Sparky's Journey - What Day is it Anyways?

Today was a day of doing nothing. Unbelievably I still feel I have to write about it:). When I was working, I was fine doing nothing on Sundays. It is Sunday today isn't it? Anyways, I digress. Sundays were my day of rest before daunting work weeks ahead.  Now I just feel guilty doing nothing because everyday I'm pretty much doing nothing now.  Even though everyone advised us to take some time off, I feel like I should have been looking for a job or working on my resume, something more productive than watching Sister Wives, taking naps and playing computer games. On top of that, needing a little comfort and guidance, I tuned into the live broadcast of a sermon from a pastor in one of our local neighbourhood churches. This made me feel worse. The message today was about living a good private life so you can succeed in your public life. In other words, if you're a General and the secretary of defense for the US, you shouldn't bang your biographer. According to the Pastor, these are the following road blocks to succeeding publicly in life: wasting time, foolishness, laziness, procrastination,undisciplined life.  I managed to tick off all the road blocks in a completely unsuccessful day in the life of Sparky. I know I'm not a colossal failure but this Pastor sure made me feel like one.  Will I ever find a job and public successes when my private life seems a hot mess? Today the possibility seems so distant, so full of road blocks I didn't even know about.

I spoke to my brother and his wife tonight. I forgot that his wife, W, had made the decision recently to quit her job as a director of a family and immigration centre. This week she told her staff. They were sad and some cried. I realize we're now living parallel lives. The method in which this occurred is different but the end result is the same. Neither of us have jobs anymore. We joked that my brother would now be the soul bread winner for all the women in the P family, including my mom. They have great faith in God, not blind faith like The Radical, otherwise known as Mama P, but a more balanced faith that appeals to me because they believe in a mix of God's Will and controlling one's own destiny. They were kind enough to offer to pay for a plane ticket for me to visit them. I very briefly wondered if I could ask for the cash value instead but then realized it would be a great comfort to be around them for awhile. And selfishly I also thought having two unemployed women in the household could deflect some of Mama P's attention away from my joblessness and onto W's.  It will be a good thing all around. I will get to see my niece and nephew. Living costs are also lower in Winnipeg and I won't be spending money on gas for my car. The trip will be a verifiable money making venture for me!  I wouldn't have had this opportunity to spend a big chunk of time with them had I not been laid off. So once again, thank you LFS!

Tomorrow I have an orientation at Knightsbridge. Knightsbridge is a 'human capital solutions' company, basically an unemployment bridging agency. My coordinator, Ho, as he'll be called, is one of those employment termination experts, like in the movie 'Up in the Air', that swoops in to pick up the pieces of you that have fallen on the floor after the Grim Reaper tells you to pack your bags.  Ho is nice enough but definitely no George Clooney. I feel bad because I didn't make it easy for him at our first meeting.  Granted I had just been let go but he really tried hard to get information from me and I wasn't giving anything up. Tomorrow I'll make an effort to be nicer to him and forgive him for not looking like George.