BOOK REVIEW: To Rise Again At A Decent Hour - Joshua Ferris

I bought this book at a public library book sale. I had no idea what it was about and had never heard of the title before. It was only $1 so it wasn't that great of a risk.

I'm not really sure who this book is meant for, and to be honest, I even skipped full pages and found that the omission was entirely inconsequential. For example there were so many pages detailing a baseball game that just did not make any sense to someone like me, who does not watch or follow baseball. I'm sure it means something to someone who is not me.

There are a lot of multipage paragraphs, so anyone who hates big blocks of text would be exhausted. I understand a lot of it as a stream of consciousness David Foster Wallace Infinite Jest/James Joyce Ulysses type of situation. Although it starts out interesting, it very quickly becomes a drag to get through. You really just have to get through it, not read it.

The synopsis is just a dentist who is unhappy with his life. He is forced to come to terms with this unhappiness by a stranger of a mysterious religion who impersonates him on the internet.

Because of the "mystery religion" aspect of the book, there was a lot of discourse about Judaism, Christianity, and Atheism. It's not for everyone. Personally, as someone who studied the Holocaust, I found the comparison of the history of any religion to Judaism to be particularly grating. It's one of those things where the author thinks he's being really intellectual by "making you think," but just because you get people thinking doesn't mean it was interesting or of value. If you like this kind of intellectual circle jerk, this book might be for you.

I believe I gave it 2 or 3 stars on my bookstagram. I am relieved to see that the readers of Goodreads agree with me.

The next book I'm reading is Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. I needed something truly brilliant to lift me up from this garbage.

Part Time

I start my part time job today. It's small, but it's something. Can I still consider myself unemployed? I guess I'm not "gainfully" employed? Gainful unemployment or ungainful employment. So after only a month of true unemployment, I was able to find this. It isn't enough to pay all my bills, so I'll still be dipping into savings.

I was really beginning to worry since I was reading a lot of reddit posts about not being able to find work for years. There are a lot of extremes. You either go and make a post if you've found a job to tell people to never give up, or you make a post because it's been years and you still can't find employment. With such polarizing experiences, it really stresses people out. This is all a part of the quarter life crisis I guess.

I have made a plan for what my next year will look like. I know people say you can't plan too much because there are only so many things you can control. But in order to reach any goals you need plans and the understanding that things can change. When you're unemployed, it feels like you have no control over your own life or your choices. So I think it's that much more important to make plans whether or not they will come to fruition. It's something to hold onto and something to motivate and encourage you.

So my plan is to work part time at a tutoring place a couple evenings a week while I substitute for a local school district. In my free time, I will be studying and applying for alternative certification programs. Hopefully I get in and can pay my way through the classes with the part time work. Then I'll keep keep subbing and tutoring until I can find a full time teaching position.

All of this scares the heck out of me, but I'm telling myself that I have already done the difficult part of soul searching and learning that teaching is my passion and one of my strengths in life. Now all I have to do is go for it. Sure, it will be tough to shift gears, but it will be tough in a different way from self reflection.

Day in my life

I decided to take a picture for each hour of my day. 

9

10 

11

12

1

2

3 

4 

5 

6

7