Unemployment inertia

It's happening. I can feel it. Every morning when my alarm goes off at 8:30, it strikes. Unemployment inertia.

Why bother? What's the point? Not another day of nothing. I think I'll just go back to sleep.

For the first seven weeks or so of my unemployment I got up religiously at 8:30, or earlier, every morning. I treated each work day as a regular work day. Start work at 9:00 and finish up at 6:00 or 7:00. Around the seventh week, that schedule began to change, and is still changing on a daily basis -- except for early in the week. Mondays, and usually Tuesdays, I can still get up at 8:30 without a problem, it's as the week progresses that the problems begin.

At first it was just the snooze button. The alarm when off at 8:3o and instead of jumping up out of bed, I hit the snooze button. Then I began hitting the snooze button more than once. I've now gotten to the point where my alarm goes off on a Wednesday or later, I hit the snooze button. When the alarm goes off again, I re-set the alarm for anywhere from 15 minutes to a half hour later. At this point, when the alarm goes off for the re-set time I am dragging myself out of bed, though I'm becoming more and more reluctant to do so.

My working days are ending sooner too. By 5:00/5:30 I'm basically done. And even worse, instead of "working" five days a week, I'm down to four -- though I'm usually heading into New York City one day a week to take care of other things, so I guess I can excuse that.

The thing that frightens me is that I'm only just a little over two months unemployed and already inertia has set in. I have to force myself to work on my novel sometimes, force myself to check the job boards, force myself not to just drop onto the couch and give up for the rest of the day. Each day my apartment feels smaller, more like a prison. Each day my computer looks more and more like the enemy. So you want me to work, do you? All right damn computer, show me a job I can apply to for f***'s sake!

And if this has happened after only two months, where am I going to be a month from now?

I want my term of unemployment to represent freedom, a time to do things I have been wanting to do for months or years but have never had the time before. I do not want to let inertia past the front door, but boy is it a sneaky devil. Just when I think I'm feeling motivated, it rears its tired head, begging me to put it all off, despair of a better future and just vegetate.

Maybe I need some sort of charm to ward off inertia. Perhaps there is a spell to banish it from my dwelling? Or maybe I just need to take my own advice to a friend who tends to wake up in the middle of the afternoon -- when the alarm goes off, just get out of bed. Don't think about getting out of bed; like the Nike ads have told us for years, just do it.

Pet peeve

Just a short post today to express my frustration with mystery writers who give away the endings of previous books in their latest series book. It is not always possible to read a series in order. Very often a reader is introduced to a series by picking up a book that either comes someplace in the middle of the series or is the most recently published book in the series. If the reader enjoys the book, the characters and the author's way of writing, most likely she or he will decided to read the earlier books in the series.

BUT! But if the author has already told the reader how the previous book(s) ended, what's the point in picking up the book? The whole point of reading a mystery is to try and figure out whodunit? So if I already know, what's the point in reading the book?

For instance, I'm reading a book called A Charmed Death by Madelyn Alt. It's the fourth book in the Bewitching Mystery series. I didn't realize it was the fourth book when I bought it, only when I picked it up to actually start reading. I figured I'd read it and if I liked it I'd buy or borrow the earlier ones. Then in the middle of the first chapter the author suddenly tells me who died in the last book (the third in the series) and who the killer turned out to be.

I was immediately turned off. There is almost no point in reading the third book now. Maybe, and that's a big MAYBE, I'll go back and read books one and two, but no matter what the author lost me as a reader, and potential buyer, of the third book.

As an aspiring writer, I hope that everything I do as a writer will be to get readers to read each and every one of my books. I don't want to chase anyone away from even a single book. That's seems completely counter-intuitive to the goal of writing books.

Now, I realize there are some things that will be given away in new books. For instance, romances. If in book three the main character gets married, then clearly if I start reading book two and that character is having romance problems, I already know how that's going to end. But that's a subplot and that's ok. I still have the juicy mystery to try to work out.

But don't give the whodunit away, please. Chances are I'll want to read earlier books, but not if I know who the killer is.

First bite!

I came home from a day trip into New York City yesterday to find that I had a message on my voice mail from a potential employer!!

This is the first time since I was laid off a little more than two months ago that I have gotten a call to discuss a job opening. And if that's not thrilling enough, I didn't even apply for the job that's open. The company saw my resume on CareerBuilder.com and thought I looked like a match, so they called me!

I know that getting a call doesn't mean I'm going to get the job. Getting an interview doesn't mean I'm getting the job. But after two months of no one being interested, no one even acknowledging my applications, it's so nice to just hear from someone.

I think that's one of the worst things about applying for jobs in these times. Because so many people are applying for the same job, the chances of getting a call in response are minimal. So you keep putting yourself out there and no one replies. It's like you don't even exist. And that's totally disheartening.

So to have someone call me and tell me they're interested in me, well, that gives me my existence back. And gives me hope that I may actually get a job again someday.