Prepare for rant

Hello, friends!

I said I was thinking of updating Mon-Wed-Fri and that didn't happen. I decided that I will definitely update Mon-Wed-Fri... that will keep me from neglecting this blog.

The fact is that even though I wanted to post something, I still remain quite tired. The fact that I'm posting this exactly because I'm tired is ironic but it does make sense. You see, I'm writing this post to rant a bit.

An Earth day lasts 24 hours. Of those 24 hours I spend roughly 8 still (or should, it's usually less, because of the reason I'm going to explain in the next few lines). That leaves 16 hours. Of those 16 hours I spend 9 at work: the work shifts here are 8 hours long, but that doesn't include a mandatory unpaid lunch break that lasts 1 hour. Well, actually, it's not mandatory,  you can keep working for that hour if you want... you still have to stay 9 hours, though. So while in other countries the norm for work is 9 to 5, here it's 9 to 6. 

So 16 minus 9 is 7 hours. Now, since everybody works 9 to 6, when I take the bus to go to the office and when I take the bus to come back home the traffic is a mess. There are traffic jams everywhere. Commuting steals 2 hours more of my day. Yes, 2 hours... I wish I were exagerating, but I'm not. The same trip out of rush hour can take half the time.

All in all, work consumes 11 hours of my days. That's almost half a day, which sounds quite bleak. That means I have about 5 hours for myself, right? Wrong, because after I wake up in the morning I have breakfast and I take a shower; if I hurry that takes 30 to 40 minutes. 4 hours 20 for myself then?

Sure...                                

Of those 4 hours and 20 minutes I alot about 1 hour to have dinner with my family. I mean, I'm not at home for most of the day, I like knowing what my family is up to and share some time with them. It's not fair that I spend more time at work than with those I love... And talking about the ones I love, I barely get to chat for an hour with my beautiful girlfriend, and that's only if I steal some time from my sleep. You see, 3 hours and a half are not enough to catch up with my social life, chat with my girlfriend, and maybe read a chapter of a book or watch an episode of a series.                                                   

All things considered, I'm lucky I'm not the one that cooks and shops for groceries at home, because then I wouldn't have time for anything.

Am I complaining without reason or does it sound like a fair rant? I mean, those of you who have jobs, do you feel that you're married to your job? If that's the case... don't you feel like filing for a divorce right away?

ps: I really do plan to update Mon-Wed-Fri. I'll do my best effort to make that happen. Let's pretend this is Wednesday's post, okay?

Good news, everyone!

Hello, friends!

This will be a quick update. It's getting late, I'm sleepy and I need to wake up early tomorrow. I just wanted to mention that my girlfriend has internet at home now! We can't really chat a lot because by the time she can get online I need to go to bed already, but something's better than nothing.

We didn't get to chat tonight (she had something to do), but we chatted yesterday and we'll be able to chat every night at least for a bit. We'll probably take advantage of the weekends, since I won't have to wake up mad early for work then.

Anyway, I just wanted to mention that. I'm very happy now! (and sleepy, did I mention that already?). I hope you folks are having a good week. I'll try to update again on Friday (perhaps I should do a Mon-Wed-Fri update schedule from now on...)

I'm like a bicycle...

Hello, friends!

I'm sure everybody knows the punchline to the joke of the title of this post: I'm too/two tired. I've been waking up very early to get to work and I'm not used to it. To top it all, I haven't chatted with my girlfriend in about 8 days so I'm just cranky.

I can't say much about my new job; all I did last week was read legal procedures and security procedures in order to get clearance for the client stuff at some point next week. So the last few days was all about reading 30 or 35 PDFs of an average of 50 pages each, about how to handle the private information of the client and what to do in the event of something going bad. It's all common sense information, but I have to read it, understand it, and then sign a form acknowledging it all.

What keeps me going is that I'm making double the money that I was making at my previous job. My country's currency is worth 4 times less than the US dollar, so I need to work four times harder to make money for my girlfriend's and my future. Just the plane tickets to visit her are more expensive than a month-worth of my salary... I feel like I'm in that episode of The Simpsons where Homer has Maggie's pictures at work covering the sign that says "Don't forget, you're here forever" to say "Do it for her". I know it probably sounds very corny, but my love for her keeps me going and working hard now is going to be totally worth it once we're married and with our very own house.

I'm sorry if this post was kind of a downer; I'll try to update this blog again maybe on Wednesday, no matter how tired I may be, and hopefully I'll be more cheerful. In fact, I think I should start with the cheerful attitude right now: I wish you all a great beginning of week!