“You can’t shoot me!”
I like to make lists, and so once a week I write one, sometimes twice a week if I’m busy.
This is not a bucket list. It’s a simple to-do list.
I write down what I have to do for work, and a few things as a dad: my finances, get a doctor’s prescription to update my kids’ vaccinations, or deposit money in the bank to pay bills.
I’ve been writing “deposit money in the bank to pay bills” with more frequency on my list.
Why?
It’s because I live in Argentina, where it has become expensive to live, yet again.
I used to enjoy depositing money in the bank once or twice a month. A friend and I made it a sort of a game that we called “pay your bills online.” It’s like putting coins in an arcade game to play Asteroids, from the days of Atari. You shoot asteroids as you navigate through an asteroid field while avoiding enemy spaceships firing at you.
Bang, bang, bang.
That’s how my friend and I would pay our bills. Deposit money and bang, bang, bang, you clear the asteroid field of bills.
I don’t like playing anymore, not in the Argentina of today. I keep running out of credit before all of the bills get paid.
I’m an eternal optimist, but the cost of living here is getting me down.
My solace?
I make a new list and put “find more work” on it in large letters. That’s the only way to keep playing Asteroids in Argentina.
