Story: Part 2 - plotting next steps

Late April was springing and beautiful. I dedicated myself to finding another job, but not TOO fast -- after all, I did have some severance, and some savings, and it felt like a rare chance to enjoy spring.

But without taking any time off, I established a pattern that surprised me -- I got up early each day, far earlier than I had as an employee, and went to my desk with a cup of coffee and an enthusiastic spirit, eager to take on the project of finding work and managing my life until I had found one.

I took the concept very seriously -- right now, my job was to make sure that my bills were paid. I suddenly was much more interested in where my money went than I even was during my divorce at the worst of my "going to live in a box" paranoia. I had spreadsheets of all of my bills, and reconsidered everything. Cable was one of the first things to go. Interestingly enough, one of the things I *did* spend money on was my house -- I arranged to repair and cover the wood trim on the outside of my 1950's bungalo with vinyl, terrified that I wouldn't be able to pay for it, but also certain that it needed to be done and that somehow, I'd find a way to handle it.

For about 2 hours every morning, I searched job boards before the start of the regular business day. Monster, HotJobs, Dice, Washington Post job listings -- I searched them all, and gathered a list of all of the jobs that might be plausible. Then I went out into the day, taking my coffee and a magazine onto my back deck to enjoy the morning air, feeling that I'd accomplished a lot in the hours I would usually have spent dressing and commuting, and now, when my day would have just been starting, I was able to pick how I wanted to spend my time for most of the rest of the day.

After breakfast, I planned what I'd do for the day. I was able (and needed) to cook much more than I usually would have, and eating food made from actual! raw! ingredients! became part of my day. I bought a crockpot, and discovered that it's possible to make an amazingly good stew by just throwing a few raw things and some broth into a bowl and plugging it in. I also enjoyed doing other enhancements to my house, painting some rooms that were still the dingy off-white of my married days, and finally completing the task of cutting up the nasty beige carpet and hauling it, bit by bit, out to the curb.

At lunchtime, I did another round of work, often researching the companies where I'd found promising ads, revising my resume, and taking the opportunity to learn some new skills. I began playing with Web graphics, something I never did get good at.

In the afternoon, I made phonecalls to former colleagues, initially for suggestions on possible jobs, but after awhile, after they suggested consulting opportunities, I began to look around for people who needed a temporary technical writer or editor.

I picked up a short-term project, working for a woman I had myself hired (and been devastated to see laid off in an early round as our company imploded) a couple of years before, and enough money came in to pay the mortgage without biting into savings that month. A fencing buddy came through with a job writing a manual for a piece of software that paid another month, and gave me the flexibility and freedom to enjoy my summer.

Around 3:00, I knocked off, whether job searching or doing consulting work, and the end of the day often saw me hiking the trail around a nearby lake, or riding the bike I bought for myself shortly before all hell broke loose. A backpack held a notebook and pen, and I toyed with the idea for what I thought would be an interesting book. Parts of it still sit on my hard drive, overtaken by other events in my life, or perhaps just marinating.

What I found was that my early morning, noon, and late evening work hours allowed me to really enjoy what felt like expansive freedom, despite the fact that I was working as many hours as ever at my job. Being able to pick my time and plan my approach, though, gave me a whole new way of seeing things.

I did truly come to think of myself as a small business in this time. It was energizing, exciting -- I felt alive in a way that I hadn't experienced before. Completely alone, not tied to any other person in a significant way, I felt absolutely free to make my choices independently, and as long as the bills were paid, I was winning.

My family, however, was very concerned about my situation.

Next: Generational debate over the importance of the traditional job.