More Reasons Why Being Deaf Sucks/Rocks – Irony

Columns

I dig irony. I wear uniform shirts, with company logos and employee names, for jobs that I’ve never worked, on my days off. I moved to Sin City and was chaste. I get irony and I dig it.

What I don’t dig is when I’m the butt of irony, a situation I find myself in right now.

Y’see, as longtime readers know, one of my musical meccas is The Soundgarden in Baltimore. I loved that place when I lived here and I loved it even more once I moved away. It’s a place that over the years I’ve loved to spend hours and get lost in. In fact, I was right on the verge of writing to Paste magazine because The Soundgarden didn’t make their recent list of the “17 Coolest Record Stores in America.”

So, where does the irony come into play?

Um, I’m completely broke. I’ve moved across the country, back to the city with my favorite music store in the world, and I’m too broke to actually go shopping.

It’s almost tragic. I mean not in a literal sense, but in a personal sense it really is.

It kills me that I can’t just go into the store to browse, because that would just be torture. I mean, looking at all of these albums that I can’t afford to buy? What kind of masochist would put themselves through that? Obviously the traditional kind, but my point is that having something you want to appreciate within your reach, yet not being able to fully savor it is clearly some sick, twisted joke.

Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve this punishment. I’m pretty sure it was something in a past life, because I’ve got to believe that I’d remember putting someone though the hell it would take to deserve this type of karma. I’m guessing I either lynched someone or was a Nazi, though I’m not ruling out the standard wife-beater.

Of course we are in a recession and things are tough all over, or so I hear. But previous economic downturns never seemed to affect me. I kept on making the same amount of money and having the same amount of disposable income. But it’s just not the case this time around.

I’m tempted to get a part-time gig, but then the question of “how much is my free time worth” gets raised. And I’m pretty sure that in order to justify me giving up my free time I’d have to make more than what I make at my regular gig, because my free time is just that valuable. And I don’t think there are that many part time jobs that pay $25 an hour. At least none that I’d be willing to do.

So in the end I’m stuck being broke and not spending nearly enough money on music. So not only have I not dove headfirst into any new artists this year, but I’m probably going to struggle coming up with my Top Twenty at the end of the year.

Man, that’s less than inspiring.