work aside

i detest the question: "what do you do?" (referring to occupation) mostly because i feel like the most boring person i know when i answer: "i work for a furniture company. sales, basically."

thing is, something i LOVE about my company (and particularly the LA sales team) is that everybody likes their job well enough and works hard, but at the end of the day, everybody's ready to go home. CARA is dedicated to charitable causes and she digs adventuring more than i do. JEN rides a motorcycle and is a total bookworm. every bartender in the south bay knows ERIN by name, she can get a crowd laughing in 10 seconds flat, and yet she manages to come off like a soccer mom by bringing everyone homemade caramel corn on holidays. TONY's humor betrays his martian ancestry, he coaches his daughter's five-bajillion sports teams, and (i swear) is at "a friend's concert" every other weekend. JACK runs the special olympics at the high school his kids used to attend.

work is a big deal. it's where i spend 40 hours each week. but i only spend 40 hours each week - with people i dig - and the rest of the week/weekend is mine. i don't expect to be here forever, but it has reminded me that people are not wholly defined by "what they do" for a living.