I got confused about making a post for this week since we were going to your house for dinner and all of that but I did read the book and it was actually my favorite book that we read this semester. After reading the first chapter of the book I knew that I was going to like it and I found out that the author and I have a lot in common. Sleeping in and then deciding what I want to do with my day sounds like the perfect life to me and much like this author, if I could do absolutely nothing all day then I would be thrilled. I have always been a bit of a lazy person and I have never ben a morning person so a lifestyle such as this would suit me very well. Unfortunately I do not have the means to do this and I have an Uncle who has done this pretty much all his life and the last thing I want to do is end up like him. So I will probably slave away at a job that I probably will not like very much to try and fit into society and try to earn a good living, with which to raise a family, hopefully. If I do not get married and start a family then I have always considered working extra hard for fifteen to twenty years and then move to a country with a good exchange rate and spend the rest of my life sipping Pina Coladas on a beach somewhere.
One thing that I definitely agree with the author about is how shitty it is to be woken up by an alarm. I find myself waking up around when the alarm will go off on my own just so I can avoid being abruptly woken up by that terrible beeping sound. I definitely see a reason why alarms are necessary, such as forgetting to set an alarm the day before an exam and waking up hours after it has ended, which has unfortunately happened to me one time before. I never set alarms on days when I do not have to get up at a certain time and it seems that as I have gotten older, I am 25 now, I have lost my ability to sleep in and if I wake up it is much harder than it used to be to go back to sleep. My laziness overrules my hate of alarms on most days, though, and I try to go back to sleep even if I only have a few minutes.
I really appreciated his chapter on the death of lunch in America as opposed to some other cultures that make time for a long lunch and then a nice food nap in between. I have always been more of a breakfast person, if I am up early enough to eat breakfast that is, which is rare. When I can I like to try and eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a pauper, and dinner like a commoner, the saying goes something like that I think. That is really the most healthy way of doing things since your metabolism decreases as the day wears on. Also many parts of Italy are doing away with long lunches because they are having trouble keeping up with the other European economies. This is even changing the siesta thing in some parts of Spain, which is depressing but it is just the way of the world today.
I also liked the part about hangovers and trying to enjoy the ride instead of trying to find a cure. I, for one, have a good cure for hangovers that almost always works: one or two packets of BC powder, its like a southern version of alka seltzer but much better, and 32 ounces of gatorade. This usually works for me but stupid Ohio does not have BC Powder and I always forget to bring some up so I have actually found myself trying to take his advice a few times in the past month of school or so.
While I really liked this book it also made me pretty jealous of someone who could actually do this and not be overwhelmed by a sense of failure, as I think I would be if I did this all the time. I really doubt that this author really even practices this lifestyle all that much. I listened to an episode of Fresh Air on NPR where this author was interviewed and he even admitted that it was hard at times, especially after his wife had their first baby. This is a good thought but it is very hard to do all the time in today’s world, which is a true shame for lazy people such as myself.
