Making a Living

Yesterday I was loading up my tools after a job and talking with the client. She had spent many years of her life as an opera singer and, as I enjoy singing too, we chat about it often. She asked how my singing was going and I sighed, "Good enough when I actually have the time to do it". She said, "That's the problem with making a living - it leaves very little time for actually living". Lately, I couldn't agree with her more.

I know that we're making progress on the whole debt free triathalon, but it's such incredibly slow progress and it really starts to wear on me sometimes. I've been working more, seeing my family less, and my body seems to be in a constant state of "Ouch". Not that I should complain - my old keggling buddy, Figaro Jones (by far, the coolest alias I've come up with so far - hope you like it, dude) has a job that takes him away from home for about three weeks out of every month and that just sucks to the ninth power. Still, he manages to make it work. Now, logic should dictate that I appreciate my current situation in comparison to Figaro's - I mean sure, my debt's bigger than his (I don't actually know the total household debt load of the Jones home, but I feel pretty confident in saying that I got the biggest damn debt in town - and that is why I am the Debt Daddy, aight? I know - I actually sound proud of my debt - how frigging ridiculous is that? Still, I'm a guy, and guys always want to have the biggest Something - well, this is my "big thing" and I'm running with it.), but at least I get to see my family every night, even if they are asleep when I finally wander in the door. Even so, it can sometimes seem like there's just no end in sight - no end to the debt, no end to the work, no end to the highways travelled in the pursuit of those ends.


One of the more frustrating aspects of driving down that debt reduction superhighway is seeing all the pretty sights along the way and not being able to stop and enjoy them. Sometimes I feel like that kid in the back seat on that dreadfully long cross country drive, pointing out the window every now and then and shouting, "Look Dad! There's Disneyworld! Look Dad! There's FrontierLand! Look Dad! The Circus! CAN WE STOP?? PLEASE?????" Well, you know Dad's answer - "No can do, son - we've got to keep to this road if we're ever gonna make it to where we're going on time". And that's how it feels now with this dreadfully long debt reduction journey - "Look Debt Daddy! That low paying non-union musical you want to perform in! Look Debt Daddy! That beachfront house you want to rent for a weeks vacation! Look Debt Daddy! That day off you want to take and just do nothing!" Debt Daddy grumbles from the front seat; Yeah, yeah kid - I hear ya, but we gotta stay on this road. Tell ya what - at the next rest stop, you can get yourself a happy meal and I'll scrape the bugs off the windshield - that's almost as good as that beach house, right?

Yeah, sure Debt Daddy- and store brand cookies are just as good as the brand name variety. Still, I get the point. If you stop at every attraction along the way, you'll never get to your destination. So, we make due with the occasional rest stop happy meal - you can't do the full scale musical, but you can do the one night staged reading instead. You can't do the beach house, but maybe you can build a treehouse for your kids so they have something fun. Meanwhile, you keep that rubber to the road and try to make sure that crazy car doesn't start going in reverse, rolling back down that hill into debt Hell.

Anyway, it's time for me to get back on that road. I'm sure I'll see you there. Remember to keep that windshield clean, and enjoy those happy meals when they come your way.