9 to 5
I have never looked hot running for the bus in t-strap heels.
This week I thought so much about routines. I ended a contract a while ago that had me up hella early every day and this past week I started another one. I was excited about getting back into, IDK, not waking up at 8am CST, but I am back at it for this next festival gig. I’ve prob been thinking about them lots too ‘cos my girlfriend is getting in the groove of a new routine too and I’ve been hoping it goes really smooth for them.
My usual vibe is that I won’t fully wake up until noon (and fall asleep at about 3am) it’s been that way for a few years. Freelancing allows me to do that and honestly I think it’s just times my body fucks with. My typical routine is:
I pray, usually in bed
Make a few wishes, maybe light a candle or pull some cards.
Text my girlfriend, or send them a voice note or listen to theirs that they have sent while I have been asleep.
Play around on my phone, turn the TV on so something is playing on it (but mute it and play music or a podcast in my flat)
Make something to drink, usually coffee but recently not so much, been getting back into it though
I’ve been freelancing full time for nearly three years, but before that though, I was waking up at 5 am nearly every morning to go and work all 3 of my jobs.
I have never not had a job and because of that, I always had a routine…even if it was one that I didn’t love or even want to be doing. I saw the movie 9 to 5 only a few years ago, when I was in the middle of one of my own working girl moments and I fell in love with it. Three bad bitches who were working hard every fucking day, hated their misogynistic disgusting boss, kick it one night and talk shit about him and their gig, end up kidnapping him after he makes a hella indecent proposal, and in the end, change their lives (and the lives of other women in the office) for the better. There is also some smidgen of attempted murder but it was BY MISTAKE!
The theme song to the movie is incredible and the opening credits (which I can’t find to embed BUT are mixed in with the video for the theme) show women waking up and starting their daily routines. Turning off their alarm clocks, showering, making coffee, getting dressed, and other things that go along with starting your day. Also, can we talk about some of the lyrics:
Working 9 to 5, what a way to make a living
Barely getting by, it's all taking and no giving
They just use your mind, and they never give you credit
It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it
PHEW! Dolly wrote the song and talks about it in her Netflix documentary Here I Am which EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH!
Before I became a full-time freelancer, as I said above I would wake up at 5am.
From 6am to about 2pm I would barista
from 2-5 I’d write at a cafe OR in the empty dining room of the restaurant I worked at from 5pm to midnight I’d work at said restaurant
I’d sometimes go out with co-workers after but if not I’d get home at 1am
shower
watch something and go to sleep around 2am
wake up and do it again
That was my daily routine for a few years and before that
I was working as a nanny from 8am to 6pm
Then from 8pm to anywhere from midnight to 3am I’d work my industry job either at the bar/phone reservationist/host at the ramen shop/steakhouse
AND BEFORE THAT I worked retail where I would work from 8pm to 7am overnight merchandising the store and somewhere in between all that I worked at a late-night donut shop where people would tip me in their phone numbers, cash, and drugs.
I’m just grateful that I am now living a life where I can choose my own routine and it’s one that I want. For years, I was working those gigs to help take care of other people and put my own dreams on hold, then I was working for myself but was scared to pursue those dreams, THEN I started to pursue those dreams while working but feared I was making a mistake and that nothing was ever going to happen. Now I have the luxury of signing one-off contracts where for just a moment my usual vibe is put on pause and then I get to have this experience, make good monies, surround myself with film and creativity, and then after a few weeks return to my regularly scheduled programming.
Obvs things worked out and I’m the one fully in charge of my daily routines but I do miss stealing expensive pastries and overpriced coffee from my old job, and before you give me shit about that—they didn’t give me health insurance and yelled at me for going to the bathroom so, whatever.
What I Watched
Big Night (Directed by THEE Stanley fucking Tucci and also starring Tony fucking Shalhoub and a mini Marc Antony—lol why is everyone in this brilliant ass movie that I just learned existed)
Love on The Spectrum U.S
The Circle Finale
The latest installment of “Love Death + Robots” (The fucking JIBARO episode?!?”)
The After Party
What I Re-Watched
New Girl
Gypsy Sisters
What I Listened To
A playlist I’ve been making with my girlfriend
Other pplz gym playlists
My heart
City rain sounds
What I Read
What I Ate
Rice cake with fried egg tomato & aged white cheddar….like every day
Water
Coffee
Ice
How I Felt
This week as told through Arrested Development gifs
Another new film festival contract
Do you enjoy group projects or are you an earth sign?
Proud of/missing my girlfriend
Can’t believe this cream may really be working on my hyperpigmentation
Excited that my friends are coming into town this month
Hating freelance taxes
But mostly feeling pretty damn good
Etc.
Lol I love my job ‘cos I got a bunch of free gay gold bars in the mail from Lush.
It’s nice to know that when you meet new folks you can be nervous but be yourself and in the end they dig and take to you. I love being rewarded for choosing to be myself, even in moments that can be scary and unnerving.
I am so happy that my parents are having a peaceful and restful retirement, not many Black children get to say that.
It’s okay to cry.
Sex
I don’t have nearly enough plants.
I def need to paint this place
Okay bye —
