Wednesday, October 21, 2009

So, yeah..

Along with millions of other Americans, I am unemployed. Really, really unemployed. Having had a job consistently for the last 17 years of my life, this has been a ride that I will carry with me forever after it's over. But, honestly, right now it doesn't seem like it will ever end. My days are long, long, long and I have more time on my hands than I've had since the middle of summer 1987.

I spend too much time on Facebook. I search the same job listing sites countless times a day. I send out one resume and one cover letter every day for good measure, even to jobs that I know would make me want to pluck my eyes out and swallow them whole. I lay in my bed listening to NPR while gazing out my bedroom windows for hours. Some days, the most exciting thing that happens to me is scoring a Wife Swap/Say Yes to the Dress/Real Housewives of Wherever marathon. I Gchat, watch videos, go to travel websites and create completely unattainable and luxurious vacations, read blogs, comment on blogs, look at photos, breathe, and, oh yes, most importantly, I dodge panic attacks.

Recently, however, I've been dragging my ass out of the house to soak up New York City. It sounds crazy, but there's no better place to be unemployed. I can take the train to Central
Park any time of any day, I sit in Union Square and people watch for hours, I walk around the beautiful West Village with a latte and daydream about living there one day, I walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and back, I will meet a fellow unemployed friend and drink a bottle of cheap wine at a sidewalk table on Bedford Avenue in the middle of a Wednesday afternoon...and all of this for not much more than the cost of subway fare! During these little day trips that I take mostly on my own, I spend a lot of time looking and listening. Because I have a lot of time to kill, I'm going to start sharing these experiences, and many others, here. You, too, can kill time by reading and looking at my amateur but likely entertaining photos, and maybe, just maybe...I'll stop talking to myself so much.