This first week of unemployment flew by in a haze of home repairs, dinners with friends, and doctor appointments. It turns out unemployment: not so bad after all. I mean, yeah having money would be nice, but did you know that once you're knocked up you have to go to the doctor a lot. And being able to tell the receptionist "You tell me when my next appointment is" rather than doing the dance of "We have a spot open on Monday at 1." "No, I have a meeting then." "Wednesday at 10?" "Nope, meeting then too." is just a thing of beauty that I never understood before.
But I have found that there are a few side effects to unemployment that I wasn't expecting. Nothing big, just little glitches that are going to take a bit for me to figure out. The first thing is yesterday, Friday, I went to a hair appointment, then to the mall, then to dinner with friends. When jparks and I got home at 8:30-ish, there was a package on our doorstep from UPS. I said "Wow, weird for UPS to deliver this last on a Saturday" and he just sort of grunted an agreement without acknowledging that it wasn't Saturday. Later, as we settled into bed I realized my mistake and said "Holy crap, today's Friday, not Saturday. Tomorrow's not Sunday. I am so confused." Jparks said "Yeah, I was wondering what you were thinking but decided not to say anything." I don't know if it's cute that he was just going to let me think that my life is full of weekends or maddening that he would have let me walk around for who knows how long being all confused.
The other unexpected side effect of unemployment is that I can't keep up with all the blogs in my google reader. Apparently I did most of my blog reading in the office. Who knew I wasted so much company time, perhaps I deserved to be laid off. (In my defense I spent a lot of time in luxury suites with wifi and a laptop waiting for clients to arrive. And now I've made myself sound like a high class hooker.) If you are a blog in my normal rotation and you find I'm leaving comments on old posts, please don't judge me. I'm trying really hard to keep up with everyone, but some of you are blogging machines. And I am a slacker. Won't someone employee me again so I can keep with with the internet?
On a totally unrelated note, last night jparks and I had dinner with a very pregnant friend of ours. She is currently having hourly contractions and I kept looking at her and thinking "Oh hell no, I CAN NOT DO THAT." Perhaps that is something I should have considered 12 weeks ago. And I got a couple of emails asking if I'm excited about this pregnancy because I didn't seem like it when I announced the news. Yes, I am excited. As excited as someone can be while feeling like they are dying from a baby shaped tumor that is eating their intestines. It's a difficult excited to explain.
Exactly! In the year I've now worked from home, I find I have LESS time than I ever did working in an office...how is that even possible???
ReplyDeleteI agree about the baby. The trick I learned is to NOT think about what comes next (esp the delivery). The nurses and doctors are paid a lot of money to take care of all that. Just pick a good 'can-do' doctor and DONT watch those labor and delivery movies. And the most wonderful thing is when the time comes your body will do what it needs to and you, the thinking Regan, just have to do what the nurses tell you to do.
ReplyDeletei do ALL of my blog reading at work.
ReplyDeletei better not lose my job.
heh.
I had the same thing happen when I got laid off, I stopped reading blogs. I'm having the same problem at work now because I'm actually busy, and I did 90% of my blog reading during down time at work. I feel so out of the blog loop.
ReplyDeleteOMG, I'm so glad I'm not the only one who couldn't keep up with blogs when they were unemployed. You would THINK that you would have all the time in the world to read, but it is the opposite. At work, you read them as a break. And home, there are too many other things to be doing like napping or IMing or watching daytime TV.
ReplyDeleteCONGRATULATIONS on your pregnancy, Regan! xo
ReplyDeleteI was never as excited about the being pregnant part as I was about the we're going to have a baby after all this is done part. I was absolutely terrified of delivery. It was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, and I actually have an overall positive opinion about my birthing experience. You'll do just fine and when it's over you'll have a cooing smiling bundle of happiness and joy.
ReplyDelete