![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
choco_froshToday, I am reflecting on paradoxes, and on some minor fails on my part.
(Well, also the weekend. Mostly the weekend, actually.)
The first paradox is that in some ways, being employed is really easy, and being unemployed is difficult. I don't just mean because of the "No income" thing; I mean that when you're employed, you have a time when you have to be at work, and you just go there.
Being unemployed, you have to MAKE yourself actually get out of bed at a reasonable hour; you have to resist the temptation that, since you don't have to be anywhere at any PARTICULAR time, you could just spend a few minutes working on your new medieval church design, or rereading that one scene in The Collapsing Empire, and then of course a few minutes turns into a couple hours, and you still haven't done anything about that whole employment thing.
Or even blogging.
The second paradox is that on the two days after I became unemployed, I continued the previous two days' horrible trend of getting up before 6.
Now Sunday...well, (a) getting up before six was the PLAN, but in fact I hadn't reset my alarm, so it was a couple minutes AFTER six when I realized that was a possibility and threw myself out of bed. And in any case (b) getting up at or before six is practically normal on Sundays if you're me, 'cause that way I can get to church with a few minutes on hand to get coffee and try to remember what the Sam Hill we're singing before choir rehearsal actually starts. Then it's sing, sing some more, ring bells (which went pretty well, despite or because of there only being five of us), and then in this case walk across town and ring some more bells, what with the whole "only five people" thing.
Saturday, I was drivingsovay to Worcester for the State Democratic Convention, and wanted to get up early enough not only to get them to the Convention in good time, but also to go for a really short run before I left in case I didn't actually get my act together enough to go hiking. And then of course I DID go hiking.
Mt. Wachusett is what I would describe as a nice little mountain. I detoured on the way up to go see a meadow which turned out to have apple trees (some of which I wassailed). The top has a 360-degree view, which was awesome. I was gazing off into the distance when an older guy asked if I was looking for anything in particular. "Is that Greylock?" I asked, pointing toward a distant ridgeline.
"No, THAT's Greylock (a much less conspicuous bump further south). "You were looking at Vermont."
"Ah. And that's Boston in the opposite direction, being rather obvious..."
(I should upload that picture.)
Less awesome were the hordes of people on top, some of whom followed me down.
I doodled around on the way home, since Sovay was going to be speached at til at least 4, and there was some really pretty countryside. I pulled over at one point across from a historical marker: I was a bit worried that the police might object, but then decided that there was practically no one using the road and that the local constabulary probably had better things to do with their time anyway.
These conclusions were proven, respectively, extremely wrong and extremely accurate when the enormous parade of bikers came through a few minutes later, accompanied by a police escort and something that looked like a small tank.
Went back to Worcester, finished a job application in the library, picked up Sovay, drove back, attempted to figure out through a haze of sleep deprivation and hypoglycemia what we wanted to do for dinner: ultimately decided that Mamaleh's was worth having to get back in the car and then find parking in Kendall Square. Because Mamaleh's is just that awesome.
*******
(Went contra dancing LAST night. Need to learn how to follow properly, .)
(Well, also the weekend. Mostly the weekend, actually.)
The first paradox is that in some ways, being employed is really easy, and being unemployed is difficult. I don't just mean because of the "No income" thing; I mean that when you're employed, you have a time when you have to be at work, and you just go there.
Being unemployed, you have to MAKE yourself actually get out of bed at a reasonable hour; you have to resist the temptation that, since you don't have to be anywhere at any PARTICULAR time, you could just spend a few minutes working on your new medieval church design, or rereading that one scene in The Collapsing Empire, and then of course a few minutes turns into a couple hours, and you still haven't done anything about that whole employment thing.
Or even blogging.
The second paradox is that on the two days after I became unemployed, I continued the previous two days' horrible trend of getting up before 6.
Now Sunday...well, (a) getting up before six was the PLAN, but in fact I hadn't reset my alarm, so it was a couple minutes AFTER six when I realized that was a possibility and threw myself out of bed. And in any case (b) getting up at or before six is practically normal on Sundays if you're me, 'cause that way I can get to church with a few minutes on hand to get coffee and try to remember what the Sam Hill we're singing before choir rehearsal actually starts. Then it's sing, sing some more, ring bells (which went pretty well, despite or because of there only being five of us), and then in this case walk across town and ring some more bells, what with the whole "only five people" thing.
Saturday, I was driving
sovay to Worcester for the State Democratic Convention, and wanted to get up early enough not only to get them to the Convention in good time, but also to go for a really short run before I left in case I didn't actually get my act together enough to go hiking. And then of course I DID go hiking.Mt. Wachusett is what I would describe as a nice little mountain. I detoured on the way up to go see a meadow which turned out to have apple trees (some of which I wassailed). The top has a 360-degree view, which was awesome. I was gazing off into the distance when an older guy asked if I was looking for anything in particular. "Is that Greylock?" I asked, pointing toward a distant ridgeline.
"No, THAT's Greylock (a much less conspicuous bump further south). "You were looking at Vermont."
"Ah. And that's Boston in the opposite direction, being rather obvious..."
(I should upload that picture.)
Less awesome were the hordes of people on top, some of whom followed me down.
I doodled around on the way home, since Sovay was going to be speached at til at least 4, and there was some really pretty countryside. I pulled over at one point across from a historical marker: I was a bit worried that the police might object, but then decided that there was practically no one using the road and that the local constabulary probably had better things to do with their time anyway.
These conclusions were proven, respectively, extremely wrong and extremely accurate when the enormous parade of bikers came through a few minutes later, accompanied by a police escort and something that looked like a small tank.
Went back to Worcester, finished a job application in the library, picked up Sovay, drove back, attempted to figure out through a haze of sleep deprivation and hypoglycemia what we wanted to do for dinner: ultimately decided that Mamaleh's was worth having to get back in the car and then find parking in Kendall Square. Because Mamaleh's is just that awesome.
*******
(Went contra dancing LAST night. Need to learn how to follow properly, .)
no subject
Date: 2017-06-06 01:18 am (UTC)You should. "You were looking at Vermont" is a great punch line.
Thank you again for driving me. I'm glad you got a mountain in recompense.