"Robotic" fits well, I think. How about I just write down how today went and you judge.
05:20 - waking up (on a perfect night/morning). It's dark and the alarm is screeching the default iphone alarm tone. It's nice, sharp, and most importantly, painful enough to get me to practically launch myself out of bed.
05:20 - Gathering my stuff and go for a morning walk. Purchasing one of those "hoverboards" was both a blessing and a curse - on the one hand, commute to work now takes about half of the time, on the other hand, I now have to kill about an hour before going to work.
05:30 to 06:29 - Make a glass of "lemon and mint" tea and a morning walk. Must remind myself to let the water run a bit on its own to clean the tap. This isn't the same tap as we had in the apartment we could afford back when mom was alive, it's some ghetto pipe with creepy shit growing in the pipes. Make tea and go out to a certain, very long street and walk forward for half an hour, then back.
06:25 to 07:25 - Riding to work. The morning walk never ends at 06:29, usually earlier. Coming home I gather the required items for commute - a charger for the hoverboard, a can of Raid (there's a bit of a war against crickets going on. More like cricket genocide. The fuckers won't stop coming, though), refilling my cigarette holder and extra seven cigarettes for the ride to work. Going out I put one in my mouth and light it up. There are also two "checkpoints" where I light a second and third ciggie.
07:25 to 07:59 - Arriving to work with 4 cigarettes in hand. It has to be four. The door is usually open unless it's Sunday. If it's Sunday, the guy with the key will arrive at 07:40, if not, the supervisor arrives at roughly 07:20. I park in the corner and plug the hoverboard to charge. Afterward I go to my workstation and put the four cigarettes left from commute on my table. I go make tea with milk and return outside to drink it and smoke three cigarettes. While smoking I check SS now as it is far more interesting to read than "here's some vaguely interesting stuff in list format" sites.
08:00:00 to 10:00 - Work begins after I take my pills. Funny - the supervisor uses me as a clock seeing as I take my meds very religiously, set up a special timer to 08:00:00 for this. I fade in and out of autopilot. Time passes sometimes quickly, sometimes at a frustratingly slow pace.
09:59 to 10:14:30 - Break. Smoke another two cigarettes. After returning to work station, refill the cigarette holder with the four cigarettes brought from commute.
10:15 to 12:29 - More work, more slipping in and out of autopilot.
12:30 to 12:59:30 - Lunch and break. The "meat" is bland with very little flavor. The package says "Now with over 70% pure meat!", which means precisely 70.01% of actual fowl and the rest is a mystery. That's compensated by store bought salads with tons of salt and vinegar. Each on their own are disgusting, but the combination brings something vaguely palatable. Smoking another three cigarettes with either tea with milk or soda.
13:00 to 14:59 - More work, more autopilot.
15:00 to 15:14:30 - Another break. two cigarettes with tea and milk or soda.
15:15 to 17:00 - More work. getting tired.
17:00 to 17:10 - A break that is not official. Supervisor often leaves at this time, but if he doesn't, he may start yelling that I'm "stealing hours" and threatens to fire me. He never does. My job became so complicated at this point he doesn't know the proper procedure for it. The CEO keeps adding more and more unnecessary steps. It has become a maze to navigate. The fact these steps were added one by one over a long period of time helps navigating this mess through muscle memory. Each step takes about two weeks to get used to. There arer currently nine steps, assuming it's a "home brand". Twelve if it's not. Each item requires between one and three steps to process. Smoke two cigarettes, no tea.
17:10 to 18:00 - More work.
18:00 to 18:10 - Another break. two cigarettes with tea.
18:10 to 18:30 - Cleaning up and preparing for the next day.
18:30 to 19:20 - Riding home. smoking three cigarettes at the same checkpoints, the first smoked slightly away from work due to navigating rough terrain that requires my full concentration. The hoverboard is not easy to ride, despite how the kids make it look.
19:20 to 20:00 - Reading random stuff while listening to Spotify. Music only. Can't stand podcasts, despite how interesting they are. Smokes limits are off at this point. I could finish the rest of the cigarette case, but nicotine rush isn't fun.
20:00 to 21:00 - Take meds and keep reading those "20 interesting stuff about seemingly mundane jobs" lists. Garbage collectors, mailmen and cops lead surprisingly interesting lives. Plumbers - not so much. God help the electricians and pizza delivery guys.
21:00 to 21:15 - Take a shower and pour myself a glass of coke after I'm done showering.
21:15 to 22:17 - More reading, more smoking.
22:20 to 05:20 - Sleep.
If this sounds like a perfect life, let's not forget two elements: epilepsy and meds. The side effects pamphlet reads like a draft for the next SAW movie. Epileptic auras are impossible to describe. Sprinkle random, bouts of anxiety and epileptic auras over this seemingly perfect routine and now we begin to see an issue. During the auras I'm forced to hide somewhere until they pass. If hiding isn't an option, I'm forced to pretend everything is okay at all times. Nobody likes epileptics in this country (or any country for that matter), and we're treated roughly the same as werewolves. Werewolves have a full moon to signal their arrival at least. Epileptics don't have that privilege.
Thankfully, during the bouts of anxiety I can at least declare "I'm a little bit busy right now" with my best angry groan, which will drive most people away. If the supervisor is the one who's calling, I'll do my best to switch to a giant file I'll pretend to be treating and pretend to be looking an item up, which is a story on its own. All in all, it feels more like being a spy infiltrating Auschwitz
