Today, during lunch, I counted 57 people wearing various employee IDs, and it occurred to me that I've never had a job that required me to wear identification. Hell, I've never had a full-time gig that paid me more than minimum wage. It's been 20 years since I had to wake five days a week at the same damn time. And I always got fired for insubordination anyway.

In short, I make a lot of money for a guy with a shitty résumé.

And like other folks with lousy job histories, I have zero sense of company loyalty. I have no clue why my tech friends work 70-hour weeks for Microsoft. Or why my attorney friends work 80-hour weeks for their law firms.

And then I remember that a writer's life has no healthy boundaries between home and work or between the public and private.

I am employed by my substantial ego. I work 19 hours a day. And my employee ID is my rage and self-involvement.