It was all an Unemployed Dream.: The Family Garden is a special place

If you're back today, that either means you're my friend and I've goaded you into returning, you're a friend of a friend and presumably bored at work, or you hate me and are interested in mocking my writing. I think the last point can't be understated. I posted my blog on facebook yesterday. I think it's safe to assume there are at least 2-3 people I'm facebook friends with who hate me but keep me around because they hate me that much, or basically why people read Jay Mariotti.

Regardless, if you are here, it is clear to you I have no job. Only nobody told all of the bands I like this information when they started scheduling shows in Chicago. Of course when Pearl Jam announced two nights in Chicago, I knew I was going to both. This required joining the fan club, an added expense. Then Jeff Tweedy added a date at a Synagogue. As a Jewish Wilco fan, I was all but required to buy a ticket to this. Then Wilco added a date at October at the UIC Pavillion, a venue I had never seen them at. As my favorite band, two tickets were purchased in the presale. Then my friend Paul called me saying I had to buy a ticket to Grizzly Bear at the Metro, while describing their show as "magical."

Note that this list also discludes upcoming Jamie Lidell, Band of Horses and Sondre Lerche shows, and Lollapalooza in its entirety (though the jury is still out on this year's lineup, and losing the Beastie Boys hurts too).

Now I don't lead a particularly lavish lifestyle (I'm aware people I have a pair of Lacoste flip-flops, and they were $15 at the Finish Line. I do not qualify them as lavish. Pretentious maybe). I don't have payments on my Bentley to be making. Unlike Jermaine Dupri, the parties I go to normally stop before 8 in the morning. But clearly, the whole lack of an income lifestyle has made me more conscious of all of my spending.

Now if my mom asks me to buy turkey breast to eat for lunch, I'm not going to complain because my parents have clearly dropped coin on me in the past (and I'm referring to the turkey breast from whole foods, which unquestionably costs more than other turkey breast that isn't diamond encrusted).

So mostly where I'm conscious of my spending is socially. This doesn't include the concert going aspect because the above concerts I mentioned I was attending are what I'd qualify as required viewing in the essence of keeping me, well, like me. What is included, however, is doing an extra round of tequila shots at 2 am at Kirkwoods (total meat market by the way, but that's for another time). I know it's blasphemy amongst most of my friends to suggest cutting back on drinking, but really, that is my only expense. I don't even drink that much to be honest. I've just managed to surround myself with the type of friends who are always encouraging me to drink more. That actually sounds a lot worse than it is. I think they are less interested in me getting alcohol poisoning, and just more interested in an evening that ends with us stumbling home from McDonald's or Flash Taco.

This is not to say I will totally limit myself socially. If you don't go out with friends, I think it's even easier to go crazy when you don't have a job. But I don't have any false pretenses about the situation I'm in. My job right now is to look for a job, not to be spending money. I couldn't tell you if I'm taking this situation any more or less serious than I should be, because I've never been through this before. But certainly, I have my priorities straight right now, and I'm confident something good will come out of this.

Just hopefully it won't be me getting good at golf, because tee times are way too expensive for me right now.