Get your sloth on while you can

As the clock ticks toward another school year, I better enjoy my freedom while it lasts. After I spent the morning on readings for school and even writing a song, productivity and decency dissolved when my friend Dave came over, and we spent the rest of the day eating junk food, playing video games, watching movies, drinking beer (yes, those are tall boys in the back) and chewing tobacco (my first/last foray into that form of stimulant). We took a walk, too, to kind of balance the whole thing out.

Back in Texas, I had a group of guy friends (including Dave) with whom I would have occasional weekends of ridiculous sloth. One infamous 48-hour stint transpired at one of our friends' apartment, where four of us lived on pizza and whatever we could think to cook (including spaghetti burritos), and watched Will Ferrell and Will Ferrell-esque comedies, drank beer, smoked cigarettes and babbled about life and love and religion and the world. Cherished times.

Part of me secretly longs to be a loser, but fears it so terribly that perhaps I try too hard to lean in the other direction. One of my friends from childhood who's an even bigger over-achiever than I am (she has a PhD and all) shares my deep-seeded longing to spend our lives in pajamas, eating cereal and watching TV. Of course, we formed that ideal back when there was good stuff on TV. But, regardless, that aspect of my brain is ultimately overruled by the part that wants to challenge myself, reach my potential, contribute and so on.

Like all the deadly sins, though, sloth is healthy in moderation.