My First Break (continued)

At my high school, they always had a section in the newspaper called "Hot or Not." It's difficult to explain, especially since I never really liked it, but in essence it was an attempt to reflect on changes in the world or in the community. In one column there would be "hot" and, to the left of that, there would be a column labeled "not." An example would be something like Hot: Warm Weather; Not: Measuring the Length of Your Skirt. (Maybe I never liked it because I was really awful at writing them).

Anyway. It feels so surreal being home (at times, it feels like I never left) that I thought I ought to give Hot or Not a try to truly analyze the situation.

Hot: Actually having time to do the New York Times crossword puzzle. 

Not: Not getting the NYT for free everyday. And not being surrounded by a bunch of smart kids to help you with the clues.

Hot: Real food!

Not: Having to prepare it yourself, especially when you end up burning it, or worse, burning yourself.

Hot: Washing clothes for free.

Not: Living out of a suitcase.

Hot: Driving the car with the music turned up really loud.

Not: Wasting gas and contributing to global warming.

Hot: Watching movies on a screen with real speakers.

Not: Cringing at all the mushy scenes because you know your parents are watching too.

To sum up:

Hot: Lots of free time.

Not: Little independence to enjoy it with.