I have a terrible confession to make

Yeah, otherwise known as writing.

 

Does that sound like a typewriter? Feel like one?

 

Do not have that luxury -- and I'm just fine with it.

 

I think some people like and even require routine and some people don't. I don't think there's a value judgment in that. It's the same how some people like to get up early and some people like to stay up late. I know people who would have hated my career. They want 9-to-5, the ability to turn off their brains when they're not actually getting paid to be at work, weekends off. I prefer being able to take a trip without getting permission. But I don't think there's anything wrong with either.

 

I completely understand and recall and even long for the appeal of no or low routine. I told Mrs. Whitman one time she never has to worry about me killing myself - faced with despair, I'll just drive to Montana or Colorado and van camp by a trout stream until I die.

That said, sometimes I think writers can romanticize it to our detriment. (Can I still use "our"? I'm going to write something other than legal briefs again, at some point, or at least try.) When I was a kid, I was highly organized. Obsessed over my baseball cards being in order. Kept neat scorecards. Practically OCD about things. Smart cookie. Great grades.

Then I majored in journalism. Writing and reporting is magic. Straight As are for suckers. Order and organization is for accountants and other boring people. I'll sleep where I lie. It's noble to eat a microwave burrito for dinner.

When I started at the law firm, I was pretty well blind-sided by the level of organization that most people maintain. I remember getting chewed out early on - lightly - for not putting documents in "chron order." It's not something I would have even thought of. I had just grown to think those kind of routines were b.s. ways for boring people to rationalize their existences.

Now, at my new shop, I'm the asshole (actually, I'm very nice about it) pressing the paralegals to get more organized and consistent. It still feels icky and constricting. But at least I can find things now.

 

I have an odd relationship with structure and routine. I want most things to be organized and operate in a certain way, but I spend a lot of my time fighting against that urge.

 

Oh those days deep in the heart of New Mexico.

 

There is great organization in my daily chaos.

 

I watched that whole thing.

Bird, bird, bird is the word. Bird bird bird bird bird is the word.

 

One of my all-time favorite family Guy bits ...

 

I thought you were kidding, too, but now I see you are talking about something I do as well. It's one enjoyable thing about a long drive, especially a familiar one.