observations from home

Tomorrow will mark the 3rd week of my unemployment, so it seems that now is good time to put down some thoughts about this experience.

First, I don't miss my old job. At all. This has been surprising to me because though I didn't care for it much, I certainly didn't hate it. The biggest issue for me was having zero coworkers in the traditional sense, which I take to mean people that work together. I can and do miss people, but I don't miss doing tasks in my old office.

Second, financially this report is a bit early. Due to the week delay between work done and paycheck as well as the some saved vacation time, I have more money right now than had I worked the last 3 weeks. But this state ends very soon. And I haven't had to pay for health insurance yet.

Third, I've been pretty busy. I have had one interview and will have another on Friday. Preparations for these interviews takes some time, especially for Friday's as I need to give a 30 minute presentation. Other tasks have been writing cover letters, filling out applications, and reviewing a paper for a journal. I had Staples print out the paper for me since we don't have a printer. The Staples employees said the paper looked boring and very long. Does my career field lack excitement? I found the paper to be moderately exciting but will recommend a couple significant changes. Look for it soon in Water Resources Research.

Fourth, I have taken up much more of the household chores. While working, I did dishes maybe once a week and only sometimes helped cook dinner. Now, I do most of the dishes and help with cooking most meals. By the way, another nice feature of living in a small apartment is the small number of chores to do.

I made ice cream. Maybe I used too much cream and too little milk, because it was very creamy and not so frozen.
Still, we enjoyed eating it.


Fifth, I have been doing more bicycling, but not as much as I would have expected. With temps in the 50s for the whole month of Jan, the riding weather has been fantastic. But I was sick much of last week. Still, I haven't done a ride longer than 1 1/2 hours yet.

Finally, I'm in a new-to-me-and-not-my-favorite mental state. During working life, I spent most of my time living my life -- doing my job and living my family life. Now, I spend a good deal of time imagining our lives with each prospective job/location. So my mind is several months in the future while my body remains in the present.