NowBeAverage

My laundry is piling up to my clothing rack, my aloe plant is dying, and there is an unread Muse sitting on my bed side table. These are the hardships that come with employment.  While I figure out the best way to cope with these harsh consequences of my recently acquired position as a barmaid/cocktail hussy/waitress, I contemplate life pre-whiskey sours and determine that now is better.  That is the point isn't it? That now is always better than before? That living in the now is far superior for mind, body, spirit, for life in general, than living in the past or future?

I had this conversation last night with a seemingly, but not, french dude, and a nice little Asian who keeps reminding me we went to college together and even had the same english class freshman year. I may not remember this person, but amidst our Patron induced stupor I do remember agreeing with him wholeheartedly in that being conscious of the now is what truly achieves happiness. That being said, I have to say he trades Japanese stocks.  Being at work by 6am to get a jump on the market in Japan that has already opened, while looking to the future for what will make his money hungry clients the most cash certainly qualifies as living in the past as well as the future, no? But I digress, for if he truly didn't believe what he was saying why would we have been discussing it in the first place? Being a conscious participator in the now of  your own life is a massive first step in living in it.  Anyway, I'm sure by next  year he'll be burnt out and move to the Himalayas to become a sherpa and tend to his sheep.

As for yours truly, this moment calls for a manicure. In the past I've been negligent, but you never know what may happen in the future.

AverageAspirations

To do as a distraction, or to do in order to achieve.  These seemingly different reasons for action, though at their core represent polar opposite outlooks on life, end up merging in my case into the same end result.  Do I spray paint the coffee table in order to escape my more prevalent duties of making an appearance at the gym or revamping my resume? Or do I turn a blind eye to the shabby chic appearance of my apartment (emphasis on shabby) and stare at my computer screen for a few hours trying to make a sales associate description sound inspiring and impressive? Either way, I will be accomplishing something.  And each respective accomplishment has the ability to add up in some form or another, to an achievement.  The clear definitive here is not what you choose to do, but why you choose to do it.  What is more important to me, right now, in my state of post-4th of July weekend gluttony? The coffee table or the resume?  My home or my job status? Myself, or an extension of?  In all honesty I cannot freely choose.  I can tell you what my father would deem top priority, what my neighbor would suggest (the coffee table has been occupying the backyard, half spray painted, for a couple weeks now), and even what the little puppy would prefer, considering the art store for the paint is conveniently on the way to the puppy park.  As I go through each mundane pro and con concerning the respective courses of action on today's agenda, I become sidetracked with pictures from last week's happy hour for the unemployed drinking marathon.  Clearly, the importance of these tasks is miniscule, it really does not get more average than this.  But the one thing that gets me going, that forever holds motivation for anyone not suffering from depression, a severe phobia, or mono-is the thought that no matter the reason for doing, for accomplishing, for achieving, without trying there will always be a "what if?"  Regret may not seem like a positive push to get off the couch (I sit at the table, there is no television anyway), but when coupled with the guilt of sheer laziness it breeds apathy and unfulfillment.  And even for an average New Yorker sans responsibilities beyond her own self-involved life, unfulfillment does not, and should never, hold a place in the heart of any  soul with even the smallest aspiration.  Even if that is spray painting a coffee table.  So I will paint-maybe as a distraction, maybe as a slightly image-conscious creative-type in an apartment that needs a coffee table, or maybe because I'm noticing a lack of checks next to the to-do list.  Whichever reason I choose to justify my action, I know that once I am finished I will feel accomplishment, and contribute to an achievement I might not have even realized I had. 

AverageTimes

As Obama appears more and more cartoonish with every magazine cover, and my neighborhood becomes more and more inundated with foreigners, July 4th is around the corner and I realize time has passed more quickly than I can fathom.  The age-old cliche that life happens when you are making grand plans for it, a mantra widely quoted on Facebook accounts of college freshman across the nation, though true, does not exactly apply here.  It has been 8 days short of a month since I contributed anything to this forum, and I am unable to report any severe changes to the state of my average situation.  This may be a good thing, as no tragedies or catastrophes have occurred, but it leads me to think that maybe my grand plans are just simply sub-grand afterthoughts, ranging from "raid parents Cape Cod attic for furniture" and "apply for jobs."  Everyone has daily ambitions, to-do lists, aspirations, and categorizing them as grand, while an overstatement, may be just the thing to boost self-confidence for your role in the game of life.  On that note, I give you my grand life plan-a conglomerate of thoughts and dreams condensed to a single plan of action: To lead a bi-coastal, creative, inspiring life by way of physical and spiritual journey's to far away places, surrounded by those I deem worthy and worth-while to share them with.  While this may ease the mere average fulfillment of my current situation, to think beyond my little Nolita six block radius might be inspiring and fulfilling enough for now.