A Menagerie of Thoughts

Today marks two weeks of unemployment and so far it has been anything but boring. Here I was hoping I would have a lot of free time to do odds and ends of things I have needed to do around the house for months, and some time to decompress from the stress of my situation. Not so much. Granted I have been able to get a lot of things done, just whenever I finish a task a feel like three more pop up. It has been a mixed blessing being unemployed right now. On one end I know Heidi enjoys having me around to help her with Jo, but at the same time we wonder how long we can financially make living off of unemployment and disability checks. But I have had some good down time to help clear my head which has been nice. Here's some thoughts I have had over the past couple of weeks.

• It's amazing how quickly a day passes just watching a newborn baby. They really don't do much (eat, sleep, poop, repeat) and yet after a day at home looking after Jo the time just seems to fly.

• When an interviewer says "How attached are you to your salary figure?" it usually doesn't bode well.

• I have learned not to get my hopes up. Just because someone says they may have something for you I have learned to not count on it until they sign on the dotted line. I learned that long ago in the business world but it's constantly getting reinforced these days. Granted I have never been unemployed before and have only been fully unemployed for about two weeks. I can't even fathom what people who have been unemployed for nine month to a year are feeling.

• It's quite infuriating when you hear about all these government programs that are supposed to help out people like Heidi and I, and when I look into them we don't qualify because we either make too much or we don't make enough.

• They should call USA network the NCIS network they play that show all day everyday.

• It's quite a challenge to create a routine while at home all day and with a newborn it's almost impossible. First newborns have no schedule, second there are so many distractions at home it's a challenge to keep focused. After 10 years of going to work, I feel so displaced having nowhere to go in the morning.

• Though I have never been a big goal setter, but I am seeing how goals are very important out on your own. It helps give you hope, something to look forward to. I have a few so far this summer. Obviously one is get a new job. Another one is do the High Sierra Trail (Sequoia to Mt. Whitney). I am so eager to get out in the mountains again. it should be a good diversion, and thankfully relatively cheap since I have all the gear. Yet another goal is to start putting up pictures up on a daily basis starting next week. Just away to keep my creative juices flowing while I am idle.

That's just the beginning of my thoughts over the past two weeks. I am sure more will hit the blog in the near future. Now that I feel like I am getting a grasp of the things I need to do at home I should have more time to work on my own work, including the web site, my art, and other projects I have been meaning to get to.

Those on Facebook can check out my photos of Jo over the past couple of weeks. I am still trying to unify all my different web entities. More on that later.