How to Live Delightfully Unemployed

I find myself accidental bedfellow with quite a few other friends who have found themselves temporarily without work. Yes it's true, unlike them, I wasn't laid off, I quit; however all roads lead to Rome, and the Rome of the moment is: unemployment.

Now, we all know not having a job can be stressful. However, I've often found in life that very frequently what we presume to be something terrible that happens, often turns out to be the very best thing that could of happened in the end. It opens us up to corners we wouldn't have turned, people we wouldn't have met, places we wouldn't have experienced. Therefore, while we all devour the job websites with their promised lands of wonderful careers (EARN $86,400-$291,600/Yr. Processing ®DISH NETWORK Orders Online), we all must hurry up and make sure to take advantage of our new found freedom while we have it.

How to Live Delightfully Unemployed

Fellow unemployed bedfellow arranges meeting at Cafe Grumpy, in the West Village. We opt for the drip coffee, as it rings in at a somewhat budget acceptable $2.50 tag. Free newspapers are strewn about, no need to buy. In normal, employed circumstances, I would have cappuccino snobbery. But I am pleasantly surprised to discover that 1) anyone even makes drip coffee anymore, and 2) it's actually good! The $2.50 gives you quite a performance--this drip coffee is no regular drip coffee.

Cheap lunches. Walking and eating a $2.50 bagel and cream cheese is a simple pleasure of life that even when I get a real job, I will not give up. At these prices, even an unemployed can treat their friend!

The sunny afternoon beckons. We find that we tend to walk slower, now that we have nowhere to go. We notice buildings we never saw before, and they are beautiful. A jaunt led by my friend leads us to a wonderful art gallery he has planned for us to check out. Our $5 entry fee feels well worth it. It's Alex Grey's psychedelic paintings, featured in the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors gallery in Chelsea. It's riveting, even without taking LSD. Anyway, we find a couple more free art galleries on the way home. Fortunately we have time to pop in!

Walking home, the good conversation is free. The sunny but brisk day fades into a crispier dusk. Friend is hungrier than me so we grab a quick slice of pizza and then stop at the Porto Rico coffee shop where coffee beans cost only $8 a pound, a lot less than their usual counterparts.

A delight! All on less than $10. We both feel delightfully unemployed by the end of it!

Now, I take a moment, to appreciate a few further delights of unemployment:

Alternative commute hours:
Yes, yes, we know there's no commute when there's no job, but you still have to get places. The delight is that you get a seat, almost always. The crowd is a little different to. You get a better view of the breakdancer buskers that occasionally cartwheel through the train car, and you don't have to feel guilty if you have no spare change to give them, after all, you're unemployed too!

Alternative commutes:
When you don't really have to be anywhere, you can take all the time in the world to get there. Bridge walking is not an activity the working generally have the luxury of. My favourite is Williamsburg Bridge. Industrial and heavy, not as elegant as its touristy neighbors, the Brooklyn and Manhattan. I like the clatter of the metro going by and watching the orange sky frame the city. Very delightful.

$1 book carts:
When you're working you really don't have the time (or sufficient desperation) to scrounge through all the stained 1989 Steven King and 'How to' books for things you don't want to know how to do. However, when you are delightfully unemployed, you discover the treasures the people with paycheques left behind in their hurry. And there is no way that a book slipped off the organized and paper-fragranced shelves of Barnes and Noble can give you nearly as much satisfaction as the gritty wonderfulness of finding a book on a dollar cart that you actually want to read. I found two! And they are only a little stained. Not only that, you actually have time to read them!

Make old people friends:
There is nothing more enjoyable than the company of someone who doesn't take themselves too seriously, can pass on a world of wisdom, and likes idle chat over cookies. Fulltime jobs don't lend themselves to long-winded life stories with loquacious old people. Time on your hands, does. They'll be happy too. Visit your gramma, adopt a grandpa, keep the lady at the laundromat company over a clothes dry. Definitely delightful!

More time to have a smile on your face:
Walking leisurely and smiling to oneself leads to many interesting conversations and new friends. Even in NYC. Or maybe moreso, as there are other crazies like yourself wandering around looking for a friendly face ;)

OK no job can suck, admittedly. Money obviously is a factor one does have to think about. But let's face it! We're not going to be unemployed forever! So let us delight in the experience of unemployment and get some retraining in how little it takes to have a truly wonderful time.