My evil plan to save the world

mllesarah has discovered that she likes playing the games on my computer (or, more accurately, the games that come with GNOME). Sometimes now I have to pry her away from it just to check my e-mail! I figure it is just the next step in my subversive plot to get her to like Linux enough to use it herself.

Quite my job?

My mom sent me a strange e-mail last night.

I thought I would just drop you a little note. Dad and I would like to see you quite the job and enjoy this year. We've had to help Chris and we would put money in your account so you can buy things. With Dad working and me we feel we can help. We talked last night after we spole with you. Please think about this. Talk to you later. Mom

My parents have always hated my job, which is strange enough in itself. I work part-time, it pays fairly well, and I GET TO SLEEP most of the time! What's not to like?

They don't like that I have to ride my bike or walk--"so far" or "in the dark." Okay, so it is dark, but I don't hit anything with my bike, and there do not appear to be any rapists or muggers in Morris. They don't like that it takes up half my weekends, because it contributes to me not ever coming home. This is true. But a much bigger factor in me not coming home is it being four hours away and me being unable to drive! And Mom, despite my repeated assurances, does not believe that I sleep well at work, ever. While this is sometimse true, mostly I complain about it more than I should and make it sound worse than it is. I'm whiny. In all honesty, I think my job is cool and I'm lucky to have it.

On the other hand ... the commute does start to suck in the winter. On my bike it's only a few minutes but I won't ride my bike in the snow (because it's not just snow, it's ice and slush and other slippery things, and I still have the scar on my knee from sliding on a patch of ice hidden under some snow last winter), so it's a 25-30 minute walk, a little more than last year. And last year was bad enough, thanks very much.

And I'm supposed to work on Thanksgiving, and through all of my winter break. This is a huge factor; last year I was able to get a whole week off at Christmastime but I don't think I'll be so lucky this year. And I want to be home, especially around Christmas. Thanksgiving never impressed me, but I would be so unhappy to miss Christmas Eve with my family.

Part of me likes the idea of getting (as Dire Straits says) money for nothing ... the lazy part of me. A large part of me remembers why I got a job in the first place: so I could be self-sufficient and not have to ask for money. I have taken some from my parents since I started working; I felt bad about having to do it.

My dad was out of work for a year, he just got a job again in September. He's lost his job at least three times since I was eleven or so, and the first time was for two years, I think. My parents aren't destitute but they are in debt. My mom has a job but it's low-paying and high-stress.

My brother, as usual, leads a more expensive life then I do (he has a car, and lives in a much bigger town where the rent is higher ... besides, he goes around wanting things he doesn't need like new computers), but he lives near my parents and they help him out with his car repairs and new clothes and such like that. It's not that they wouldn't do that for me, they just don't.

The point of all this is, for many reasons--not least of all my own status as an "adult"--I thought it was good for me to not have to take money from them if I didn't need to. And I haven't needed to, much.

When I told Sarah about this last night she said "Having a job is good for you." She's right. It gives me something to do--without speech and with fairly easy, if time-consuming, classes this semester, I don't have much to do sometimes--and it also makes me be responsible and all of that. My parents want me to "enjoy the year," which sounds like them; my dad has said that it's silly to be in a hurry to start working; you'll be doing it for fifty years as it is. Makes sense to me.

But the thing is, I don't know if I would enjoy the year more if I weren't working. I'd have more of an excuse to be lazy then. I'd be spending money I knew wasn't mine. Wouldn't I?

But, it's not unreasonable for parents to give money to their kids, and that's not a bad thing. It's just that they don't have that much. But, really, since it's their idea for me to quit in the first place, I don't feel too bad for the responsibility of my survival falling back on them.

Mom has indeed gotten me to think about this--I was pleased she phrased it as such; my parents have finally learned how to phrase their suggestions as suggestions and not as demands. It's a strange idea that I'd not even really considered before; my job is a boring facet of my life, something always there and taken for granted, that makes me happy momentarily every other Friday when I have a check to deposit.

Having thought about it, I see that both sides of the argument have their good and bad points. I'm not sure yet who wins.