First Days Blues

Upon starting any new endeavor – in this case a yob – I am always brought back to a classic line from Die Hard, one that my buddy JDB likes to use: “welcome to the party, pal!...... you’re late!” Similarly, navigating the first days’ barrage of rules, regulations, directions, and misdirections, I am always reminded of Don Rickles’ epic rant from the film Dirty Work, a favorite of the consummate orator of interweb communications, ESS. For the infant-sized handful of loyal readers who were on-board during the ’09 hatchling stages of this samble of rambles on Al Gore’s interwebs, you might recall that a book that JDB gave me, Rickles’ Book, was the inspiration for wilosblog. Don Rickles is the effin man. I mean, shit, the guy chayed hard with Sinatra. Can’t really top that.

After the first couple days of any new job, I would venture to say that many people experience a feeling of unrest similar to that of the elderly lady in Happy Gilmore, who so tragicallt gets hit by a dislodged air conditioning unit.

Essentially, as was the case when I commenced this new yob in January, I was greeted with the standard, reverse/anti David Byrne Naïve Melody moment: i.e. this most certainly is not the place. In these moments, however, it is essential to not let the pyanic become too widespread. PGroove’s Walking In Place tends to do the trick. (Hyeady tryacks! Yya myan!)

As with many – your humble author included – in these moments of pyanic, there are immediate and constant flashes to the quandary of: “OMG OMG, where on earth will I be in 5-7 years??” I, for one, know exactly where I will be in 5-7 years. Well, not the exact physical location nor the specific company for which I will work. However, I can tell you this: I will be doing the exact same shit that I have been doing for the last decade: hanging out with my friends and family, playing and watching sports, searching for powder in the mountains, hunting native trout in cold-water streams and, most likely, still embarrassing myself, with no shame, from time to time. Hopefully less frequently. This is not meant to come across as a “the world is my oyster” statement; nor, should it be interpreted as a laissez faire attitude towards life. I do genuinely enjoy working hard on things that interest me and, in my next job, I am confident that I will be doing something that I genuinely enjoy. For now, however, I must admit that it is tough to get fired up about proofreading 60 pages of numbers. Thank goodness that we have The Saga of the Intriguingly Good Looking Girl (web log post to follow), who walks by my desk at a constant rate. And, as they say in Casablanca: “we’ll always have [the Mens Room].”

Going back to my earlier statement, the world is not my oyster. I know that. What I also know, however, is that Tony Montana had it right: “The world is yours.” ;) Look out for those treacherous mountains!