Darouse

This morning I woke up at 8:30pm and the very first thought was “I’m late”, then it hit me “I’m not late”. I still woke up but it was a different feeling, I wanted to wake up and yet I had all the reasons to go back to bed. This is the first time in about 6 years that I did not have to work and I wasn’t on vacation or sick or any other valid reason.

First thing that I did today like any other good American was to visit the unemployment office and file a claim. Unemployment office is the place that reminds you why people work. We all think working means making money and building a career but there is another reason, we work to be different than others. Today at the unemployment office I was the same as every other person there, the single mom, the construction worker and even the guy that I think was a CEO. It was a humbling experience reminds me that beyond the regular every day work there are people that are worried about the most basics, like what to eat tonight and what to do after we loose our place.

After filling the claim, I did a little grocery shopping just to realize how every item is more expensive than before, I thought “great, just when I need to watch my spending every thing is so expensive” then I remembered the single mom with three kids at the unemployment office and thanked god I’m shopping for one.

While shopping I got a call from a recruiter who wanted to meet me, so I rushed home grabbed my books (oh yeah school is still going) and drove to the recruiter’s office. He was a nice guy and like all the other recruiters talks like there are 10000000000 jobs out there and I just have to pick one that I like. I told him what I had in mind which was a VERY general description to fit all that 10000000000 jobs he was bragging about. He promised to e-mail me few opportunities, we shook hands and I went on my way to school.

It really seems that when your in need of some thing it will never happen, I need to watch my spending and the cheap parking lot by my school is now a construction site, what would Homer say “ DOOOH”. I parked in the other parking that charged me 5$ extra. For the first time today I finally sat down to check my e-mails, Facebook, and other friendly sites, I had ton of e-mails from friends and now ex-coworkers who wanted to know what happened and many offered help. I thanked them all and passed on few resume to see what happens.

I had couple of hours to kill before class so decided to meet with my new advisor. My advisor turned out to be a very friendly English guy who loves tennis so we talked about my future classes, Wimbledon and of course career. He gave me some useful tips and      e-mails for me to follow up on.

After class while I was driving home I realized that I did not have lunch today with friends from work, did not get to say hi to people I like at work but I know I will see them again and spend time with all my friends, what I won’t miss is the work I was doing and the people I was doing it for so maybe that’s why I’m not sad or depressed.

I drove home listening to Cold Play’s new album and call me self centered but I think Chris Martin had me in mind when he sang this song:

Just because I'm losing
Doesn't mean I'm lost
Doesn't mean I'll stop
Doesn't mean I will cross

Just because I'm hurting
Doesn't mean I'm hurt

cheers