Work is Work

We made it through the week everybody. Congratulations. My dad is coming to town this afternoon. Nothing like some qt (and fine dining) with the old man. Besides the financial and time structuring benefits of working, I think the next biggest perk is that no matter how productive one is in their 9-5 job, if you have a day job people ask you “how’s work?” or “How was your day?” These are simple questions to answer, often requiring just one word responses such as: “fine” or “solid” or perhaps a cliché “same old same old,” maybe “another day another dollar.” But when you’re unemployed you don’t have the luxury of such mindless responses to inquiries about your days. People don’t ask “how was your day?” It’s always: “What did you do today?” or “What have you been doing with yourself?” I resent being challenged so much during simple small talk. I don’t make you account for your time at work. I bet we were on the internet about the same amount of time as each other. Heck, (sorry about the language, I’m a little peeved) you probably even checked your email more frequently than I did, but because you’re “gainfully employed” I’m the only one who has to provide evidence of my daily productivity. From now on I’m going to ask my working friends what they did today rather than how there day was. Either that or get a job. I don’t want to get anybody’s hopes up but let’s just say résumés have been flying out of my mailbox of late. For fear of jinxing myself, mums the word.

An American Apparel store opened in my neighborhood somewhat recently. They sell shirts of all varieties in every shade of color that occurs in a rainbow (whites, blacks and greys too). What’s unique about American Apparel is that all of their clothes are made here in the US by workers who receive good wages and humane treatment. They’re the anti-sweatshop outfitter if you will and they proudly advertise this in their stores. Initially I thought “how awesome.” Then I saw that their shirts were a good 20% more expensive than places like the Gap. I guess my morality has a pretty cheap price tag. $15 rather than $18 for a t-shirt you say? Manufacture ‘em however you need to, Gap. I’m on board.

I just developed my pictures from Cabo San Lucas and in the process finally got back my pictures from a trip to Costa Rica that I took with five friends last May. It’s kind of fun to relive a trip so long after you’ve experienced it. (See you what you lose out on digital camera owners?) Looking through the pictures jogged my memory about an incident that took place while I waited at the San Jose airport for my flight back to New York via Dallas. A fellow American with whom I had shared some pleasant small talk while we waited in the gate area went to the food court prior to our flight boarding. When he returned to his gate area seat (one seat away from me), he and his girlfriend began eating food from Burger King. As he took out his whopper and began to unwrap it, he turned to me and asked “you wanna piece of burger, man?” A piece of burger? A generous offer to be certain, but somewhat logistically complex, no? It’s quite possible that my compatriot merely made this gesture to be polite, banking on my having the common sense and courtesy enough to decline. But let’s say I accept. What then? Does he give me, a virtual stranger, the first bite of his whopper? Mind you though, he said piece not bite. Am I to believe then that he would have ripped a section of burger off for me with his hands? Burger King tends not to give you a knife and fork with your Whopper combo meals. If indeed his offer was sincere and he felt it rude not to offer somebody food when he was eating, why not make it easy and ask if I wanted some fries? Tact ultimately led me to decline his kind albeit potentially incredibly awkward offer but my sheer curiosity as to how I would have taken that piece fills me with deep regret. I realize many of you will now be unable to sleep tonight as possible outcomes of this scenario play themselves out in your mind. My apologies.

If you live in the New York area and don’t have plans for celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s holiday on the 17th of January, I’d encourage you to come to the Luna Lounge where I will be making my personally highly anticipated debut at the well respected Eating It comedy show. I’ll probably obsess about this as the date nears, but I wanted to throw it out there for the handful of you local readers in case your new calendars are already starting to fill up-specific details in due time. Hope your weekend gets off to a rip-roaring start tonight.