Q & A

Q: Why do you not take vacation?

A: The short answer is that I am not good at managing free time. Left to myself, I am simply going to goof off and end up with regret over time lost.

This question got lobbed at me when I cashed out my vacation time from work. I do this every year. Paid vacation is a form of compensation, but it is really stupid when you think about it. In order to pay for your vacation, the company actually pays you less. It seems like a bonus, but it isn't. They are simply taking a set of bills out of one pocket and putting it back in the other pocket. There is no free lunch here.

Of course, if I didn't have the option of cashing out the time, I still wouldn't take the vacation except to work extra on some second job. This goes back to my short answer I gave earlier. I am going to waste that time because I already do this on weekends, evenings, holidays, etc. The bulk of this wasted time is online. You are reading the product of this wasted time.

Vacations are meaningful if you have a family, but I don't have a family. If I did, I would want to spend all the time I could with my kids and wife. But for a bachelor, vacations are meaningless. As a single guy, the long weekend with some chick is the holy grail of free time. I have enjoyed a few of these, but I never took a day off of work for these trips. They usually happened on Memorial Day weekend or Labor Day weekend. The truth is if it is a choice between a chick and the job, the job always wins. This has angered a lot of women in my life, but I know the job is what matters. I can always get another woman.

I was born with free time. The challenge is filling the time, and the job does this for me. I'd like to say that writing does it as well, but I'm not paid to write. I write in the same way that people tend a flower garden. It is a personal project, but it doesn't pay the bills. But even when the bills are paid, you can only write so much.

I am on the cusp of a resolution that I have considered doing for a long time. It is the craziest thing I have ever contemplated, and it drives people nuts when I talk about it. But I would like to work everyday for the rest of my life. This would require multiple jobs, a personal business, or something. I don't know how I will pull it off, but I really want to do this. I have wanted to do this ever since Gene Simmons said that he works seven days a week. Nobody does this sort of thing except a handful of people I know. Those people are fucking awesome. One lady I know works three jobs. Total workaholic.

I'm nuts. This is the way I am.

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