My default setting

Hey, man.

What's up, farmboy? You sound dejected.

Dejected?

Dejected.

I don't know about dejected, but I'm feeling depressed and anxious.

Why?

You know, if David Foster Wallace was here he might say it was my default setting.

But other than that, school's starting back up, I'm smoking too much weed, I've been eating too much bad food, and I'm doing the feel-like-a-failure thing that I've been doing ever since I was a teenager. Plus, it's fuckin' hot outside, like in the 90s.

Give yourself a break, farmboy. Learn what you can. Move on. This is your final week of summer break so give yourself a little leeway...

That's a funny word "leeway."

Yes, it is. Now, what I'm not saying is to go hog-wild with everything. Don't start eating nothing but McDonald's or anything. But your life's going to be pretty hemmed in starting next week. It sucks, I know. So I would expect that there would be some exceptions in things this week.

Really? Does that mean I can order out for pizza?

If you want, you can. But don't go overboard in eating it. Spread it out for a few meals.

And chips? And cookies for desert?

No. It's one of the three.

Yeah? Well, it's my life and I make the rules. And I say...

And you say...

Uh, probably pizza. No chips, no cookies. And that's fine. I mean, I have to show a little self-control, don't I?