My life is so much harder than yours...

I just started a new job. It pays a lot better than my old one, but to get here on time I need to wake up an hour and a half earlier than I used to. That's a lot.

The MBTA has just switched the station closest to my house from the old token-driven system over to the new CharlieTicket system which means I need to purchase a small stored-value card some mornings to use at the station. Because this has to be done though an automated, easy-to-navigate, computerized vending machine this adds like thirty seconds on to my morning commute.

I arrive at work. For almost two weeks there has been nothing to do here at the new job. I struggle to keep myself occupied. (This would not be a struggle if AIM were allowed.) This game of "finding ways to keep busy" is also hindered by the company's firewall which blocks a staple: espn.com (fyi: gmail, hotmail, yahoomail, ebay, and gunsnammo.com are not blocked).

After six and a half to seven hours of this (with a one hour break for lunch)(and at least one fifteen minute break for coffee) I have to make my way back homeon the train. The stations near the office have not switched to the stored value card system yet, however, which means I still need to purchase tokens for my ride home. Two different mediums of exchange for the same transit system! Ridiculous! This makes my life exceedingly difficult.

After the cards/tokens have been sorted out and I arrive home the real hardships begin. I need to make a choice. A hard choice. I need to choose between playing my new Xbox video game, and watching the Red Sox game on NESN (assuming the Red Sox are playing). On the one hand, I enjoy playing these video games; on the other, I don't want to miss the baseball game, because I love baseball.

I almost invariably choose the Red Sox, which only leads to regret as I morosely anticipate another evening without console-fueled computer-generated violence and action. I sometimes find myself wishing the Red Sox would just score a few runs, and then get through the game as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, major league baseball games are usually two and a half hours long. That is a long time to wait to play video games.

But. I don't want to just go to bed after the game. My chore then becomes convincing myself to stay up a little later to fit everything in. "It's only midnight, a little RPG action won't hurt." Sometimes my brothers ask me to stay up and watch movies too.

Then I have to try and get just a few hours sleep before it all starts over again. Up an hour earlier, stored-value cards for the train, nothing to do at work. Also, the terminal I was assigned has an old-fashioned two-button mouse with no scroll wheel, and the keyboard is old too; the keys go "clackety-clackety-clack" when I type. But, hey, if it was easy, they wouldn't call it work, am I right?

-t