Who came up with working full-time?/I think Italy has the right idea

So, I'm just going to say it. Working kind of sucks, huh? Now, don't jump down my throat - I'm sure you loveeeee your job and you wake up all smiles each morning ready to put in your 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 hours at your computer screen, e-mailing co-workers as if they were as far away as Bali because it is "convenient," and talking yourself out of another trip to the vending machine every other hour (oh, sorry, is that just me?).

But, come on, people. You can't tell me that when you get home each night there's a little twinge of regret when you realize you've spent your entire day doing something that was for you, yes, but on a larger scale not so much for you. And now when you've finally got some "me" time you're exhausted and realize that bedtime is in four hours anyway. Or right now. As you pass out in front of House Hunters on HGTV perhaps from lack of sleep or shock that a HUGE house in middle-of-know-where Texas costs ONLY THAT MUCH??

I digress.

When you graduate (which I did, ahem), it's all people can do to not fall down to their knees and beg you - beggggg you - to stay in school, if not for them at all, but for you. "Don't get a job! Everyday I pray and pray and grovel and pray that the hands of time will turn back and grant me just one more weekend in college!" they say.

I'm hardly exaggerating. I swear in recent months I've encountered more people who were sorry for me that I was graduating than proud or happy or even congratulatory. And at first I didn't get it. Wasn't I supposed to me happy about graduating? Wasn't I supposed to be glad that I've completed what I've been working toward and would perhaps henceforth be PAID for all the hardwork I do? What exactly was I working towards if it wasn't going to be better??

Well, you quickly learn - or at least is the running idea in my head on this almost delirious Tuesday night - that the answer is negatory for most of those questions. Because you get a message like this:



Although, I would think that perhaps working the Dolly Parton 9-to-5 grind each day is less of having a life then having one, the sentiment rings true either way.

I don't want to get into a huge spiel about how college was the end all be all of life and how it will never EVER be good again, because that's all I've (disgruntledly) heard for the last year and I choose to not believe that such negative thinking is true. But, maybe it is true a little bit. I can't go to Barnes & Noble in the middle of the day with friends like I used to basically whenever I pleased. And sure, maybe I always made a ton of work for myself in college, but never again will I look forward to tomorrow knowing that it'll be a slow work day and I'll be able to take a nap or eat a real lunch or attend some cheeky, tackily fun event right at 5:00 p.m. because class ended at 4:30 and - wow!- I was already home. Or, at my dorm, rather.

I suppose I'll get used to this. I'm still a little in shock over the strange turn of events in my life lately that have left me ungrounded in the past, present, and future.

So, I think moving to Italy is in order. Not only because it's magical there (a post for another day - but check out some of my photos here), but because they take an entire month off each year. Like they're in school forever, but still making money the rest of the year! And sure, maybe you can argue that their economy is divided, the country is shrinking, and we over here in powerful America would shudder at the thought of taking a month off each year. Honestly? I think Italy's getting the better deal.