My husband and I keep rather separate hours and largely live pretty independently of one another. It’s true we do live together, and we do make an effort to spend a feasible amount of time together but mostly he does his thing and I do mine.
Depending on the type of person you are and the conceptions or notions you have of what a relationship ‘should be’ this probably sounds either rational or completely unhealthy to you. The fact is that we have very few hobbies in common and maintain different work schedules. It works for us, is all I’m saying.
That being said, I find myself often with a lot of down time.
That’s not as awesome as it may, at first blush, seem.
My downtime is largely uselessly consumed.
I kill time. Mercilessly. I slay hours, and massacre minutes.
What’s worse is I bet you do it to. Maybe not the same way I do, but I bet there’s something you could be doing right now that would be more interesting than what you’re planning on doing. This may make you roll your eyes and say, “Well yeah, but I can’t. I have to ________” but whatever it is you have to do, I bet there’s a way you could make it work. It’s funny what brings things to the front of your mind.
I was reading Carrie Poppy’s blog post about ATWA (for those who don’t know, that’s Charles Manson’s non-profit. Yes, I’m serious.) and was struck by the fact that I have absolutely, positively no desire to go to Corcoran, California and listen to the Manson family discuss environmentalism. I just want to do something. Carrie Poppy has a day job, but still made the trip. T.S. Eliot, one of the most celebrated essayists and poets of the 20th century, was a banker. Full time for 40 years. He never quit his job. Philip Glass was a plumber while making his first seven albums. Carrie’s co-host on the podcast Oh No Ross & Carrie is an animator at Disney when he’s not an investigative journalist.
This got me thinking about the term “side hustle”. The art of the side hustle is actually hotly debated as far as I can tell.
“It’s a shame that young people are being forced to work odd jobs on top of ‘primary’ jobs to make ends meet!” says one side.
“It’s the most free generation. Micro-jobbing allows people to move at will and take a variety of skills anywhere!” says the other.
“They’re just lazy and can’t make up their minds. Shame on them!” say the armchair economists.
“We’re forced to pick up any little scrap of work we can because the baby boomers won’t retire!” counter the millennials.
However you feel about the hustle, if you could pick up something on the side that actually interested you, kept you off the couch and broke the routine of meatloaf Monday, Pawn Stars, GTL, and ‘that’s my parking spot…’ wouldn’t you take it?
I think that’s the problem behind me being so inconsistent about writing.
No one wants to read about boring food, stupid syndicated television, or the daily grind and to be perfectly honest, I don’t want to fucking write about it. I live it, I think that’s enough. It’s about damn time I found something worth writing about. I think it’s probably about time you did the same.