Jan 10, 2007

Back on the Bus

I've lasted 256 days without a job.

Food and supplies are getting low, the raft has taken on some bilge water
(are you calling me fat?), however I've sighted
land
finally.
I must confess, there's a part of me that really loved being unemployed.
I got to hang out with my wife a lot, I did a bunch of cool things with
the band and with my acting "career" (some of which actually generated
some money and restored some of my faith in the artistic process... and
some didn't).
Sleeping in is always a plus, pretending I'm a retired-at-26 software
magnate spending the day on my computer in a coffee shop - you know, the
Seattle Thing.
I got to drink on Sunday nights, which I may or may not miss. I'm a big
fan of booze, but there's only so much sympathy your friends can spare
when they announce they have to get up early next day while you casually
order another round. To quote the band Primus (speaking of college and
other days of carefree drinking):
"Funny thing about weekends when you're unemployed/They don't mean quite
so much/'cept that you get to hang out with your working friends."

Mostly though, I'm pretty relieved. It's a good job that I held out for,
perhaps even loaded all my eggs into one basket for. I'll be working for
good instead of evil, alongside other creative-minded types in a field
that will afford me training, resume fodder and (eventually) some good
money. And there's really only so much sleeping-in I can do.

So I bid unemployment a bittersweet farewell again, possibly for the last
time in a long time. Time to re-set the snooze alarm.

3 comments:

Ian Johnston said...

Congratulations! What will you be doing? Looks like a cool company to work for. (For which to work, of course, I mean.)

Christopher said...

Welcome back to the world of the "gainfully employed".

I totally know how you feel - it's amazing to realize that you can actually get tired of not working.

I suppose it's the whole "ARRRRGGGHH! HowamIgonnapaythebills???" thing that eventually gets in the way of enjoying not having to get up at 7:00 a.m. five days a week.

I mean, being unemployed would be much more fun if only you had the money to do really cool things, like um, jetting off the Paris for a weekend of restauranting, or spending a month in Tahiti studying Gaugan's color-mixing technique, things like that. But, when you have to finagle those three employment contacts each week, plus figure out how to maintain your lifestyle on roughly 1/3 your previous income, then - yeah, not so much fun.

Basil said...

I'm in a project support position now: helping with budgets and timelines and copy editing. But I plan to be CEO by 2009.
What?!