Simple life envy

Socks rolling at my feet, making himself cute. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My two outside kittens are healthy but I have yet bring them to the vet clinic for their shots. I have too many things on my table right now but I’ll get to that soon. They don’t stray too far, they just stay within our compound when they’re not on my doorstep. My indoor kitties have grown more tolerant of them but I still keep them separate. Until the outside kittens have been vaccinated and dewormed, they won’t be able to enter my house, just to keep both indoor and outdoor groups healthy.

Save for our trip to PGH next week and the unknown that lies ahead, life is generally good. I’m so easy to please and maybe what turns off other people is that I don’t have any ambition to climb the social ladder and/or try to wield power and prestige. 

What I want is the polar opposite. I want this for myself, the life this artist has created for herself (see below).

She’s free to experiment with her art because she has no financial pressures. Her overhead is minimal and she has the luxury of having leisurely coffee or tea breaks among the trees. She doesn’t have to worry about healthcare because Australia’s healthcare is free for urgent and necessary care.

Someday I’ll get there.

Meanwhile, I got stressed with just reading about this story about Brandon Miller and his Instagram-whore wife, Candice Miller.

I know some people who had aspired for their kind of life but maybe I’m just built differently. I’m stressed by it. I think the desire to become like them comes from a place of insecurity and general lack of joy and satisfaction.

It’s no longer keeping up with the Joneses. It’s keeping up with Ivanka and the Olsens in the Hamptons. It’s hard to keep up appearances. 🥴 Unless you’re a trust fund baby, you have to toil away until you die just to keep the mansion in the Hamptons and the multi-million home in Manhattan.

It’s not the way to live. You’re barely living with that kind of lifestyle. Candice wasn’t even monetizing her Instagram content; she was just showing off her life, which some people on Reddit have estimated to be costing them USD 10m a year. It’s money they don’t have because they owe creditors at least USD 17m, not counting the money they owe friends and the lawsuits Brandon was facing. Brandon killed himself just to be able to live the Instagram life Candice was keeping.

So nope, I’m fine just where I am now. I don’t have debts and I don’t plan to have them. I will devote time to writing columns, books, researches. Arts and crafts. I do not desire to hang around parties and be photographed as a socialite.

Once my obligations to my children end, I may go back to teaching and lead a simpler life. Teaching is just to keep my brain sharp and to join the government pension fund.

After I have my solar power system up and running, my overhead costs will be minimal. I will lead a life like that lady in the bus in that YTube video.

I had been invited to be an adjunct in my old college in this uni but I declined since I can’t handle my job’s current stressors and if I transition into another job, it will just be so complicated. Handling the thesis of graduate students is not a walk in the park. I can give occasional lectures but time commitments are tricky.

Lord, help me get through next week then I’ll figure out what to do with my life.