Useless Mental Exercise

Sometimes when I can't sleep, I lie in bed and create mental exercises for myself to distract my thoughts just enough that I can drift off. For example, I picture a blackboard in my head, and write the number 100 on it in chalk. Then I erase it. Then I write 99. Then I erase it. I never get all the way to zero.

Another one is to logically think out minute by minute what I would do if I discovered I won the lottery.

Wouldn't it be great here if I just went: GOOD THING I DID THAT BECAUSE I WON!!!!!!!

I didn't.

Anyway, I'll just go through the process. What the excitement would be like, would I call someone right away, how would I plan for the future?

Well, the other night I watched too much "Miami Ink" before I went to bed, and it occurred to me to wonder, "Why did I never decide to become a tattoo artist??" I have the creativity and artistic talent, and even if I was only half good, there's a portion of the art that's tracing or riffing off other things that have already been drawn. I have the manual dexterity to work the tools of the trade. I think tattoos are pretty damn cool. The work atmosphere is good, you can wear what you want, and if you get good enough at it, it earns you prestige and money.

I guess, and I certainly don't mean this as any disrespect to anyone in the profession, that it would be squandering of my more cerebral talents. I don't know any tattoo artists with MBAs or advanced technical certifications. While they all seem to love their jobs, I get the impression from some of the ones I know that it was a natural path for them because they just didn't have the head or the attitude for anything else. Some of the other ones I know were like, it was this or another trade, like construction or mechanics.

That's never been my slant, but I'm not sure why. How did I get steered into the business world? Because that was where the money is and that's what I thought I wanted?

Then I get to thinking that no matter how many "hands on" jobs I've gotten into, it seems when you get too good at it, the first thing they want to do is move you into management. And so I went. Sometimes willingly, and sometimes just for the money or the experience. And I'm good at it, so why not?

But I guess I've just started looking for other things in my life now, especially having just had a birthday that qualifies for the start of my "mid-life" years. I'm going to keep my eyes open for as many opportunities as possible.

Would I like to get into tattooing? Totally.