There Has Got to be a Better Way

"There has got to be a better way." This refrain begins in my head when I wake up in the morning and have to get ready to go to my two jobs. And some days I am simply too tired to have anything at all running through my head.
Get up at 6:15am. Get ready for work.
Catch the bus at 7:30am-or whenever it feels like showing up, afterall, this is the CTA I am relying on.
Get to work at approximately 8:30am.
Work until just before 1:00pm.
Walk briskly three blocks to other job. Clock in.
Work until 9:00pm.
Get home around 9:45pm (again, this time is subject to the whims of the CTA).
Get myself organized for the next morning. Shower.
Go to bed a little before 12:00 Midnight (if I am lucky).
Repeat Monday through Friday. "Oh my God!"

In a world where it seems like you can never do enough to get ahead, I have decided to put on the brakes and take a deep breath. I am tired of doing what other people expect me to do. I am going to do what I want to do.

Step 1: Quit my second job.
I got a second job (the one in the morning) because I was trying to save some money so I could quit my first job. If you are more than a little confused, just imagine living my life for a day or two. Well, my second job at a non-profit has turned into a dead-end. Well, it was always a dead-end, now that I really think about it. I do not need to be here at all. I do maybe one hour of work per 15 hour week, and I am not learning anything. I generally spend my time on the internet. And though the pay is great, it is hard to keep justifying my continual stress and exhaustion over a job that I do not need in the first place. The only thing that I am learning is that people should be careful what non-profits they give money to, because you would be shocked to learn how much is being wasted and is not going to help the cause they are supposedly fighting for at all.

Life Your Life for Today

I am so tired of waiting. Waiting for the perfect job. Waiting for the perfect moment. Waiting for a raise. Waiting for opportunities. Waiting for recognition. Waiting for things to happen. Waiting for enough money. Waiting for retirement. Waiting...What am I waiting for? Death. I am suffocating myself with fear and inaction. I have wasted too much time already. Time waits for no man or woman...it will not wait for you to get your shit together before it passes you by. And you are looking in the mirror at your lined face and your gray hair and your frail body wondering why you spent your best years waiting for something that never happened.

It is now or never. Time to stand up for myself and say that I am tired of waiting. I am now going to take control and just do. Do what makes me happy. Do what gives me satisfaction. Do what I want to with my time. Do what thrills me. Do what challenges me. Live my life instead of just observing it from the sidelines. Time to jump off the cliff and see what happens. Time to dive into the deep end of the pool. Time to stand up for myself and take responsibility for my life and see what happens when I take an active role in it.

Quality Coffee Quest in Chicago

Starbucks might have once been an independent coffee shop in Seattle, serving up freshly ground coffee and ambiance. After instant coffee and percolators, this idea was revolutionary. The people woke up and demanded better coffee. And so it began. But now Starbucks is on every other block. And you cannot even get a good latte there anymore. If I am going to pay $4 for a cup of coffee, it better taste good...not burned and bitter. Even McDonald's is serving up better coffee now, though I won't be a regular. I still want my coffee from people who understand the nuance of a good blend and can make a good espresso, the foundation from which many specialty coffees are built upon.

Call me spoiled...I don't care. If you are going out of your way to buy a cup of coffee, I believe that it should be an experience. The atmosphere, the smell, the service. But most of all, you should get a good cup of coffee. You should not have to choke down that $4 cup of coffee.

In my quest to be a coffee snob, here are my honorees for a good cup of coffee-

Metropolis
Intelligentsia
Lavazza

These coffee shops serve up a good brew and are all worth bypassing a closer Starbucks or even a Caribou for. Even in the freezing cold.

Michigan Avenue Excess

We are living in a consumerist culture where the blind pursuit of material possessions has taken a hold of our society. Just walking down Michigan Avenue every morning on my way to work, and all you see is store after store of overpriced and nonessential goods. Cartier...Burberry...Coach...Tiffany...does anyone really need any of these things. When did we become so greedy? So resource hungry?

While we are stuffing our faces, filling our over sized houses with things and polluting the environment, there are billions of people living in poverty. People dying of diseases and wars and hunger and lack of education...If we all just gave up a little of the excess, just imagine what a difference we could make in some one's life. We could give someone a chance at a better, more human existence.

In our blind pursuit of things, we have lost touch with our own humanness. Helping others, caring for the environment, using only what you need, taking care of the other creatures that share this planet, being a good person, these are the things that make you great. It should not matter how big your house is, or how many cars you have, how big your TV is, how much jewelry you have, where you go on vacation. These things are trivial and meaningless to life.

I fear for a society built on such a superficial mentality. Now more than ever we need to come together to solve the crisis of global warming. It is going to take compassion and resolve and sacrifice. What are we waiting for? It is the fate of our planet we are talking about. Do you own your possessions of do they own you?

The Three P's for a Successful Life

Perserverance

Work hard at getting what you want out of life. If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. Have a plan, and then have a back-up plan. Hard work will always yield results, and sometimes even pleasant surprises and unexpected opportunities.

Patience

Keep your head. Sometimes you have to put in alot of hard work and then wait for the benefits. Don't be discouraged. Don't give up. Just be patient. Good things will come to those who wait as long as the preparation was done beforehand.

Peace of mind

A clear mind is a good vessel for new and interesting information, seeing new opportunities, going in a new direction, just being open to all of the chatter in the universe. If your mind is not peaceful and clear, it can affect your ability to steer your life in the direction that you want it to go.

Scream Green!

The UN's top climate expert warned about global warming: "If there's no action before 2012, that's too late. What we do in the next two or three years will determine our future." These are very strong words. They make me want to scream and head for the hills. Not that that would do any good. Instead I am going to scream green.

I am going to keep recycling, keep taking public transportation, keep using cloth rags, towels and napkins, not consume more than I need to and when I do, buying planet friendly products, keep doing everything that I can do. And I am going to tell anyone who will listen about how our planet, our home is in trouble and we need to do something about it NOW. Not tomorrow, not the day after that.

What is the debate? Whether we caused it or not, global warming is a threat to our species and every other species on this planet. We have no time to waste.

Know Yourself and Live a Contented Life

If you want to be happy in this life, you have to know who you are at any given moment. This can change suddenly and without warning, but every experience that you have makes you into the person that you are now. There are several steps that we must take to always be aware of who we are and where we want to be in our lives.

1) You must check in with yourself periodically. Who am I and what do I want to be getting out of life? Am I living my ideal life? If not, what steps can you take to get on track?
2) You must be willing to put in the effort. No one owes you anything, and opportunity never came and knocked on any one's door. When you know what you want, then you need to come up with a way to get it. You need a plan to get you from point A to point B, and possibly even a back-up plan.
3) You should get something valuable out of all mistakes and failures. No one is perfect and life will often throw you curve balls. By learning how to go with the flow, laughing at yourself, and picking yourself up off of the floor and trying again, you will have a great deal more contentment with your life.
4) You must be willing to take risks and do things that you have never done before. Sometimes the most rewarding experiences come from the times where we had no idea what we were in for.
5) You must learn to live in the present. If you learn to live in the here and now, enjoying each unique moment and the journey that these moments are taking you on, then your final destination will be that much more rewarding. You will be aware of how you got there. So often we go through life on auto-pilot, not really aware of anything that we are doing, and whole days can go by like this. Take the time to live your life.

If you know who you are and know where you are going, then life will feel more like a journey and less like a burden. Contentment comes from being in control of where you are now and where you are headed.