Monday, September 20, 2010

Day 279

Do you ever feel like your life has become a slightly less interesting version of that movie Groundhog Day? Every day I get up and do essentially the same things as I did the day before. Sure, it's not exactly the same, but it certainly feels familiar. I can't blame anyone for the predictable routines I follow. Most of them I have chosen freely. Nevertheless, there are still days when I wake up wishing I was walking down a completely different path.

I don't hate this "Groundhog Day" existence, but maybe a different kind of repetition might have been more fun. A "new client" Groundhog Day would be nice. Every day I would get a brand new client and we would have lunch and make grand plans for the future. We would never have to discover each other's shortcomings though, because the next day would bring another brand new client to impress. A "first date" Groundhog Day wouldn't be bad either, where you could tell your lame stories over and over again and people would continue to tell you how interesting it all sounded.

This isn't the way life works though. In real life, your friends get tired of hearing things they've heard 100 times already. Real work is seldom as grand and glorious as you'd thought it would be. You start out on a big adventure and one day you wake up and realize it has become a marathon race.

I'm a Gemini. At heart I'm a flaky sprinter, but out of necessity I've become a determined marathon runner. I get up every day, make the bed with military precision and pick up where I left off on long and complicated projects. Sometimes when I walk the dogs I daydream about making documentary films or writing hit songs, but that doesn't pay the bills. I've already tried that. 

What pays the bills is doing something over and over and over again until you get so good at it you could do it in your sleep. That's the problem. By the time you've gotten really good at anything, you're usually bored with it. Today, I'm busy, I'm bored and I'm tired. All at the same time.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day