What in the world I'm doing with all my free time

If somebody were to ask me what in the world I am doing with all my free time (being that I'm currently unemployed), I would probably be annoyed. I might be inclined to ask in return, what free time? Now I don't want you to think this is going to be a whiney post because I'm not trying to be negative. I'm just a little surprised by how quickly a day passes even without spending at least 8 hours of it at a place of employment.

My schedule has not become very routinized yet, but here's a general description of a typical day in my current situation:

I get out of bed at 6:00, eat some breakfast with my wife, and see her off on her day of work. I like to jump right on to my computer at this point, using the time to get caught up on news, message boards, movie reviews, etc. I try to restrict my initial sitting at my computer to an hour because it could stretch out and cover the whole day if I'm not careful. Next, it's time to exercise, although sometimes I move this to 3:00 if I need to be somewhere earlier. We haven't joined a gym in Wilmington yet because I want to wait until I find a job to be able to better (a)afford a gym membership and (b) choose a gym located close to my future office. So lately I have been jogging or biking and also doing some push-ups and pull-ups (using a bar -- a birthday gift from my lovely wife -- I installed in our den's door frame).

Now we're getting into the more variable section of my day. At least three times a week I have been heading over to Right Management Consultants to attend a networking event or take a course in something like self-marketing or interviewing strategies. These sessions usually start at 10:00 and last 90 minutes. Sometimes there's a second session that begins at 1:00. If there's not, then I usually stick around the Right office anyway to do some of the preparatory work for the next class or else take the time to run inevitable errands. Usually I make it home around 3:00 either way. This can be one my favorite parts of the day. Today, I spent the 3 o'clock hour in the backyard reading the script for the movie on which I am the production assistant in June. Most days, however, I find myself back at my desk making phone calls, paying bills, or if I'm lucky, editing. R returns around 4:00. Lately we've been using this pre-dinner period to run off to Target, Home Depot, or furniture stores. These are "new home errands" that should be dying off soon as we continue to settle deeper in.

The rest of the night is about the same as it's always been. We cook, eat, clean up, and watch a little television. I'm looking forward to the television season being done so our nights are freed up a bit (although there's a good chance our regular programming will be replaced by a subscription to Netflix). We're usually in bed at 11:00 if we haven't already fallen asleep on the couch. On occasion, I like to stay up a bit later yet to do some reading, but the early mornings are doing their best to prevent that.

Weekends are, of course, much different schedule-wise. R and I are trying to use them to work on the house and to explore the surrounding areas (see previous blog entry). I must say I feel a lot better about being gone for a whole weekend knowing that I don't need to go to work early the following Monday morning.

Whew. There you have it. As you can see, I'm not exactly on vacation, but this kind of schedule definitely beats one that includes a full-time job. I find the days so much easier to face and much more enjoyable, even if they aren't quite as sparsely filled as I would hope. Those of you who know me probably know I'm not the kind of person who gets bored easily. In all honestly, I would be perfectly fine if I was unable to leave the house for a week; actually, make that the den for a month.

The way I see it, my job is to find a job. I can put as much effort into it as I want, and right now I don't want to put all of my effort into it. This is too good of an opportunity to waste it entirely by looking for a job. This could be the gap year I always wanted... but maybe "gap three months" is a more reasonable idea.