Monday, February 9, 2009

If it feels like I've been ignoring you, well...

I have been ignoring you. I have not been doing well. (Not to fret, all in good time, I'll be back to me.) I noticed it about 4 or 5 months ago. Engineering school has taken its toll. I work 80 hrs/week and take one day off per month, if I can get it. (I did a stretch from 26 Aug 08 to Thanksgiving, no break. That will mess with your head. Engineering school is no joke. One dude started the program and by the end, he became a chick. I don't know anything that can hold a candle to that.) And I've been going at it like this for about four years. It's too much. Even for a damned obsessive workaholic demon like me, it's too much. There are a few emails that I've sent out to friends...some were silly, others spastic, some just stupid and I can't unsend them. There were few as I noticed myself not at my best, but anyway, it has been enough to make me shy away from a social setting.

The good news...I'm going to take the summer off. My job search in the last semester of school is terribly superficial. Listen, I've got 95,000 miles on both United and American plus 55,000 on Delta. Roughly, 250,000 miles, when else am I going to use them? (Email me if you want to learn the strategy.) I've friends in Houston and I will try to get interviews with oil companies for when I visit. My big bro in the bay area says, "Let's head to the mountains, the ski chalet is great in the summer time too." My lil' bro in Buenos Aires, Argentina - it's been three years since I've seen him and his wife. Family reunion in July (we're from Chicago but my dad and the boys do an annual fishing trip to the north woods of Wisconsin so they'll coincide) and it would be great to commune with nature and make friends with the mosquitos...I've been way to busy to give blood at the Red Cross, this way, I will have done my part.

Other invites so far include Atlanta, DC and San Diego. I'll certainly be spending time in Chicago. Those miles could get me a trip to Europe too. And until this blog post, I only mentioned it to a few people.

I would love to lay around my apartment and just read books that have nothing to do with engineering. Then, I'll read the chapters in the engineering books that were complicated and the prof didn't get to. I really do love engineering but it will be on my terms. And I'll do the crossword every day.

I've got the money to do it, plus a couple of part time things that are very flexible. The timing is right. And the last time I left a job and took time off, the HR guy said to me when I started having a sort of buyer's remorse, "Martin, if the only reason you can think of to not do it is because it's crazy, then you're crazy not to do it."

And well, I need a freakin' break. All that I've endured headaches, nose bleeds, shingles, sleep deprivation, group projects with a bunch of 20 year old kids - ooohhh thank god that they freakin know everything, that way nothing gets freakin done!

Ahhh, some down time would be nice. Just chill...yeah. Maybe I should get a Jamaican accent to help me round out the slow pace and calming feeling.

If I don't find anything before the next school year, I'll take an AutoCAD class and a friend wants us to take welding, so then as a student I can keep my health insurance. Also, the 4th qtr can be a tough time to find a job. The holidays wipe out a month and companies look to just get by until new budgets start in the new year. Sucks that it may be pushed off but that's life. And, and... that's probably the worst that could happen. Ha!!! Why work?