Wednesday

I exercised this morning, looked at a bunch of online job lists, sent out two resumes and signed up for three workshops on how to get a job.

I planned to get some writing done. Instead I took a nap.

As I mentioned before, Patrick and I took a workshop on looking for work after 40 last week. The engineer I met there warned me against depression and giving up.

He said when he first lost his job, he got up at 5:30, the way he always did on a weekday, and looked for a new job the way he had worked. He seemed like a determined guy, and it sounded as if he'd been looking hard. But after four months of unemployment, there were mornings when he slept till ten.

He was planning to go back to school and get recertified. He said he was a little worried about being in college with a bunch of kids. But all the schools he talked to said there were plenty of guys in their 40s and 50s back in school, trying to get new skills.

Right now, I feel as if I'm just getting used to being unemployed, still letting go of the job I left, still trying to figure out -- what next?