The End of the Beginning

It's Wednesday of the second week of my unemployment, and I think this is the perfect time to start my blog about the experience of being "in between gigs". Starting this blog in the first week would have been premature as New York State classifies that week as my "Unpaid Waiting Period." I hope this blog becomes a forum where I can share how I fill my days while on the hunt. I promise to keep busy, do weird stuff, and I'm sure there are thousands of people out there who can relate to what I'm going through.

I thought some time off might be nice. I'm finding it's not all that I dreamed it might be. In week one, I: cleaned the apartment several times, hung some new posters, sent out a thousand emails to prospective employers, received back less than 5 emails from prospective employers (none of whom are hiring, why would they be?), went to the grocery store 4 times, ate upwards of 17 bowls of cereal, went to the beach Saturday and Sunday, and had a few cocktails Sunday evening which made me glad to not have to wake up for any reason on Monday.

Week two hasn't been one for the record books either. Monday, I actually went into the city to audition for 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'. As if that isn't pathetic enough, I didn't even pass the written test they give you to qualify for the show. I find this truly humiliating especially given all the useless information I walk around with on a daily basis. It's possible that the test is racially biased. Tuesday, I went to my 90 year-old, almost totally blind grandfather's house in NJ to play golf. Alas, he was afraid it might be too hot for him to get around the golf course, so we got lunch and watched 'Inception'.

'Inception' became a significant event in my life. I had to urinate so badly for the last 97 minutes of the movie, so it really felt like it was about a week long. Also, in order to see the screen, my grandfather and I sat in the 3rd row of an enormous, sparsely populated theater. We got there a little early, so we sat there in the quiet for just long enough before the previews started for my grandfather to regale me (and the rest of the whispering theater) with a story of exactly what his close minded friends think of our current President(N-bomb included). To be fair, he was very disapproving of his friend's viewpoints, but I suspect that the rest of the people in the theater might not have gotten the theme of his story. The movie was awesome (certainly not without its flaws), but it was hard to watch with someone who needed me to explain the special effects.

Who knows what tomorrow might bring. I need to come up with a better way to make the days pass enjoyably. I have been making long to-do lists on a daily basis to keep myself on task. But, I feel like it's cheating to include "eat lunch" on a to-do list. I'm quite sure I wouldn't forget if I didn't write it down. Strange things happen when you have some time on your hands. I'll do my best to report on all of them.