Bringing Home the Bacon

     Before I really get into this post I need to preface it by saying that I'm thankful to have a job.  There are many people today who can't cover all their expenses because they don't have gainful employment or any employment at all.  That's not the case with our family and for that I'm extremely thankful.  Lyle has always been a wonderful provider and I've been blessed that I've always had a full time job that I've made sure to keep and between the two we have what we need and enough to save and pay off debt and do responsible things like by life insurance and food storage etc with the extra that we have.
     Things I like about my job: four day work weeks, plentiful sick and vacation time, good insurance, no working on nights, weekends or holidays, paid holidays off, a flexible schedule, some of the people I work with are fantastic, the ability to oversee my own workload and schedule my own day (most of the time), a physical aspect to my work (I don't mind the manual labor and it gets me away from my desk and staring at the computer all day), and other things.
     Having said this, I do have to confess that it's hard working a full time job.  Though I like some of the people I work with, it's very difficult to work with the others.  In the winter I go to work when it's dark and come out when it's dark and hardly see sunlight.  I don't get paid very much, though it's enough for what we need.  Most of all, there are a lot of changes lately: job functions, being forced to do things you don't want to (which now and then is pretty much every job), changes in management and other situations that have made it difficult some days to be there.  There are days I wake up and pray for a snowstorm, power outage, 24 hour flu bug, earthquake or various other drastic measure so that I won't have to go to work.  Then I get up and go anyway.  And honestly I don't love what I do.  Don't get me wrong, I don't hate it either but I don't jump out of bed every morning so excited to go and do computer work and drag a red cart around the building moving boxes.  I do like driving the forklift, as long as it's not hours at a time, which happens occasionally.
     Because of all the changes lately,  I've been having a hard time.  So I'm going to use this post as a way to hopefully vent some of my frustrated feelings...using humor, one of my trademark coping mechanisms.
     The other day a situation arose that I was frustrated about and I sat there working thinking: 'I hate my job.  I wish I didn't have to work.'  Then I decided I wanted to be more positive so I decided to think of things that I preferred my job over.  What I came up with made made me laugh: 'I'd rather be here than have bamboo shoots stuck up my fingernails.'  I realized that this may not be a true comparison so I came up with something else instead: 'I'd rather be here than shoveling elephant poop all day.'
     I surfed the net for the worst jobs I could find and found the following (I left out a number of ones that I would really rather not even think about):

*Animal sperm collector
*Lumberjack
*Bathroom attendant
*Taser tester
*Grave digger

You will never catch me working someplace like this!

*Factory worker
*Leech gatherer
*Cat food quality controller
*Janitor at a porno theater
*Mosquito researcher (in Brazil they have to let the mosquitos bite them as they attempt to catch them)
*Roadkill remover
*Food taster
*Personal chef to the North Korean dictator
*Stable cleaner
*Embalmer
*Odor tester
*Hazmat driver (wading around in sewage...ew!)
*Dairy farmer

     Now I feel a little bit better about my job.  But still there are days when it's hard to go.  So many things I'd rather do and ways I'd rather spend my time.  I was listening to my iPOD the other day and this song came on.

Hit my snooze alarm for the 27th time

Just don't feel like goin' to work

I think I'll call my boss, then I'm

Gonna hack and cough and wheeze

Swear I got some strange disease

What's that little twerp gonna say?

I'm callin' in sick today

Callin' in sick today

I could shine my pennies or clean my lava lamp

I could spend all day in my underwear 

Watching 'Ernest Goes to Camp'

I could sit and county my hair

I could burp my Tupperware

I'm not busy now anyway

I'm callin' in sick today

Callin' in sick today

Ain't goin' to work, no way

Callin' in sick today

I can do anything I want to

I am invincible now

I'm on fire, baby

I'm alive, I'm alive, can you hear me world?

I'm alive

Maybe I'll spend all day staring at the sun and trying not to squint

Maybe I'll make a huge color tapestry 

From my belly button lint

When I'm sick of takin' abuse

I just make up some lame excuse

Freedom's just seven digits away

I'm callin' in sick today

Callin' in sick today

Ain't goin' to work, now way

Callin' in sick today

     Thank you Weird Al Yankovic for almost perfectly describing my feelings on the subject this week.  I may be thankful for my job, but I'm also thankful I'm not at it today.

     Well, until I don't need the paycheck I'll keep getting up and going to another day in Paradise at the office.