I like to make people laugh. (Or giggle.) (Or snicker.) (Or smirk.) (Or smile.) (Or maybe just shake their head in disbelief.) I have a lot of fun writing. I really enjoy it.
For most of my adult life, whenever anyone has asked questions like "What would you like to do for a living?" or "What do you want to do with your life?" or "If you could do anything, what would it be?" my answer would be, "I'd like to be a writer." (Or a shooting guard for the Utah Jazz. But I think the ship has sailed on that one.)
Well, guess what? That time is now. I am now, officially a writer!
You might ask, what exactly does that mean? Well, you've heard the expression "don't quit your day job?" Too late. Because I just did quit my day job! (And I've got to tell you, it felt pretty darn good to quit my day job!)(Pretty scary, too.)
Let me explain 'zactly how this happened.
I'd been working at the same job for a little over eight years. My job consisted mostly of driving semi-trailers around a parking lot all day. I backed in and pulled out trailers to be loaded and/or unloaded at a large frozen food manufacturing/warehouse facility. It wasn't a very complicated job. It wasn't a very gratifying job. It wasn't even a very well-paying job. It was just a job.
It was a job with a pretty lousy work schedule. On the plus side, I only worked four ten-hour shifts a week. On the negative side, those four ten-hour shifts were at some horrendous times of the day. I would work two days a week from 4:00 AM until 2:00 PM, and I would work two other days from 4:00 PM until 2:00 AM.
Wrap your head around that for a minute:
Two days a week: At work at 4:00 AM (alarm goes off at 2:35 AM!)
Off work at 2:00 PM.
Two other days a week: At work at 4:00 PM
Off work at 2:00 AM (get home and go to bed around 3:00 AM!)
Whenever people would learn my work schedule, they would always ask, "How do you work that schedule? When do you sleep?" It was a valid question. Mostly, I would sleep whenever I was awake. Or, when I was supposed to be awake. Any time I would sit in a chair there was a good chance I would doze off.
After eight years of that schedule, I was pretty much a walking zombie.
So, after a few particularly crappy nights at work, The Wife was tired of seeing my zombification, and she came to me with an idea. She proposed that I quit my job and try my hand at writing full time. (We have just enough money in savings to let us give this a try for a limited amount of time.)
I was shocked, surprised, and very excited by The Wife's idea. (The Wife is awesome and fantastic, by the way. She is the bestest!!!) It's definitely one of those, "It's kind of crazy, but it just might work" ideas.
So, here I am. A writer.
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| A very serious writer. |
I've been posting on this blog, at slowjoe40.blogspot.com for a few years now, writing about my life as a 40 year old virgin, and my life as a father of three. (And any other funny thing that might come to my slightly demented mind.) But, I've done so pretty sporadically. No more. I will now be posting a blog update twice a week, every Tuesday and every Friday. (I'm also going to be working on writing other things, including a book.)
If I'm doing my job right, you should like my writing. And if you like my writing, what I ask of you is to "like" my writing. "Share" it. Pass it on to others. I will be posting most everything I write at my Slow Joe 40 page on Facebook. The more likes and shares and followers that I can get, the less likely I'll have to go back to setting my alarm for 2:35 AM so I can drive trucks around a parking lot again.
I'm looking forward to this! This is going to be fun. Because having fun just got serious!!!
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