What's Good about Being Unemployed?

On the good side:

• catch up on sleep
• catch up on home maintenance
• catch up with people I never have time to see in person
• think about what's important in life
  
• take the time to look for more meaningful work
• Christmas came and went, and no one expected anything from me but good wishes.
• spend time with Guinness and Chocolate Luv Affair, the little dachshunds who live with us

In 30 years of working, I've been unemployed twice before – once in 1992 for 6 months, and once in 2001, for 2 weeks. We'll see how long this bout lasts.

I've made neurotic lists of all the things that obsess my working self, mostly purchased things that validate the insane professional life I've had since 1979. Insane not only because of years of crazy schedules, but insane because I've never really understood how I stayed in this line of work for so long. People who knew me 30 years ago would have sworn I'd have joined the Peace Corps, become a recluse somewhere, moved to England, anything but the reality I've lived.
Got plenty of time now to think about this.