Guess what? I just got furloughed!
The "company" I work for gave me notice this morning, so here I am at home, waiting for Congress to figure things out. In the meantime, time to declutter my life a little bit!
I've disappeared from the interwebs in the last month courtesy of some little health problems. It turns out I was allergic to my antidepressant. We took me off that and I tried a new one. I turned into a zombie on that one, so we went back to the one I was on before, just a different formulation. Surprise, surprise, the rash and itching came back. I got a fourth antidepressant, which actually works! I feel like the last month has disappeared into a fog of itching, drowsiness, and unfortunately, a shocking amount of bingeing. Turns out those meds really did help keep my eating disorder under control.
Happily, things are calmer now. I get the added bonus of a few vacation days! Time to catch up on all of your wonderful comments that I've ignored in the last month.
Unfortunately it does mean that until Congress gets its act together, I don't have a paycheck. For that reason I am very, very glad that we have an emergency fund. I'm really not worried about being on unpaid leave for three weeks or three months if that's what it takes. The amount of money we've been spending each month on crap has been slowly declining. Not only has that meant more savings, but it's meant that we need less income to get by. Hopefully this month we can live entirely on the Chief Engineer's salary.
Now -- to learn to cope with the stress of a furlough without turning to any bad habits -- collecting free stuff, buying things, or eating myself into an oblivion. I'm planning on posting some more things on ebay and craigslist, maybe going and playing my guitar on the street, reading some more, making some gifts I owe people. How do you keep occupied when you suddenly have a ton of free time?
Zoe, I'm sorry that the furlough has happened and that the medication had some unforeseen consequences, but I love how positive you are. You're not letting the things outside your control get to you, and that's awesome.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the inspiration this morning.
I did wonder when I saw the news about the US government shutting down whether you'd be affected- yey for free time and enough of an emergency find not to worry about it :) Glad your medication has been sorted too :)
ReplyDeleteI recently quit my job as it was driving me nuts and we didn't really need the money- so I find myself with a lot of free time on my hands! I've done lots of jobs that have been hanging around for ages (painting the bathroom floor, for example, and more decluttering (didn't think I had much, but got rid of an astonishing amount!) Basically, I have just been enjoying myself and doing what I want to do! It is much harder to feel like you have been 'productive' though, and to resist the urge to just veg...
I'm doing a knitting design course (distance learning) which does give me a focus...just need to get better at the whole self disciple thing though!
Enjoy your unexpected time :)
I often think that governments don't put much thought into how their actions affect individual people - sure, let's make a point and refuse to cooperate, resulting in a shutdown, and boo hoo to the people who suddenly can't pay rent. Bet they are still getting paid!
ReplyDeleteWhen I have time (and that's not often) I often use it to do jobs that need to be done, but have been put off in favour of work or other obligations. Clean out the kitchen/bathroom drawers, the tops of cabinets, the bottom of the fridge, delete old emails, repot houseplants, clean the windowsills, empty your car trunk, fix a loose button, polish your dress shoes.