a frankly shocking in this day and age benefit at my job is that once you hit your 8th year with the organization, you are able to take a sabbatical. Paid month off to do whatever you want, and with a $5000 stipend to boot. Doesn't have to be anything to do with the job! Just something following your passion. Crazy, right? I'll hit year 8 in 2025 and I really keep thinking about what I might do. Everyone else who has already done theirs has used it to travel, but... what with disability and fatness and an increasingly aging cat, I simply don't travel well. Playing Yakuza does get me thinking, god, what if I went back to Japan, where I haven't been since 2003? But I less than ever can handle an 18 hour flight and am even fatter than the last time I was there and barely fit then. I think also a bit of grabbing my friend Beck and going to Oktoberfest, that seems a little more feasible. But I don't want it to feel crazy that I take a month off to follow my passion here at home, in New York Fucking City. Do you know how well I could spend $5000 in a month here? With the right encouragement and the right restaurants I could run that out in a goddamn week I bet. I dunno, it's a weird "problem" to consider. There are places I'd like to go, certainly, but I just don't feel like it's actually physically possible for me to do it. It's just something, to be given keys to a lot of possibilities when my hand can't actually turn them, you know?

I mean I know the answer. You'll find something funnnnn to do with it!