One of the things I don't think about much and wouldn't admit to but secretly miss about going to work is the adrenaline rush in the morning of getting to work. Nowadays I just roll out of a bed a few minutes before needing to login to work and start billing hours, but back in the way back days of 2019, I used to go to work EVERY day fron Monday to Friday and every commute was an adventure akin to the bed-to-airport scene (with accompanying music) in Home Alone 2 to see if I could get to work on time, from stressing in the car to worm my my way through traffic, find the last parking spot in a crowded parking lot (usually because I was one of the last ones to make it to work), rush out of the car onto the street, zip in my building and just barely catch the last elevator up to my office before the deadline of needing to be in at work (usually 10AM or so). As stressful as that sounds, part of me really enjoyed that self-imposed stress and living out my own car chase/ high adrenaline movie. Like play pretending to be Keanu Reeves in "Speed" or Tom Cruise in "Mission Impossible," it gave me a jolt to begin the morning that I can't replicate nowadays with my lethargic walk from bedroom to living room and letting my senses just wake themselves up.
Well I got to relive a little bit of 2019 this past Monday, Tax Day 2024. Usually most of my taxes are done online and I file through TurboTax, but there's one from I needed to send in my direct mail, and I pushed it back to the latest I could, literally the evening of April 15 just an hour before the post office closed. Of course, naive little me went to FedEx first to drop off my envelope, but the lady taking my order took one look at my address and said, "we don't mail to PO Boxes, you gotta go to U.S. Post Office." Alarm bells started going off in my head, but luckily USPS was still open! Maybe in anticipation of it being tax day, they extended their hours to close at 7PM. I could still make it! I just needed to run 1 mile through town in rush hour traffic with an envelope in my hand, probably the exact sort of adventure a small part of me enjoys, maybe someone called "Daredevil Bobby" or "Last-Minute Bobby" who gets into these type of dilemmas on purpose. I rushed to the post office, but of course the line was out the back, probably all people trying to file their taxes. Even the self-service line was 10 people deep! Just to get stamps and stamp your own postage! I picked the lesser of 2 evils, the self-service line, which seemed like a good idea until the first 2 customers took their time figuring out the computer screen, pressing buttons maniacally but never relinquishing their spot. It was at this point I knew I had (screwed) up. It's all fun and games of trying to get somewhere on time, but waiting in line at the mercy of other people takes all the adventure out of it, and just makes me panic. And am I the only one who got shocked by the price of stamps? I remember the last time I bought stamps they were either 29 cents or definitely in the 30s, now they're 68 cents! If only all the stocks I invested in went up like that! How do I buy postage stamp futures? While waiting in line I at least meant some normal people of the world, not seeing people through reality TV glasses, or contrived characters on Netflix shows, or athletes or celebrities saying what they need to say to stay famous or relevant; I met some real working people who have day jobs and don't aspire to do anything but live their lives in peace and not have to pay taxes, or unfortunately in this country, pay as little tax as possible out of already difficult wages to sustain a good lifestyle.
Trying to make it to work on time, or in my case trying to mail my taxes on the night of the deadline, is like a roller coaster: I'm not necessarily enjoying it when it's happening because there is actually some concern that it'll turn out very badly or the worst outcome can occur, but after it's all done and it turned out OK, looking back it's another memory I'll enjoy. There's a reason I never remembered any of the times I actually spent in the office working or doing the monotonous tasks I did during working hours, but there are definitely particular commuting days I remember where my senses were on full alert due to the self-imposed stress I put myself under. And once in a while, I guess I just myself in those situations again just to feel alive again. With "The Final Countdown" by Europe echoing in my years.
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