coloring my parachute

You know how when you are a student, and you have to report your occupation, you write "student" in the box or you say "student" to the person who asked you and your entire identity is formed around "student".  You get discounts and free stuff and all that?

And I have friends who didn't go back to work after they had their babies and when anyone asks them what they do they answer "I'm a mom" and they get love and hugs and support and people say things to them like "you have the hardest job in the world" and "I don't know how you do it".

Well, you don't usually get paid to be a student, and sure as certain no one is paying anyone to be a mom.  But Student and Mom are two very valid careers. 

I'm going to start doing that.  I'm not so much a student, and I don't ever tell people the mom thing because I can't bring myself to be the sort to gratuitously talk about the damned kid all the time.  But I'm going to start telling people that I'm a writer and a photographer and an actor.  Yeah, I'm not getting paid for any of that.  Yeah, it's not my day job (that I won't be quitting any time soon in order to pursue those things).  But it's what I like to do.  And it's what I "do", technically.  I write, I take photos, and I act.  I do all those things.  And it sounds so much cooler than my job. 

When I explain my dayjob- which is hard to do- people usually say something like "I don't know how you do that" or "I can't work with those people, they would make me sick" or "my mom is a social worker/therapist/whatever" or "oh, man" and then they want to hear horror stories ("so what's like, the worst thing you've ever seen/heard/whatever") and when I tell them, I get sad or mad because they're so bad.  And seriously?  Work is only 37.5 hours per week.  And that's when I go everyday.  I get three weeks vacation, nine paid holidays, three floating holidays, eleven sick days, and nine personal days plus we get off early every Friday in the summer.  There are 168 hours in a week.  Why should define myself by something I do less than 22.3% of my time? I sleep for 50, sometimes 60 hours a week.  Technically sleep is more "done" than work.

I'm going to start living in the five to nine and keep my nine to five out of my mind when I'm not ninetofiving and see where it takes me.

So, next time you see me, ask me what I do.  And I'll tell you. 

And I want to know... what do you do?