Panic in The Year of W
(BGM: Joy Division@Preston)
A musing on Annual Wage Increases vs the rising costs of healthcare, interest rates, consumer price index, etc:
As "raises" are scheduled to be implemented soon at my place of employment I've been crunching the numbers. The upshot is that it doesn't look good. Sure I have a 401K and Profit Sharing, but I realize now that my hourly after tax take-home wage (as a soon-to-be middle-aged adult) amounts to less than the same figure I made as a young man in college . . . phooey! At this rate I'll never be able to afford much other than my quirky bachelor's lifestyle, let alone a family and all the fun that comes with (. . . sorry ma, no grandkids from this boy, Lord Knows I Tried.)
On the New Place and Solitude versus my place in The Group:
The new place has been going swimmingly for . . . is it three months already?!? I've grown accustomed to the relative quiet and relaxed atmosphere . . . just me and my boxes of belongings and deciding which of the things to stow permanently versus which to display, how to get things up off the floor, and wheteher or not to invest in Area Rugs and Ikea (ha ha ha!) I'm getting more and more used to the idea of blowing off my Bar Life altogether, but afteer years of being a regular atabar down the street from work it just seems strange to not go in there EVERY NIGHT for a few drinks, equally strange to not be living above a bar with its own petty politics, regulars, and internal squabbles. I have to admit to have grown to like certain aspects of this, but freely admit to liking my new situattion much MUCH more than the old. Nowdays Ican come home and drink chilled beer form the fridge without tipping anyone, can play my own brand of crap music instead of listening to the crap on the piped-in DMX, and DO NOT have to watch or listen to SPORTS on the television (as with the first few weeks of living with just a couch, VCR, and TV, I've been watching old videocassetes lately. Mostly weird stuff that wouldn't work for anyone but me, but like with The Manchurian Candidate some weeks earlier I've fixated on WACO: Rules of Engagement recently - probably all the Far Right literature I'd picked up recently.)
The other night at The Bar a friend and fellow regular suggested (for the upteenth time) that I ought to phone her and invite her over to "hang out" as in "we should hang out sometime now that you've got your new place." I say "sure, as soon as I have it cleaned up" and I do mean it, sort of. I mean this is a friend, but also a lady on the rebound from a divorce (I'm a friend and co-worker with here Ex) less than two months ago! Don't get me started on my Catholic Guilt (started? That guilt stuff never stops or goes away!), but I mean her implcations seem less than friendly and, well, you know what "hanging out" means at some stage of your adult life, right . . . um, *right?* Well, this lady's a bit younger than me, but is basically about the same age as the folks in my college peer-group, and for my group, back in college (was is ten years ago already?) "Hanging Out" was a phrase or term that was used as a colloquial shorthand for "more than just friends." The implications here, whether or not she's recently divorced, are for me a bit ominous and unwelcome. I mean I've been back here in Minneapolis licking my wounds from a five-year relationship that ended pretty badly in Boston, and although I am presently more than interested in the possibility of a relationship in the future (as opposed to five years ago and in the intervening five years, when I *was not interested at all!*) I think it would be a wasted effort and a waste of a friendship to mosey along into a romantic/sexual relationship with a recent divorcee. Not to mention the fact that she's *just not my type*, in other words I'm not greatly physically attracted to her. Sure she's a woman and I'm a man (remember the old Lloyd Cole song?) and both of us may be lonely, but . . . don't they make videos/magazines/adult toys for folks like us? I mean aren't there Matchmaking (I'm on about an even dozen online) services for goodness' sakes? Besides, engaging in a relationship with someone from Work (and this includes the ex-wife of Someone from Work) abrogates Uncle Kevin's Rules of matchmaking . . .
A musing on Annual Wage Increases vs the rising costs of healthcare, interest rates, consumer price index, etc:
As "raises" are scheduled to be implemented soon at my place of employment I've been crunching the numbers. The upshot is that it doesn't look good. Sure I have a 401K and Profit Sharing, but I realize now that my hourly after tax take-home wage (as a soon-to-be middle-aged adult) amounts to less than the same figure I made as a young man in college . . . phooey! At this rate I'll never be able to afford much other than my quirky bachelor's lifestyle, let alone a family and all the fun that comes with (. . . sorry ma, no grandkids from this boy, Lord Knows I Tried.)
On the New Place and Solitude versus my place in The Group:
The new place has been going swimmingly for . . . is it three months already?!? I've grown accustomed to the relative quiet and relaxed atmosphere . . . just me and my boxes of belongings and deciding which of the things to stow permanently versus which to display, how to get things up off the floor, and wheteher or not to invest in Area Rugs and Ikea (ha ha ha!) I'm getting more and more used to the idea of blowing off my Bar Life altogether, but afteer years of being a regular atabar down the street from work it just seems strange to not go in there EVERY NIGHT for a few drinks, equally strange to not be living above a bar with its own petty politics, regulars, and internal squabbles. I have to admit to have grown to like certain aspects of this, but freely admit to liking my new situattion much MUCH more than the old. Nowdays Ican come home and drink chilled beer form the fridge without tipping anyone, can play my own brand of crap music instead of listening to the crap on the piped-in DMX, and DO NOT have to watch or listen to SPORTS on the television (as with the first few weeks of living with just a couch, VCR, and TV, I've been watching old videocassetes lately. Mostly weird stuff that wouldn't work for anyone but me, but like with The Manchurian Candidate some weeks earlier I've fixated on WACO: Rules of Engagement recently - probably all the Far Right literature I'd picked up recently.)
The other night at The Bar a friend and fellow regular suggested (for the upteenth time) that I ought to phone her and invite her over to "hang out" as in "we should hang out sometime now that you've got your new place." I say "sure, as soon as I have it cleaned up" and I do mean it, sort of. I mean this is a friend, but also a lady on the rebound from a divorce (I'm a friend and co-worker with here Ex) less than two months ago! Don't get me started on my Catholic Guilt (started? That guilt stuff never stops or goes away!), but I mean her implcations seem less than friendly and, well, you know what "hanging out" means at some stage of your adult life, right . . . um, *right?* Well, this lady's a bit younger than me, but is basically about the same age as the folks in my college peer-group, and for my group, back in college (was is ten years ago already?) "Hanging Out" was a phrase or term that was used as a colloquial shorthand for "more than just friends." The implications here, whether or not she's recently divorced, are for me a bit ominous and unwelcome. I mean I've been back here in Minneapolis licking my wounds from a five-year relationship that ended pretty badly in Boston, and although I am presently more than interested in the possibility of a relationship in the future (as opposed to five years ago and in the intervening five years, when I *was not interested at all!*) I think it would be a wasted effort and a waste of a friendship to mosey along into a romantic/sexual relationship with a recent divorcee. Not to mention the fact that she's *just not my type*, in other words I'm not greatly physically attracted to her. Sure she's a woman and I'm a man (remember the old Lloyd Cole song?) and both of us may be lonely, but . . . don't they make videos/magazines/adult toys for folks like us? I mean aren't there Matchmaking (I'm on about an even dozen online) services for goodness' sakes? Besides, engaging in a relationship with someone from Work (and this includes the ex-wife of Someone from Work) abrogates Uncle Kevin's Rules of matchmaking . . .
posted by BeerPimp at 8:38 AM
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