I Quit

After almost four years of misery, I quit my job today. I actually walked out of the building and went home during the middle of fourth block yesterday, but I didn't cool down enough to make the call and formally quit until this morning though. I didn't mention it on yesterday's post because I wanted to wait until I was really sure it was permanent and not just an impromptu sick day. I'm just sick of wasting my time at a job I hate and, until now, was afraid I'd end up doing until I hit retirement in about 25 more years and realized that I hadn't been happy in nearly three decades. It's not worth it.

Personally, I'm not sure what the trigger was. I put down my teacher's edition textbook and walked out the door when I asked one too many easy questions that garnered nothing but blank stares. The little turd in the third row who always cracks insulting comments followed by a "I'm just joking mister!" wasn't even there today to add to my annoyance. I'd just had enough.

Right now, I have no idea what I'm going to do. I guess I could go back into newspapers. I actually liked the work. I hated the lack of vacation time and the fact I made less than I did as a teacher, but I liked being able to leave at the end of the day with nothing work-related looming over my head. It was nice to be finished when I clocked out. Unlike some who picked at their jawline out of nervousness until they had gruesome purple bruises, I never found journalism all that stressful. I actually enjoyed the hours and work of a copy editor/page designer.

I'm going to have to stay here until at least the end of this school year. K will want to avoid losing her teaching license by breaking her annual contract with the school, so maybe I'll get a job at my buddy Justin's liquor store and sell Natty Light and Mr. Boston to the rednecks and white trash heading to the river every weekend. This summer I guess I'll convince K to move back up north. Maybe we'll move to Asheville, NC, after all. I'll get a job at a decent bar and work nights while I attend UNC-Asheville to work on my master's on my way to a career in academia where I'll be mediocre, but at least with students I'm not required by law to care about.

Luckily, I can probably sell the house back to my aunts and negotiate a cheap rent that K can afford to cover with the other bills on her own until then. They put us up for free for almost a year before we bothered to go through the motions of actually buying the house.

Fuck. Who knows, maybe I'll get a loan and start up that that organic, pasture-raised duck and goose farm I've been thinking about.

Ovo-Lacto vegetarians be damned (much less vegans), duck fat is a very sought-after cooking fat in swanky restaurants and organic food is the thing in haute cuisine this days. I'd finally do something I love and be able to keep some of my hippy-dippy cred.

Of course, I also realize that I'm far too lazy to be a farmer, and I'd end up bankrupt and possibly even drive K, the eternally understanding and patient, to her limits of support.

Lastly, I'm also going to be giving up the blogging thing. It's become as tedious to me to write as it has been for you to read the results. I've always written what I wanted to write about regardless of the liklihood of anyone wanting to read it, but lately that's seemed a rather pointless cycle where I put up something I really think is interesting and get a lack of comments at best and snarky, insulting comments at worst in return for my efforts, especially since I started wasting my time reading over my essays for errors before posting about three months ago.