore, outside of Illini basketball. I miss Sportscenter and Conan the most. The last memory I have of watching a show is the last 40 minutes of the Joe Millionaire finale. Oh wait, actually I watched some of Smallville yesterday. Here comes a tangent. This show facking blows. The only reason I took some time to watch it yesterday is because I happened to land on that channel when flipping around, and also because I hear Kristin Kreuk is all the rage these days. Well, I guess she is an exception to the suckiness of the show. But really, I couldn't care less if Lana and Clark get together. You all know that it's only a matter of time before it happens anyways. Not to mention it ain't gonna last because Clark ends up with Lois Lane when he gets older. To be fair, the acting is alright but the dialogue can't get much cheesier. All the characters have to act so smug and witty with every line they say. I lasted about 25 minutes and 2 commercial breaks into the show before it drove me nuts and I had to turn it off.
It's kind of surprising to myself that I still somehow write a lot of blogs and make time to read and comment on other people's stuff. But there is something relaxing about writing thoughts down. Reading other people's stuff is nice too. Although I hope reading each others' blogs doesn't end up replacing human interaction. For some friends, like Texas man Vic, that's become my main thread of keeping in touch (other than Battle.net of course). Which is kind of sad, considering he updates like once every 2 months or so.
I guess I've been complaining more than usual these days. Well, I hope nobody gets depressed from reading what I write. But a lot of people lately have been telling me that I look tired. See, it's not so much that I'm tired, but that I'm drained. Phyiscally and emotionally both. I haven't had a chance to sleep in for a long time. My relationship with Olivia is basically limited to a phone call once every few nights and maybe a quick lunch on Sundays. I don't have much quiet time alone other than the 40 minutes it takes for me to fall asleep.
Yeah, I don't mean to complain so much. I don't think I am a complaining-type person normally, usually I just go with the flow and I'm happy. And it's not that I'm unhappy, cause I think there's still a lot to be happy about in my life. It just sucks to not have much free time, I guess. I don't even have a wife and kids or a house to take care of, which makes me wonder how much worse it could be if I did.
But right now, I'm really just looking forward to the point when I get off this overtime schedule, and move to a place closer to work. The time could come in as early as a month from now, I think. That will potentially give me 3 extra hours per day, just in subtracting the hour of overtime and 2 hours saved in driving time. 3 hours could be huge, maybe I would be able to do two things instead of one on weekdays. We'll have to see though.
Currently playing on my Winamp: Evanescence - Bring Me To Life
I've been steadily losing interest in hip-hop/R&B stuff for the past year or so. Almost everything I hear is annoying and unoriginal these days (with the exception of R. Kelly's Ignition Remix of course). On the other hand, I'm getting back into so-called "white music". Not the pop-guitar kind of stuff. But this song is great, I like the sound cause it's fresh and original. That plus the Linkin Park song is dominating my playlist. I think I will probably have to get the Linkin Park CD, METEORA, when it comes out March 25th.
