Blevinicus: Work and Eat

In my two glorious days off this weekend following a three-day NCAA Track meet I had the pleasure (haha) of hosting, I went back and rewatched the TV show Spartacus: Blood and Sand. While the quality of several of the scenes is laughable I am entrenched in the plot lines of the show. Granted it is a show filled mostly of blood and nudity which is not normally my cup of tea. However, it contains so much more than that built in the storylines of the characters. To those who have not seen it, it is about a man who goes off to fight a war in conjunction with the Romans and after some betrayel from the Romans and some killing of the Roman army he has his wife taken away and he is sold as a slave to a place that trains gladiators.

It is one of those shows that you get so involved with you start picturing yourself as a part of the show, going through what ifs in your head. When I am done thinking about how poor of a gladiator I would be, I begin to carry forth the premis of the show to my own life.

This show would be called Blevinicus: Work and Eat. Whereas all the gladiator show contains is blood and sand (and nudity) for the most part, my show (or life) pretty much contains work and eat. There may be a little bit of sleep mixed in there but even that is rare. Spartacus' entire being was driven by his one true love, Sura. He would give anything including his life to be with her for eternity. I have no equal to this as I have not found the lady to strike me this way. I picture the day when such love exists and I have one to call my own. For now the thing that drives me the most is getting to a day off. I fight through the weeks on end of consecutive work only to taste the sweetness of one day where I am not called, emailed or texted about work. These days are so uncommon that when they do come I struggle to think of how to spend them and end up watching 20 some hours of a gladiator TV show. These days off are my Sura or if you compare it to Braveheart, my freedom. Spartacus got through most days thinking of the time he would be with his wife again. I get through most days thinking of lunch and getting out of the office to go eat.

In the TV show, the gladiators fight in the arena, some for fame and money, others to stay alive and gain their freedom. I fight the battles of hosting events and dealing with others. In my job there is a lot we can't control. We have no control over the outcome of an event and often have to wait on others constantly to get what we need done. I would say for something that takes 10 minutes I usually wait an hour's time. There is no fame or money in our job no matter how much we dream of it so I guess that leaves me just trying to stay alive and gain the freedom of one day off every couple of months.

Some of my favorite movies are the ones where there is a very well-though out plan. This is one of the reasons why the A-Team was such a great show. Every episode included a plan to carry out to save somebody and destroy the bad guy. And like Hannibal Smith, I love it when a plan comes together. Spartacus had a couple of genious plans to kill everybody and escape slavery. I like to think that I would have the capability to come up with such a plan and maybe one day I could write for movies doing just such a think. The Oceans 11, 12 and 13 movies all had great plans as did the Thomas Crown Affair. I plan in my head all the time ways that I can enjoy my day off but I always fail to execute and end up on my couch watching movies.

I am not really sure if any of this makes sense but I seem to be in full Blevinicus: Work and Eat mode right now. I am still one month away from not being crazy busy with work and although I lost a lot of weight due to stress awhile back, the LB's are coming back because now all I do is eat and have developed a clear mind like what happened to the main character in Office Space. I sort of zone out, not to the point where I don't know what is happening, but just to the point that nothing worries me anymore. I felt very sick with stress in March and can't go back to that feeling so no matter what happens I will not get concerned over it.

I also find myself talking like they did in the Spartacus TV show. The other day I mentioned in a series of interviews that it was time for the Primus. Everyone looked at me like I had two heads. I had to explain that it meant the marquee event, the person they were all waiting to talk to was coming up next. In the show the Primus was the main event of the gladiator games and usually featured the top fighters. It would be the championship title match of Wrestlemania or the Kentucky Derby after a full day of races before it. I also refer to money as coin now like the show and refer often to things happening because of the Gods such as "the sky will open up and rain will fall if the gods have it so."