Welcome to the System

My son is working another full day today (he's in retail; nearly all his days are full days lately). On these days, I get up a little earlier and drive him into work.

This morning, we both commiserated on how we weren't ready yet for Monday morning, and both wished we could have just one more hour of sleep. Each time we talk like this, I know he is finally starting to get an idea of what the work world is really like. Not the 16-20 hour a week work world that you fit conveniently around your schedule.

No, the work world that seems to consume your days and make your weekends/days off seem too short. Now, mind you, I like my jobs (both of them). I don't really feel like the metaphorical cog in the machine. I do feel as if I learn something new about my job each day, and that makes it more interesting.

But I think everyone who works the 5 day (or more) work week wishes there was just more time to be home, relax, stay in bed on cold rainy days. While we have paid vacation available (something I didn't have for years!) we  know those days are saved for visits to our family or vacations at someplace else (preferably someplace warm and relaxing). Rainy days like this are spent in our offices, sitting behind the walls of glass that separate us from the cold, drismal outdoors.

But we make our way through it. After all, once the day is over it's only 4 more days until the weekend!