Important Things No One Tells You...

So I used to think I haven't always been this cynical. Like maybe I only became cynical two or three years ago. Then I came across this post I wrote on Facebook shortly after graduating college. It was entitled "Important Things No One Tells You..." I read the post and thought 1. Hahaha, this is all still so true and 2. Man, I guess I have been cynical for longer than I thought. Kind of. See the thing is I can be pretty cynical, but I joke a lot too. Anyhow, I am posting the important things no one tells you below. I will include my 2012 commentary in parentheses.

1. Life, as you know it, is over after college. (This is mostly true. Life is much different after college. Some of it is good. Some of it sucks horribly. Having more money is good, but working in a job where you'd rather have strep throat than go into the office sucks horribly. Yay for not being in that situation anymore!)

2. Therefore, you should fail a few classes, double major, or whatever it takes to stay five, six, or so years. Come on, at least four and a half. (I think if I had stayed longer than four years I might have been sick of it after the Fall semester. Therefore I stick by my last sentence...stay an extra semester. The extra football season alone justifies that decision.)

3. Get ready for people to ask, "Sooo what are you going to do now?" To which you should start thinking of answers and/or lies instead of the same old, "I don't know... find a job?" and... (Well obviously I'm not asked this anymore since I am five years postgrad. Now it's just the constant, "So what do you do?" which is a DC thing, I think. People here think they're oh so important because they happen to work in a job where they "once stood 6 feet from the director of ABC agency!!!" Anyhow that could be a blog post on its own.) 

4. Aren't you glad you're done??! To which you will reply, "Oh yes, responsibility, bills, work; what more could I ask for? I am just THRILLED." (Umm, yeah I still stand by this. Graduating college was easily the best and worst thing that happened to me. Sure, I received a diploma, but come on the real world is....THE REAL WORLD. College is a beautiful bubble for most people.)

5. It's hard to find a decent, somewhat enjoyable job in which you are passionate about unless you majored in something with a clear cut path like finance, engineering, or education. (I still think this. I have friends that love their jobs, but they're few and far between. Even more so now, it's hard to find a job, let alone a decent one.)

6. What ever happened to the 9-5? As far as I can tell it's non-existent because all I ever hear is "Sooo how do you feel about a 60+ hour work week?" Oh I feel GREATTTT about it. (Haha, this is kind of funny for me because my average work week is, and always has been 40 hours. I am lucky, but I don't expect it to be like that forever and I do not envy my friends that work 60, 70, or 80+ hour work weeks!)

7. Four dollar pitchers? $2.75 supermugs?! Forget about it... that will be $4 for that lousy bottle of beer. And 5-9 happy hour, yes. 4-7 happy hour, no. I mean who can be at the bar by 4 when you're working 60+ hours a week? Oh, an unemployed alcoholic. (This is true! I hate how happy hour starts at 3pm in a lot of places in DC. Come on!)

8. BILLS, BILLS, BILLS, can you pay my automo'BILLS. Okay someone probably told you about this (dad), but you figured, "hey, I had bills in college...I can handle bills." Now there are a lot more though. (I used to tell my dad that I couldn't wait to "grow up and be an adult." He would laugh and just say, "Wait until you have bills to pay, you'll beg to be a kid again." He was so right!! I hate bills!)

9. While college was only a short four years, work is a LONG 478 years and then you retire to enjoy wearing depends, playing bridge, going to bed at 8 pm, and whatever else you can do at 70. (No arguing this point. TRUTH.)

10. Remember when they asked you, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" in elementary school and you said something like a) a ballerina!! b) basketball player or c) the President of the United States. Well quit dreaming and wake up, Billy... it isn't gonna happen! (HAHAHA! Cynical.)

Where to go from here?!

Wow, so I really suck at this blogging thing as of late, huh? I guess it's kind of hard to find time to blog when I now have a full-time job in which there is actual work to do. On top of that, at the end of the day I always have plans whether it be working out, friend commitments, happy hour, or just personal reading.

I also went to Norfolk, Richmond, and NYC recently. I feel like I have a lot to write about, but whenever I have time I'm not inspired. I will tell you what I am fucking inspired about: spring game! I will be leaving this over-crowded place for Blacksburg around noon on Friday and I CANNOT wait!! We have also moved up in the world. We used to always stay in the Red Carpet Inn, which is nicer than it looks. Well forget that! We're staying at the Courtyard by Marriott this time and it's pretty awesome. I'm also a Gold Elite Marriott member so hellllllllo points!! As my friend Allison was saying, it's funny how we went from staying somewhere free to a place that cost $50 per person for the weekend (thinking that's a lot) to a place that cost $100 per person. In all fairness none of that is a lot because Blacksburg is cheap. As we always joke when we go back to Blacksburg, "Look at this tab!! I'm rich!" DC, and many other places are just expensive and Blacksburg is not.

Next subject. I'm the first person to get woe, is me when things in my life aren't going great. I used to be a lot worse, but I am better about it now. I have so many things to be thankful for: my health, family, friends, job, home, income, etc., but I forget about it sometimes and want to have a pity party. I have noticed it's usually due to one thing, or more so, a person at that given time. Now is as good of time as any to remember that I'm alive. At the end of the day, that is huge. I always try to remind myself of the 32 who were killed at Virginia Tech in 2007. Would they be complaining that a stupid metro train is running late? No. No, they wouldn't because they would just be happy to be alive. Furthermore, I know a lot of people that have dealt with cancer lately, whether personally, or through a family member. It's truly horrible and they don't know how many days they have left. Some beat it. Many don't. That's also why I take my health pretty seriously. There are so many things that we can do to prevent disease and cancer, so why not? Besides, I am actually one of those annoying bitches who likes working out. Sorry, I'm not sorry!

Sleep, or lack thereof

I am hoping that writing this will help remedy my recent insomnia. I started having sleep issues about a year and a half ago, but through a lot of stuff I was able to improve it. In fact, it was really good this past summer and fall. Then winter hit, which is always the worst season for me, but it still wasn't as bad as it has been.

Yet, for some unknown reason my insomnia has resurfaced the past three weeks. It's not that bad as I can usually fall asleep by 1 or 2am, but that sucks when you start trying to sleep at 11pm or 12am. It sucks even more when the alarm clock goes off at 7am. It's better than it was at its worst when I didn't fall asleep until 4am some nights. The thing that's bugging me is I cannot really pinpoint as to why I can't sleep! I am not particularly stressed--really very little stress. I am not anxiety ridden, although that is the time that I worry the most. It's like as soon as my head hits the pillow it starts..."Did I pay x bill?" "What do I have to do at work tomorrow?" "Is the door locked?" "Oh, I am going to wear those pants to work tomorrow with that shirt." "Why did X say X?" Haha, so as you can see nothing that important, but obviously not very helpful when you're trying to sleep.

What usually helps is going out on the couch and lying out there. I usually fall asleep and wake up after a bit then get in my bed. That is obviously not ideal though. What are your remedies when you cannot sleep?