today, my work involves sharing my thoughts about butlers and time travel

please enjoy!

dear friends, fans, family, folks,

i’m glad you’re here.
thank you for being here and receiving and sharing in this play.
and now, for some playful thoughts about WORK!

A) A is for -Aholic:

i'm a workaholic, so i don't touch the stuff anymore.

if it’s best for alcoholics to stay away from alcohol, then it logically must be so that workaholics should stay away from work (or “workohol,” the lesser known, unabbreviated full name of “work”).

so, am i a workaholic? well, today is saturday, a day that many of my people take as a sabbath, a day of rest, and what am i doing? working on creating this message to send to all you fine folks out there. does that mean i’m ADDICTED to work? i think i can quit any time! i just don’t WANT to quit until i’ve finished this message.

also, i like that in the bible, god rested for one of the seven days, and some humans were like “how about we make it TWO? how about a whole weekend?” so maybe the work that i’m doing here is bringing the average back down to one day of rest a week, which means by working on the sabbath, i’m actually doing the lord’s work.

B) B is for Butler:

i'm working on a new genre of
time travel murder mystery
called a WHENdunnit!

i love time travel. i’ve loved time travel since after i could remember.
i also love mysteries. for how long? it’s a mystery! and i love it!
i love famous tropes like “the butler did it,” even though i don’t know if i’ve EVER experienced a mystery where the butler actually did it. maybe that’s the biggest twist ending in the entire mystery genre, that the butler actually NEVER did it. or maybe it’s just that the trope is so old, that in order to find a mystery where the butler actually DID do it, you have to go very far BACK IN TIME!
you just got WHENdunnit’d!

C) C is for Catchphrase:

they say that if you love what you do,
then you'll never work a day in your life.
and for me that's true, because i LOVE not working!

now, is this true? i think it really depends on one’s definition of “work.” i read a book by dan ariely and jeff kreisler called “dollars and sense,” in which i believe they defined work and play (or non-work) as something like this (paraphrasing because i don’t want to do all the work of finding the actual quote):

work is something you have to do; play is something you don’t have to do.

which means that sometimes the same activity could be work to one person and play to another, or even work and play to the same person but at different times in different situations. take this newsletter (please)! i love writing jokes. i love sharing jokes and my thoughts. i love writing. and also, i’ve committed to sending these messages out on a certain schedule (ish!), which means that sometimes it feels like work (“i have to!”) and sometimes it feels like play (“i get to!”).

on one level, i know that i DON’T have to, that if i never sent out another post here, i wouldn’t get fired, because i’m my own boss (and i’m pretty lenient). on the other hand, i do want to keep my job. i want to keep this job but not conceive of it as a job. i want to keep my passion. my play. my life. my love. i want to keep sharing jokes and stories and thoughts and ideas and everything. i want to keep playing.

and would you look at that? i did it! i’m doing it! WE’RE doing it! WE did it!
and we didn’t have to hire a butler to do it or anything!

thanks for receiving! thanks for playing! thanks for you-ing!
(and if you know folks who might enjoy things like this, thanks for sharing!)

now, in the spirit of continued you-ing, here are some questions for YOU:

1) how are you doing? how are you feeling? what’s new and good with you?
2) what’s your relationship like with work? with non-work?
3) how do you like to play?
4) what are your thoughts on butlers? or time travel? or anything?
5) how are you doing NOW?

before we go, if you’re like “wait, that’s all the fun for today? where can i have more fun in the future,” that’s a great question! here are some places i’ll be doing standup comedy in the coming weeks and months and infinities:

— May 18: 123 Pleasant in Morgantown, WV!
— May 19-20: Hip to Be Square in Knoxville, TN!
— June 1: ImPerfect at Union Hall in Brooklyn, NY!
— June 9: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in Chico, CA!
— June 10: Greater Purpose Brewing Company in Santa Cruz, CA
— June 17: ImPerfect at Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles, CA!
— June 21: Barrel Proof Lounge in Santa Rosa, CA!
— June 24-25: Alameda Comedy Club in Alameda, CA!
— July 6-8: Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse in Arlington, VA!
— July 12-15: Acme Comedy Co. in Minneapolis, MN!
— August 2-28: ImPerfect at the Edinburgh Fringe Fest in Edinburgh, Scotland!

thank you again for being here! much love and thanks to you and yours and all!
and finally, here’s a fun photo i took of a see-saw that you apparently need to be under 5 tons to ride!