中产阶级的一天

译者 jiangyh

This is a glimpse of a typical day in my middle class life.

　　想了解我的中产阶级生活吗？本文会简略地告诉你我是怎样度过每一天的。

Phase 1) Waking up.  I wake up to my alarm clock that I’ve had since I was in high school.

第一阶段

　　起床。每天我都在闹钟的召唤之下醒过来，这只闹钟在我高中时期就开始用了。

The alarm clock is about the size of a small child’s shoebox, and the plastic is factory painted to look like it’s wood.  The edge of the alarm clock got to close to my goose neck desk lamp and the plastic has warped, but just to a small degree.  I know that I can buy a cheap $10 dollar one, but this ones still works, and I’m comfortable with it…

　　闹钟大概是小型儿童鞋盒那么大，它的塑料外壳被漆成木头的样子。因为闹钟的边缘放得离我那鹅颈式台灯太近，日子久了塑料壳都变形了，不过也就那么一点而已。我当然知道我可以重新买一只，便宜一点的10美元就够了，不过这只还能用，我也早已对它爱不释手了……

Next, I go into my master bathroom and get a quick shower, because I hate to waste water (and also to make up for the amount that other family members use).  .  I do the typical routine to get ready for work…  No magic here, not much to describe.

　　然后，我会去我的主卧浴室快速冲个澡，因为我不很喜欢浪费水（这在一定程度上省回了其他家庭成员用掉的水）。接着就是常规的准备工作……这块儿没什么有意思的，略过不表。

My house is a little over 2100 square feet, and was built in 1998,  the shower isn’t too fancy, but the room looks nice enough.  The style of the house is a colonial.

　　我家的住宅面积大约是2100平方英尺（约195平方米）出头，是在1998年建的，淋浴室没那么花俏，不过房间里看起来还是很不错的。房子的装潢设计是殖民地风格的。

Phase 2) I walk down the stairs quietly (the dog is asleep), and pack my lunch.  Since I’m currently doing a lunch/allowance experiment, I pack the following items in my small insolated lunch bag: eggs and sometimes peanuts.  The ramen noodles that I eat are already at work in my desk drawer…  Before starting my experiment, I would typically go out for lunch at a number of different restaurants.

第二阶段

　　我蹑手蹑脚地轻声下楼（我们家狗狗还在睡呢），开始准备我的午餐。最近我正在进行营养午餐试点，所以我得在的小小午餐包里塞点有营养的东西，比如鸡蛋，有时再加点花生。午餐准备吃的拉面面条已经放在了我办公室的抽屉里。唔……在正式开始试点之前，我想我应该会先跑去外面各家餐馆里胡吃海喝一番。

What types of foods do I eat?…

　　我一般都吃些什么食物呢？

    Cajun Chicken spinach salads with hot bacon dressing (yum),

　　· 奥尔良烤鸡 + 菠菜沙拉 + 热熏肉调味（太美味了）

    Sushi (mostly the spicy types: spicy crab, spicy tuna, eel…),

　　· 寿司（主要是辣味系列：香辣蟹、鲔鱼、鳗鱼……）

    Chinese food (Chicken with Cashews, Hunan Shrimp, etc),

　　· 中国菜（腰果鸡丁，湖南口味虾……）

    Mexican food: Chicken quesadillas, etc.

　　· 墨西哥菜（墨西哥鸡肉饼……）

    Italian foods (sort of), in particular from Olive Garden and Macaroni Grill (both have different but great bread)

　　· 意大利菜（主要是橄榄花园或者通心粉烧烤店，他们家的面包特别赞）

    and Fast foods: Subway (spicy italian heated sandwich), McDonalds (Quarter pounder with cheese), Taco Bell (varies), etc…

　　· 其他快餐食品：赛百味（热的意大利辣味三明治）、麦当劳（皇家芝士汉堡）、塔可钟（各种混搭）……

Phase 3) After getting dress in jeans and a polo shirt (I use to have to dress more professionally at work, but now we just dress casually).  I drive my 20 minute to work listening to an audio book playing in my card CD player, the radio, or nothing – preferring to think on those nothing days.  I’m a Gen Xer, so I have an eclectic manner with respect as to what I listen to… ex.) alternative, rock, classical, rap, country and others.

第三阶段

　　我套上一条牛仔裤和一件polo衫（以前工作的话我会穿得更正式一点，不过现在穿个便装就可以了）出门，开20分钟的车去上班。路上我会听听CD播放机里的有声读物，听听收音机，或者什么都不做——我还是更怀念那些什么都不做的时候。我是个X世代的人，所以我对各种音乐流派都信手拈来，也都能听得有滋有味，包括另类、摇滚、古典、说唱、乡村等等。

What car do I drive in?  A 2003 malibu (my friends say that I drive a grandma’s car), that I bought new for $11,000 back in 2003.  This was a great price considering the sticker price was listed at $21,000.  I’ll post about how I got it so cheaply at a later time :)

　　那么我开的车是什么呢？2003年花费1.1万美元购买的雪佛兰美宜堡（朋友们老是损我说这是古董车了）。这价格是不可思议的，要知道它的标价可是2.1万美元。至于我是怎么便宜买下这台车的，且听我下回分解。

I’m a computer technician, and my wife is a stay at home mom.

　　我的职业是计算机技术人员，我的妻子是标准的家庭主妇。

I have a BA in computer science.  Every year I think about going for a MBA (the company I work at would even provide money for it), but life for me now is busy enough…

　　我获得过计算机科学专业的科学学士学位。每年我都在琢磨着，要不要去念个MBA回来呢（我现在工作的公司甚至还愿意帮我出钱），不过我现在的生活实在是忙得脚不沾地，分身乏术……

Opps, I digress, back to my middle class lifestyle.  At work my cube is the standard type… nice comfortable chair, 2 (soon to be 3 or 4) monitors attached to a newer PC, a ibm laptop to do work at home, a blackberry, etc…

　　啊哦，跑题了。说回我的中产阶级生活去。我工作时所需的东西就是那些个标配啦——坐着舒服的椅子，两台（很快就会变成三到四台了）显示器连接在一台新电脑上，一台在家工作用的IBM笔记本，一部黑莓手机，等等……

I arrive at work an hour earlier and leave an hour earlier to avoid rush hour, so I work 7 to 4 with an hour lunch in between.  Although these last few years, it seems that more and more people are changing to the same work schedule…  the roads are definitely busier this year than they use to be at those times.

　　我一般提早一小时上班，提早一小时下班，为的就是避免碰上早晚高峰。所以我的工作时间是朝七晚四，除掉中间还有一小时的午餐时间。这些年来，越来越多的上班族都逐渐统一了工作时间，所以马路上一到上下班时间哪有不添堵的呢。

Phase 4) Once at home, it’s time to rush the kids to the sports that they are playing in at the moment.  Typically Soccer, Basketball, Cheerleading, Baseball, Tee-Ball, Flag football, swimming lessons, gymnastics, etc…

第四阶段

　　一回到家，第一件事儿就是加入孩子们正在玩的体育活动里去。通常会有足球、篮球、拉拉队、棒球、乐乐棒球、夺旗橄榄球、游泳课、体操等等……

Phase 5) Once I get a free moment, I use to randomly surf the net more, but lately, I’ve been reading blogs and writing in this blog.

第五阶段

　　到了我的自由安排时间，我往往会漫无目的地在网上乱逛。不过最近，我会花时间在这个博客上发表文章和阅读评论。

We do have a designated movie night on Fridays, where I’ll pop in a DVD that I got at the library.  We still have an old 36 inch CRT tube TV.   We can afford a new flat screen LCD (or Plasma, or LED-LCD…) TV and in fact have the best buy giftcards in a drawer waiting for our current model to break (it’s close to doing so).  The gift cards are from the rewards point from our rewards credit cards.

　　每周五，我们安排了电影之夜特别节目，那时我就会掏出从图书馆借来的DVD共同观赏。我们家还在用那种老式的36英寸阴极射线管（CRT）电视机。我们当然买得起最新流行的纯平液晶（或者等离子、LED液晶）之类的电视机，事实上我们抽屉里就放着史上最好的购物礼品卡等着用（应该也快了）。这张礼品卡是我们拿信用卡消费积分奖励换来的。

Phase 6) Then at bed time, I do watch a little bit of TV in our queen size bed (King of Queens and Frazier reruns).  Our bedroom set is wooden, with an armoire, and set drawers with a fancy mirror on top…   Both cars were bought new and are both 2003 models (crazy, I won’t do that again!  Used cars is the way to go).

第六阶段

　　到了该睡觉的时间了。我会躺在双人床上看一会儿电视（比如《后中之王》、《欢乐一家亲》什么的）。我们的卧房家具是木制的，有一个满是抽屉的大型衣柜，顶上还有一面奇特的镜子。我们家的两辆车都是新车入手，都是2003年购入的（这太疯狂了，我再也不会这样做了……二手车才是王道）。

Next day I do the same routine again, just like the NIN song, “Every day is exactly the same”

　　然后，第二天就来了，就跟前一天一样的日程。就跟九寸钉乐队的歌里唱的似的，“每天都是惊人的相似”。

My life = Repeat Phase 1 thru 6 ;)

　　我的生活 = [第一阶段 - 第六阶段] 重复播放。

After I’m debt free, I’m going to alter the above routine a bit, maybe throw in a health phase, or a 2nd job phase, or a community service or coaching my kids sports coaching phase…

　　不过在我偿清所有债务以后，我准备稍微改变一下以上的常规日程。比如说附加一个健康阶段，或者第二个工作阶段，或者社区服务阶段，又或者教孩子打球的训练阶段……

So what do you think? …  Tell me about your lifestyle or ask me additional questions about mine…

　　那么你是怎么看的呢？说说你的生活好了，或者问问关于我的其他问题吧。