For the last few months, I've been living in a little bit of a limbo work world. I'm going to be leaving in November and currently Laura and I are saving up for our wedding and the move. The two jobs that I do are the definition of unchallenging, but I'm making the right amount of money and I have insurance. My current work week is roughly 29 hours and I net the same amount of money that I made when I was working 40 hours a week at US Trust in Jersey City, though then I didn't get health insurance. I'm also making only slightly less than when I was working 60-80 hours a week for Transportation Alternatives, though I don't really count that job as "work".
As the wedding looms on the horizon, more and more potential costs rack up in my brain: car, honeymoon (?), last minute wedding costs, move, Cobra insurance etc. Laura and I are trying to save more and spend less, but it seems that I should probably get more work. I've got about a $100-$150 a week hole I'd like to fill in my income and the options aren't huge.
I've been toying with the option of doing food delivery int he neighborhood. I've talked to a lots of messengers who do it either to suppliment their income or have crossed over to just do that. There are some restaurants in the neighborhood that have a fleet comprised entirely of off-duty messengers who deliver food. It's the funniest thing to see hardcore messengers with plastic bags of food hanging off of the handlebars of their brakeless track bikes. Most of the hardcore guys that to it seem to use the money they make from that to travel locally, nationally and sometimes internationally to go to races.
Messsenger work has always been a kind of fallback punishment for me. I love the work, but I hate the work and so whenever I'm in need of a job, going back to messenger work is my selfmade ultimatum. I could always just call Breakaway, my old company and work part time, but it makes Laura crazy to think about it. Mid-town on a Friday is a meatgrinder and bad things can happen. Riding around the neighborhood it a little safer.
Though I do work as a messenger part time for my insurance and about 40% of my income, I think of myself as having hung up the mantle of messengerdom. A huge part of me is like "c'mon man, you're too old to be doing this kind of bullshit. Can't you find some kind of other work?" Another part of me tells me to just suck it the fuck up and just do it. I'm not proud, I'm not working that much and I could certainly use the money and free food. I am more that open to any suggestions for part time work, in the meantime, i'm going to make the rounds and see what I can rustle up.
