Funemployment, Week 6 in These Foolish Things

It’s now Tuesday, April 12th, and we are deep into Week #6 of my Funemployment. We are halfway through the severance plus my vacation time. I have 6 more weeks of being paid for this nonsense.

Truth be told, I am loving this time off. I’m able to enjoy hanging out with the dog in The Treehouse…Spring is here, and though it brings some crazy Springtime storms complete with possible tornados and golfball sized hail, it also brings sunny sundress weather for our walks and brunches and such.

With the exception of getting up early for a couple of interviews and putting together presentations, I’ve allowed myself to sleep in many mornings. It’s weird because it feels so decadent to sleep in and I’m uncomfortable thinking that I might be wasting time, but oh, it’s so nice to wake up as the sun is shining through the window.

Still, I know I work and thrive better as an early riser, so I try to get up in the morning and get my workout in before the dog even wakes up. Today is an exception because I did NOT get up before she woke up and it’s already after noon and we’ve had a good morning walk, but I will be working out as soon as I finish this post!

That’s also the fun of funemployment - working out when you want!

Last Friday, I sent out thank you emails to everyone I talked with at The Cutie Pie Company last week and have only heard a quick blip back from one person (out of 5 people!) telling me simply, “…we’ll be in touch.”

Hm. I’m a little annoyed because it’s kind of surprising to go through all of the effort of putting a project together, taking it upon myself to make the long drive (6.5 hours total) without asking for any kind of reimbursement, and ZERO lunch (I know, I know…but the meeting was a NOON meeting) and only hear back, don’t call us, we’ll call you.

Yesterday I cruised LinkedIn and found a few open positions and have heard back from a couple of them already. I have been asked for some time to speak with the HR department of another super exciting company (big furniture/home goods manufacturing company and retailer based on West Coast), and that made me happy.

Its truly a matter of really digging into the opportunities. I need to get better at working through my network because not that many people in my network even know I’m no longer working for Old Company!

I suppose I’ll get serious pretty soon.

In non job-related news:

Last weekend, we celebrated Maria’s 65th birthday. Her daughter put together a couple of AMAZING events (a dinner downtown and a brunch at a private club), and they were lovely. I was very honored to be invited to the family brunch on Day 2. Literally, only super close friends and family were there and they are so good to me. It really made my heart melt.

Maria looks incredible! I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that she decided to eat vegan over the last couple of years. It seems to have made a difference. Interestingly, she stopped eating vegan probably after Thanksgiving last year and I can actually see a bit of difference even though she still looks amazing. She’s talking about going back.

And in boy news, I got annoyed by Captain K’s last message of “when can I see you again?” because he ALWAYS asks me that and I tell him pretty much anytime and then no plan ever materializes. I just didn’t answer that last text so I haven’t heard from him in several days. No skin off my back.

I should get back on the apps if for no other reason than to get out of the house.

But OH MY GOD, just when I was dipping my toes back out into the waters of society, the Covid strikes again! Have you seen much about the lockdown in Shanghai?! I can’t even fathom it. As one of my favorite cities to do business (back when I was going there a lot), I can’t IMAGINE that city in complete lockdown. Not even letting the dogs out for walks!

And then thinking about how our east coast is starting to pick up again - my cancer friend in Toronto’s whole family is getting over Covid now, and I heard that Philadelphia’s mask mandate is returning for indoors.

I know we’ll never get rid of this shit, but when can we kind of go back to the way we were when the worst we had to worry about was the flu? Or the common cold?

Better go, my workout is calling!

LYSM!
GS