Resources beer talk

I was at Dave's home, sitting on a couch drinking some beer. Thursday night, long day at work, long week at work. We were both pretty tired, his wife was cooking something in the kitchen an we just sat there staring at the tv like zombies.

- You know I'm so frickin' tired of this, I feel like I'm fifty or so ... Can't stand waking up in the morning, taking the train for an hour to the Corporation crowded with hundreds of other resources only to get there and see a ton of emails and tasks waiting to be resolved... Damn, seems like that frickin vacation was a century ago...
- Eh said Dave a little dizzy from the beer, at least you have some job security at the Corporation... me I don't know...
- Me neither I said, they just announced they will shoot down another 5 thousands resources, cutting costs they say... Anyway don't want to worry, I hope I will make it to that day when I don't rely on that paycheck no more...
- Where's Ally ? Dave asked. What's up with you too? Are you still coming to the weekend in the mountains no?
- Yeah... I said, don't really feel like it but she's excited and I promised her, I don't wanna take that back too...
Lately I was feeling like I ignore her too much, not missing her, not craving for her presence, not even enjoying when she came to spend the nights with me. Thought she had figured that out too but weird enough she didn't leave, she must really care for me or she's just stubborn ...anyway she always asks if she can come over "only if you like me to" and I say yes, what the heck can I say?
- You're nuts Dave said, Ally is a great girl and she really likes you ...and you act like you don't care, no feelings and all, a frickin robot, you can't be happy like that, listen to me.
Would I be happy with Sexy Redhead if she were my girlfriend instead of Ally? I can't take my eyes off her at work but how about if we were together? Would it be a different story? I was pretty turned on over Ally at first and then ... Still I really wish I could try.

Caught in the resource rat race

- Face it dude, you can't get out! You should better learn to accept it, you're just a resource but you are lucky enough to be a corporate resource, you are paid more than you deserve anyway, the work is not bad, what do you want?

Gabe had once again one of his in love with the Corporation moments. I said nothing looking absent and he continued:

- You keep saying you wanna beat the System, you think you are frickin Neo in the frickin Matrix? Very few can beat the System so quit complaining and play along. Buy a frickin' car, get a credit card, get some new clothes, spend and have fun at least while you still can. And face it, you will get to retire in 40 years or so ...
- That ain't me I replied, I'm gonna beat this frickin' System, quit the Corporation and retire early, free and rich enough to live like I always wanted.
- Bogus, said Gabe, the System is interested in keeping you as a resource for life or until your seventy and no good anymore. But then your kids will be ready to replace you, they will be even more brainwashed and more docile resources for the Corporation. You see how school gets better and better these days, so does propaganda so kids already want to grow up so they can work their butts off to have a car as cool as daddy's no? Or now you will say you don't want no kids? You think Ally will support you in all this mumbo-jumbo plan of yours?

I don't know, she was complaining a few days ago on how late I get to work in the evenings, more and more often and we don't get to spend enough time together anymore. I don't want to see you only in the weekends she whispered while hugging me, don't want to stay away from you so long. But did I want to see her more often, I wasn't sure on that ... I wasn't sure she was the one indeed, I wasn't sure I was ready to confront her that I didn't want a regular resource life. I gave her a couple of hints, we talked a bit, she even started to read some pages of a Kyosaki book I was reading... But did they make any sense to her?

Gabe interrupted my thoughts abruptly : Here's your Sexy Redhead just going out for a cigarette break. Short skirt, nice body - I have to admit she can be hot.

Yes, and there was her to consider too as I couldn't get her off my mind.

A resource vacation

Finally at the end of the season we could afford to go on holiday, the big moment we've been expecting all summer. Months of doing plans, looking for best offers, analyzing costs and so on. I went with my girlfriend, Dave and his wife- small party of four.

We travelled to an island in Greece early September when most of the tourists left already and the hotels lowered the prices to half for the unlucky resources who hoped to still catch a couple of almost sunny days and swim in the cold autumn sea. Obviously we got a good share of rain. Even so we had a lot of trouble with calculating the budget as Dave would not go without a plane. "You're much too picky for a resource" I always told him but finally we got a low cost offer and landed on the island.

The hotel was very small and in the middle of nowhere but it was cheap and had a great sea view. And of course we couldn't have afforded more. We also rented a small car to tour around the island seeing lots of luxury hotels and yachts. We even got to see a big palace in the nineteenth century.

- I wish I could buy this place and live here big style! said Dave
- Ha, like a resource like you could afford it, we're lucky we can visit it at least.

In the coming days I guess we stayed too much in the sun as we started wondering how much the lobster would cost with me and Dave betting on the price. Good thing we didn't ask the waiter as he would have had a good laugh right there asking if we wanted to spend the next couple of days washing dishes to cover its price.

The holiday was over pretty quickly so we headed back home preparing for a long year of work and starting dreaming of the next holiday. I can already imagine the ton of tasks the Dragon has in store for us once we're back.

The long way back home

You rarely see any happy faces in the late train taking the resources home from the Corporation premises, located in an industrial area of the city. The same long faces everywhere, exhausted and sleepy, lacking any energy. They're in for a long one hour ride until getting home, spending what was left of their free day as a vegetable in front of the TV or computer waiting for the next day to return to work.

The train conductor resource is as bored and exhausted as the passengers, mumbling the station announcements in a low voice. At least if he had the sense of humor to announce when leaving the Corporation station: All zombies aboard please!

A resource works in general about 9 hours a day although it's pretty common they get to stay late and do overtime which is never paid. They spend another two hours on the road. But most of all they spend all their energy leaving them like brainless cattle in the evening to be transported home for the daily media intoxication. There is always the risk that some resources realize how miserably they spend their life and their youth without doing anything important to them so the mass-media has to brainwash them day by day. That new car, the vacation you've been waiting all year, a new smart phone, new fashionable clothes, you have to get them. And you have to get them quickly! You have to work more and more to afford them because you really really need them. And if you don't afford them now just get them in credit, you can always work more and harder to pay the taxes too. And each morning with an empty wallet you hurry to catch that frickin train to the Corporation.

Resource on vacation

Gabe just returned from his holiday. Being a poor resource he didn't had the money to travel abroad together with his wife and kid and not even go to a domestic high level tourist resort. Instead he spent a week in an old country side village where the top attraction was an abandoned salt mine.

- I got so sick of that frickin' salt mine were his first words when he returned. I was bored like hell, nothing to do there. Every day was the same, go down in the mine, get bored for a few hours, get up, get bored on the surface, nothing to do all day.
- Welcome back I said, there are a few hundred emails just waiting for you. Glad to see you missed them..
- Oh well said Gabe, while I was spending my holiday upset in the salt mine I had enough time to think. What are we doing here Seb? Why are we spending the best years of our life working for the Corporation and even if we take one week holiday for the summer we still don't have the money to go somewhere nice.Why?

I said nothing, thinking Dale had just started his vacation the other day. When I asked him where he is going to go he raised his shoulders and said: Nowhere, I'm gonna stay home. Maybe a couple of days at the sea in a small village. I knew the village, Dale was going there for the past several years, he couldn't afford anything else.

- I have heard you got a new girlfriend! Gabe said. You lucky bastard, I'm married with children and you're playing around like you're in your twenties again.

I said nothing, Sexy Redhead just walked out in the courtyard and I was too busy staring at her. Yes, a new girlfriend, just not her sadly....
- Go to her already mumbled Gabe annoyed, I can't stand you already when she's around...

Sexy redhead resource

- Will you frickin' stop dreaming about her already? said Gabe annoyed while we were in the Corporation courtyard in a coffee break.

Gabe was constantly looking for all the women, all types, all ages, all sizes. You couldn't spend two minutes with him without pointing out a women he likes with a sigh. He once said he likes about 80% of the women he saw in the subway while going to work. And now he was annoyed with me because I couldn't take my eyes off Sexy Redhead.

She was a resource like us, working on the same floor but in a different team, thin, average sized, with a beautiful red hair and a face resembling Angelina Jolie. Or so it looked to me, I was hypnotized staring at her every time she was out with her friends a few meters apart from me.

- Well she is ugly! Gabe continued but she kind of looks like you so I see why you have the hots for her. You'd make a good couple you know, you're suitable you two.
- Shut up and let me dream, you know I ain't got no chance. She's got her desk full of her boyfriend's pictures and also her facebook wall. Like life is going to be good to a resource...
- So what, you should try hitting on to her. Just go to her and say you like her and invite her out! Don't just stay here staring. You're not fun to get out to a coffee with when she's around.
- Yeah, I'm a sad resource. No, actually I'm a sadder resource than usual I said absent looking as Sexy Redhead was lighting up a cigarette. Damn I wish I was there with her. It ain't bad enough I'm a resource at the Corporation, I have to live up with her so close and yet so far every day.

Gabe said nothing, he was busy checking out a tall blonde coming out of the building. After a few moments he said:
- If the Corporation would only knew you've got a crush on the Sexy Redhead they would move you next to her desk if you accepted to work harder, such an easy way to motivate a resource.

The resource cafeteria

Each day lunch was the same story at the Corporation. A large restaurant was opened at the ground level where resources could eat quickly before resuming their tasks. We called this place the Resource Cafeteria. Despite all research no solution was found for substituting food so lunch was still allowed.

Me and Dale would go through the same story over and over again. Opening the door you stumble into a large line of resources aligned and patiently waiting to get to the food trays. I would go sit at the end if the queue while Dale went to check the meals for the day. Each day he would come back to me in the line saying he doesn't know what to choose and all food is crap.

- I don't get it I said to him, we have been eating in this frickin' place for years and you still go every day to check the food trays, eyes full of hope only to return with the same long face and bitter disappointment. I only take a look at the menu once I get to the trays, I already know each meal.
- Yeah, hope dies last...

The soups were garbage, a salty water with a couple of boiled vegetables with no taste. From time to time Alex gave the soup a try but he almost always regretted it. Second course was a risk as well, anything with souse you avoid. The other meals tasted awful too but the resources learnt to eat them anyway. No one was complaining outside of me doing the same old jokes about the food. Prices were pretty high compared to the horrible food but how other could the resource cafeteria owner afford two luxury cars whom he proudly parked outside.

There was always constant noise the Resource Cafeteria, you couldn't even enjoy the garbage food in quiet. But it paid off, the resources were quick to eat and return to work hoping for that 6PM to come already.