Ending the Day

It's a little after one o'clock in the morning and I'm getting tired but not wanting to go to sleep. This Friday is my last standard paycheck: after that, I'm on my severance package (another six weeks, to be sure, but there haven't been a lot of jobs to apply for and they seem they'll be few and far between).

Of course, there's nine months of unemployment payments ahead, and they will more than cover the necessities of life and my bills, but that extra money I'm used to won't be there. But I stop and think about all the people in the world who are trying to get food at least once a day and find a dry place to sleep at night and I can't complain too much. A lot of them are right here in this country.

I'm starting in on my networking, reaching out to folks who know folks who might be in a position to help me out. The job coaching company I'm working with says 70 percent of people find jobs by making contacts, not by simply sending out resumes and waiting for an interview. So I'm taking the proactive stance and trying to put myself out there and connect with new people.

The biggest problem I have is keeping things going from day to day. It's very easy to sit around and do nothing. But it's frustrating to go online and find jobs that I really don't want to do. Keeping up with the tutorials online for the Web design programs is also something that I just have to keep hammering away at, as well. I try to keep my focus on the future and stay proactive here in the present. There's a really good position out there for me at some point. The trick is to keep aware so when it comes my way I can reach out and snatch it.

It's a month until my 56th birthday and I'm trying not to feel old: Hard to do when AARP keeps sending stuff in the mail all the time. Then I remind myself that every computer program that I use I learned on my own because they didn't exist when I went to college. I opened the user's manuals and started reading until I had them down. So picking up the new ones is just a matter of doing what I've already done: self-educate to keep up with the changing times.

Publication is something I've been involved with for 20 years, and now it seems like it's starting to evaporate. I have to remember that it's simply changing shape. Things that used to be put on paper are now being put on the Web, so I have to get good at designing for that medium. I like the permanence of print on paper, though, and the Web seems to ephemeral and it changes so quickly.

But now it's time for some sleep. I'll wake up tomorrow and start in again. I pride myself on the fact that I haven't been sitting in front of the TV all day. I've been sitting in front of the computer. At least that's a little more instructive, informative and interactive than daytime TV or watching DVDs that I already own.

They say when God closes a door he opens up a window. I just hope it's not on the seventh floor where I can't crawl in.