“What are we going to do today, Catherine?”
“Same thing we do every day, Catherine. Try to take over the workforce.”
I like to be busy, and I hate monotony. When I got laid off in December, it was easy to stay busy because Christmas and Z’s birthday were just around the corner—so many little projects and tasks awaited me, I was actually kind of glad for the forced “time off.”
As the craziness of December becomes a distant memory, I find myself with fewer and fewer things to occupy my time. And, worse, I have no idea when I’ll earn a stable paycheck again, so spending money makes me feel sick to my stomach. I can’t just go out and spend the day in San Francisco, browse at the outlets, get a hobby (most of which are actually more expensive than you’d think), or whatever else I might do with my free time.
So what do I do? How do I keep myself from falling into a Netflix black hole?
The following list is what has worked for me. I know we are all so different, and some of these may seem too cheeseball or boring or whatever, but maybe something here hasn’t crossed your mind yet. And if it has, maybe you’ll be reminded that it’s an option!
Enjoying the outdoors: Taking even a brief jaunt outside can really lift a person’s mood, especially if said person is just waiting around for an email saying, “Woah, you are awesome!! We must have you. We don’t even want to interview you. When can you start???” Yeah that’s coming any day...
Writing: I got started on this blog because I wanted to keep my brain fresh while unemployed. I wanted to keep learning and to hopefully help others. I find that the time I dedicate to writing really flies by.
Cooking things that take a while: I try to do this at least once a week, with various recipes. It’s so nice to have the time to make my family-recipe spaghetti sauce for my husband and son, but that stuff takes like four hours! So I make it now, while I can. There are cheap recipes all over the internet, and I’ve actually found that many of our old family recipes involve very inexpensive ingredients… I guess my ancestors didn’t have millions of dollars to spend on filet mignon as they walked the Oregon Trail. Weird.
Cleaning like someone in a cheesy movie: Yep. That’s something I do once a week, too. I put in my headphones, crank up the poppy music, and vacuum my little heart out. And I sing at the top of my lungs. Sure, sure—it sounds dorky. It is dorky. But if you just let go of your inhibitions (who’s home to judge you, anyway?) and get going, you’ll probably really enjoy yourself. Fun and productive!!
Baking: This one is tricky, because it can’t be done too often or else I’ll become a whale. But once in a while, it’s cool to surprise my husband with an after-Z-goes-to-bed baked goodie.
Hanging out with friends, in person or virtually: One undeniable fact about unemployment (at least in my world) is that it can be lonely. So, I try to combat that loneliness and nurture my friendships at the same time. I try to make it to see my friends when we can all swing it and have a quick lunch during the week. I also love Google Hangouts and iMessage. These are free ways to communicate with my buddies, so I don’t feel isolated while I hang at home.
Getting crafty: This one is at the end of my list for a reason—I’m terrible at it! In my dreams, I’m a frugal crafter who makes beautiful, useful things for her family. In reality, I am a Pinterest browser who has very few actual crafting skills. I try to use my limited talents when I can, but I really need to put more effort into it. What I have been able to do and have been successful with is prepping fun activities for Z to do when he comes home from preschool. That’s the best I can do right now, but it’s a start.
So that’s my list… What do you do when you have an “extended vacation”? I could use more ideas! Leave them in the comments!
Fun to read, Catherine? Thanks for showing me your creativity and originality. I’d love to try the obleck thing some time. I confess I didn’t read it before because, due to some weird timing thing, your post mentioning your blog always came at the top, and I said, “I’ll just read the rest of the posts and then go look at it.” And then I got caught
up in something else and forgot (what else…). But I’m glad I’m finally here.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Ooblek is super cool and super easy—just corn starch and water, and you add a little of each until it’s the right consistency. We’ll have to do it sometime.
I do a lot of walking. I also volunteer teaching ESL.
Yeah both of those sound like great uses of time!! I love the volunteer teaching idea. If I had any idea how long I’d be out of work, I’d love to do something like that.
Catching up on my pleasure reading has been great during this time… and it’s free! I check out Kindle books from the SFPL online.
Ah, I will definitely check that out! Thanks for the recommendation! 🙂