The Jazzy Bahsoun

Life's our oyster and we're gonna suck that bitch down with a champagne chaser.

Behavioral Therapist
MA Developmental Psychology, Columbia
BS Psychobiology/ French, UCLA

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

Movies to See:
Mission Impossible
Haywire
Shame
A Dangerous Method
Underworld:Awakening

TV Shows to Watch:
Portlandia
The Life & Times of Tim

Book to Read:
Game of Thrones
by George R.R. Martin

Album to Listen to:
The Black Keys
El Camino

Person to Hate:
Newt Gingrich

Group of People to Despise:
Fox & Friends

Bitchin Links

Blogs and Writers of Note

Mary's Website

Mary's Blog

Ravi's Blog

Lauren's Blog

Cheryl's LiveJournal

TV Squad

The Soup

Cracked

Best Week Ever

The Chive

On Location Vacations

Cute Overload

Michael Moore's Blog

Joel Stein Columns

Maureen Dowd Columns

Secular Coalition of America

Richard Dawkins

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My Books

Machatz Self-Defense

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The Huffington Post

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The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

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Ain't It Cool News

IGN

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Movie Stinger

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Japander: See Actors Embarrass Themselves Abroad

Landover Baptist Church: Jesus Loves You Sometimes

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The Daily Bruin

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UCLA Bruin Marching Band: The Solid Gold Sound

The REAL $UC Application

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Sunday, September 09, 2007
Money Business
Much has changed since I last posted in this venue. Since being in education/employment purgatory, I've gotten off my lazy behind and actually gotten myself a real job. Not a half-assed summer job at Blockbuster, not a volunteer gig and not a job that pays in traveler's checks. An actual, growed-up people's job. And I'm lucky enough that it's a job that I actually enjoy, that's in the field I studied in college and it's not a horrific research job that I would've been stuck with. And guess what? I get paid for it too. Working full time is a change from my lethargic lifestyle that I was growing accustomed to, but feeling sort of guilty about at the same time, but it's been a good, character-building experience. Granted, I've only been working a week, but in that time, I have aged at least two. While I've never been in it for the money, discussing salaries and paychecks has gotten me a little riled up that I'll actually be earning money not extracted from my mom's wallet for doing something I enjoy, and at a pretty good rate at that.

Graduating and not having the structure of school, summer, more school, summer again that I've adhered to for upwards of 16 years left me bewildered as to what the blazes I was supposed to do. I had made the decision to take a year off but didn't really think through what my plan for that year was going to be. I'd been hounding professors for months begging for research jobs (snoozefest) but they're mean, as we all well know, and never responded to me, except for one that just responded a month after I emailed them and when I have already secured a job. I started to panic for a while there and started looking for any sort of employment. Looking through long lists of suspicious looking internships on Craigslist made it seem like I'd either be unemployed for life or have an internship with Faroush Maliki Enterprises, an interior decoratoring firm in Beverly Hills. But those days are long gone, for I can now call myself a working man, something I never have been, and didn't think I would be for a very long time.

A steady income is still a foreign concept to me. Filling out timesheets, something about some guy named Fica who steals my money every two weeks. I was excited to have the sporadic income of selling textbooks on Half.com, but this is an entirely new venture. With the benefits of paychecks and the prosperity of declaring that I am a working young man comes changes to the lazy lifestyle I once practiced. I generally have forfeited going to bed in the early morning hours and waking up in the early afternoon. Instead of going to bed right before the Today Show, I go to bed right before Conan (or right after the monologue, because I can't help myself). Another benefit of being at work and not at school, when you get home there's no homework or studying to do. Sure, I find myself thinking about that day and the following day due to the nature of the job, but otherwise, I have nothing to worry about. Another perk, I get to say things like, "I've gotta stop by the office for a bit," and, "Man, I had a long day at work." I feel somehow more accomplished by being exhausted from work than tired from studying a boring ol' textbook. I'd hate to knock the educational system, but working just feels better after cracking the books for oh so long.

The whole thing has made me feel all the more aged, not like a fine wine that gets sweeter and smoother over time, but like a bucket of water that's sitting outside. It slowly evaporates over time and accumulates hordes of mosquitoes carrying West Nile Virus. I've resurrected a Palm Pilot, circa 2001, to keep track of my schedule, I pack a sack lunch, and I have the possibility of a 401k in my future. Something tells me that if and when I finally got to graduate school, that I'll be more aged and wrinkled than my competition, but at the same time more experienced, richer and dare I say wiser, than the lot of them. I was looking for experience in the field of psychology, but it's quite possible that I've found something more valuable: a steady income and experience in a field that I've been sheltered from for too long...life. That'll give me a leg-up when I take the next step in my endless academic endeavors, while I develop more corny lines like that last one. Don't scoff at me...I'm old, it's how I function.

4:08 AM
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