An Unemployed Life
I've been officially unemployed for a little over two weeks now, yet I've had less free time than I had working regularly. The first week I spent finishing up a ginormous midterm project, then taking care of some freelance work that popped up. The second week was spent sadly saying goodbye to D's dad, who finally succumbed to the liver failure he'd been fighting since January. Even though his death was anticipated and fairly well planned for ahead of time, there were a lot of logistics involved in making sure our household was cared for while we were away and making sure we had everything we needed so that we could just focus on helping out the rest of the family while we were there. This week, I've been playing catchup with the tasks for my other class that were put off in order to take care of those duties. Mentally, I am pretty burnt-out at this point, and I am craving having a day or two where I can just be a complete slug to recharge the batteries.
Being at home full-time has brought a new set of challenges into play. D and I have both been highly spoiled working at home in the past. Generally we never were home on the same day unless one of us was sick, so we both are used to having full unfettered access to the computer, domain over all the rooms in our house, and the freedom to plan our day however we desire. Now we have to figure out who needs the computer at what times, who's going to be setting up in what room and whether or not our work will be loud and distracting to each other. It sometimes causes small frictions when we realize that we both were planning on using the computer right after lunch and we have to decide who gets first dibs. OTOH, it's been absolutely wonderful to actually get to spend time with D. The demands of the past year often forced us to work split schedules to accommodate him spending more time with his parents, and there were many weeks we struggled to even eat one meal together. It's been delightful for us to have our lunch together or to stop now and then to take a quick walk through the neighborhood.
About the only negative has been that both of our cars sensed the change in the family situation, so they both picked the past two weeks to break down. My Civic's alternator decided to go, which resulted in a $900 repair, and the radiator on D's CR-V went a couple of days later. When he showed up at the garage, the mechanic was worried that they hadn't fixed my car right. To their relief and our consternation, this was a completely different problem, and we ended up with a $700 repair for that problem. I anticipate the animals will be next in line to have expensive issues, since the last thing we'd need would be more big pricey vet bills. Hopefully my resume will grab the attention of a hiring manager soon. While I enjoy some of the freedoms of unemployment, I'd rather get back into the workforce sooner rather than later!
Being at home full-time has brought a new set of challenges into play. D and I have both been highly spoiled working at home in the past. Generally we never were home on the same day unless one of us was sick, so we both are used to having full unfettered access to the computer, domain over all the rooms in our house, and the freedom to plan our day however we desire. Now we have to figure out who needs the computer at what times, who's going to be setting up in what room and whether or not our work will be loud and distracting to each other. It sometimes causes small frictions when we realize that we both were planning on using the computer right after lunch and we have to decide who gets first dibs. OTOH, it's been absolutely wonderful to actually get to spend time with D. The demands of the past year often forced us to work split schedules to accommodate him spending more time with his parents, and there were many weeks we struggled to even eat one meal together. It's been delightful for us to have our lunch together or to stop now and then to take a quick walk through the neighborhood.
About the only negative has been that both of our cars sensed the change in the family situation, so they both picked the past two weeks to break down. My Civic's alternator decided to go, which resulted in a $900 repair, and the radiator on D's CR-V went a couple of days later. When he showed up at the garage, the mechanic was worried that they hadn't fixed my car right. To their relief and our consternation, this was a completely different problem, and we ended up with a $700 repair for that problem. I anticipate the animals will be next in line to have expensive issues, since the last thing we'd need would be more big pricey vet bills. Hopefully my resume will grab the attention of a hiring manager soon. While I enjoy some of the freedoms of unemployment, I'd rather get back into the workforce sooner rather than later!