Since losing my job is, apparently, a yearly tradition around here, I have chosen to make the best of it in the aftermath -- by taking part in the now-also-apparently-yearly tradition of bailing on adult life entirely, heading upstate, and mooching off my parents for a few days. Yes, you heard it here first: The "Flee Your Problems" approach to unemployment makes the entire ordeal feel less like failure and more like an impromptu vacation. Albeit a vacation in which you are somewhat depressed, listless, and unable to buy anything. I went to WalMart two days ago, purchased a five-pair-pack of necessary socks, and realized as I threw them on the checkout conveyer that my far-too-brief period of respite from relentless worry about money had just come to a very, very unwelcome end.
At this point, I also briefly considered weeping. But I didn't. Because losing your job is one thing, but losing your job and then crying about it in a WalMart is quite another.
But cheap socks and superstores aside, I will say this: If I had to pick a time of year at which I'd like to lose my job and be left with nothing to do but traipse through the woods...
...or around my hometown neighborhood...
...or through the backyard...
...this would be it. Isn't it pretty?
So, this is my life for the next few days, while I figure things out. I sit on the couch with the dog, I contemplate my future from afar, I eat all the cheese in my mom's fridge, and the sudden loss of my professional livelihood doesn't seem so bad.
If only the dog would stop farting.
13 comments:
I agree, there isn't a much better time to be unemployed than fall! Hang in there, things always work out and everything happens for a reason.
Please do me a favor and remind me of this later this year when I quit my job (yes, I really think I'm quitting a well-paying job b/c the bullshit is just too thick to wade through anymore, even in this economy).
Selfishly, you're unemployment means we get more blog posts, right?!
I felt the need to de-lurk and say, "Mmmm. Cheese!"
Also that I'm sorry to hear about your job, but, if your blog persona is any indication of your real life persona, you're going to be fine. More than fine. You're brilliant and funny as all get-out and even the jackasses in charge of hiring people will figure that out and I'm sure it will be sooner rather than later.
In the meantime. Dude, free cheese!
Also, I see that my word for word verification is dastrad, which is almost like bastard. Except not. I'm choosing to interpret this as a sign that you should cheer up!
Hello! Im de-lurking too...all the way from India (-rolls off the tongue easier than coxsackie, though not half as fun to say out loud)...only to say 'FREE CHEESE'- hell yeah bastard!
Ok, no thats not exactly what i wanted to say, but i got carried away by Kara's comment above.
Hang in there...and all that jazz is what i wanted to say.
I think you should consider yourself particularly strong and mighty, since you weren't crying about money, in Wal-Mart, while wearing assless chaps and a feather boa. Because seriously? That happens.
Kat, you're going to be fine. From the way you posted about it, your last job didn't really seem like a good fit for you. You're got quite alot of talent to sustain you. Someone will notice and you'll be in a much better place. A place without that special brand of misery that you've endured.
In the meantime, have fun with your family and the dog. Take pictures in the woods. Eat cheese and fart. Those are some of my favorite things.
I think you are a fantastic writer and something is bound to come your way soon.
In the meantime, upstate is really the best place to be (my parents live there too...I want a day off before apple picking season ends.)
Free cheese is godly. Regardless of my employment status, I will always mooch of my parents food when I visit. And got to art openings just for free wine and hors d'oeuvres.
Hang in there. You have the talent.
a) the photo series is stunning
b) yes.
c) I have cheese and lovely leaves and and cat that does not noticeably emit smell. All for you. In Chicago.
I too retreat to my hometown when in need of respite or a haven or just a break to reevaluate. Works for me.
Aren't you worried that since every time you take a vacation you get fired, that unemployment will fire you for visiting your parents?...wait a second... you're brilliant!
Chin up girl - you have a beautiful view, a great man waiting for you at home and the possibility of endless job awesomeness ahead of you.
Kisses! Muah!
Now would also be a tremendous time to start an etsy shop. I mean, by all means, focus on your current project but then? Open it up.
Dog farts are a small price to pay for such beauty. I, like you, lost my job and got a dog from the pound just so I could enjoy the farts. There's something comforting, no, secure about it.
hi! I found you via the incredible Hannah Miet, I've been to coxsackie a zillion times!
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