Unemployment RULES!
(... except for that whole lack of income thing ...)

I said the other day, I never thought that being unemployed would mean that I'd be more busy then when I was holding down a steady job. Sure, I've cut down on the commute, and yes, my hours are a great deal more ... interesting, and okay, if pressed I will admit that I'm not always exactly working, but wow, am I ever busy. In my first week and two days of unemployment I have:

• Assisted two different groups of friends on two separate occasions to begin to regain control of their personal spaces -- events which required things such as a lawnmower, allergy medication, recycling bins and a great many garbage bags
• Began to regain control of my own personal space in ways that required a great many cleaning products, kicked up a whole lot of dust and still have my hands smelling like bleach
• Attended the simply incredible Lord of the Rings symphony and choir (read Sarah's entry about it because -- wow. Made me cry. Also: wow)
• Had the brakes in my car replaced, and had the car's exhaust system break (resulting in a vehicle that got very loud very suddenly) and subsequently fixed -- events that, due to various interesting happenings, required almost two full days of my time
• Attended one book signing and had dinner with another famous author
• Ran into a friend that I hadn't seen since high school
• Caught up on my email and had it quickly get out of my control once again
• Talked on the phone with friends in the States for a total of upwards of six hours
• Fiddled around with a novel idea to the point that I realized that I may in fact have to write another whole novel -- perhaps two -- to simply explain all the Very Important Stuff leading up to the original novel's events (meaning that my backstory got out of control in very interesting ways)

And a whole ton of other stuff that hardly seems worth listing. I'm reading a lot. It's simply glorious. I've now read my first two Lois McMaster Bujold books, The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls, and was quite delightfully blown away. It took me a bit to get into The Curse of Chalion, but once it had me it did not loosen its grip for a moment, and Paladin of Souls -- simply wonderful and in surprising ways. I got both out of the library (trying to respect the budget and all) and now have to have copies, simply because I know that they're both books that I'll read until the spine cracks and curls, the pages yellow and begin falling out. And then I'll buy new copies and read them again.