Finally

So this upcoming Monday marks the beginning of what has taken me the past 10 years to accomplish.

I'm starting my brand new job. It's in an office with a normal Monday through Friday operating schedule. Work begins at 8:30 AM and ends at 5:30 PM instead of the other way around.

It's taken me this long to stop, lower my shot of jager, take a look around at the downtown Athens barscene, realize that I wasn't going anywhere, get angry about it, quit a few times, go back to college, graduate, and actually find a real job that pays me to talk to people instead of choke them. And on top of that it offers benefits, something I've never gotten to enjoy very often before.

Part of me still misses downtown. I really do. But I visit every so often and find the same exact shit going on that was going on when I left. I've filled in a few times in the past few months and found it all very repetitive. I'm just too damn old for it now. 30 is creeping up on me so quickly, it's ridiculous. I simply can't even begin to imagine how anyone could possibly go out to multiple shitty bars in Athens and get completely hammered out of their mind and puke and fight and yell and scream and fuck anything with a wet hole.

But sometimes I forget that and I take the familiar 45 minute trip back to town and do it all over again, and all I have to show for it is a giant 2 day hangover and a wallet full of receipts for all the shit that I decided to put myself through. And I'll try to tell myself that it was fun, because a long time ago I used to really love doing that every chance I got.

But on Monday the real world is calling, and I finally have to wake up early, put on the nice clothes, drink some coffee and join up with the rest of reality for the next 30 years or so.

Great.