Is That In the Schedule?

Well, hello there, Blog-Friends!  Long time, no see.  Is this turning into a weekly blog?  It kinda seems so, based on my behavior.  But do I really need to impose that sort of schedule on a blog?  Can I just write, you know, whenever I feel like it?  That's just so out of character for me.  For three years I have been the Keeper of the Schedule...not my own, really, but my boss's schedule (and let's face it, he was WAY busier than me).  So I think I've become programmed to schedule every day down to the half-hour.  Hey, at least it's not down to the minute.  Not yet, anyway.  Give me a few weeks.

Take this whole unemployment thing.  I've basically arranged my weekdays to reflect that of your typical desk jockey:  wake up, work-out, shower, get ready, eat breakfast, "report" to work.  9am-1pm is for responding to emails, browsing for jobs, reading the latest industry and world news, and admittedly checking out my friends' Facebook pages (cuz, hey, I did that at my office job, too).  1pm-2pm is for lunch (longer if I have a lunch date, as you have to accommodate for transit times - I used to actually schedule "transit" in my boss's schedule - and it was always in blue).  2pm-6pm is for longer-range planning, strategizing, project implementation, more browsing for jobs, snack breaks, perhaps even an errand or two.  But now there's all kinds of other stuff coming up, and I think - where is that going to go in the schedule?  For example, I desperately need to learn some rudimentary Spanish for my upcoming trip to South America (I found through experience that it's pretty essential to be able to ask where the nearest bathroom is).  Does that fall into my "work" day?  Or is that for my "time off"?  If I study Spanish from, say, 3-4pm every day, does that count as goofing off?  Should I wait until I "clock out" at 6pm?  How about that etsy shop I want to open?  Does making upcycled handbags count as my primary work, or should it be relegated to the "moonlighting" position?  And why the hell am I even obsessing over this?  Is that OCD gene kicking in?  Or is it my middle-class guilt that I'm collecting a wage (unemployment) without really doing anything?  Good lord, sounds like I need a Valium.  I think I have a bad case of Calendar-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  After so many years of living and dying by The Schedule, it's hard to let go.

Oh, it's 12pm PST.  Time for my regularly schedule bathroom break. 

Go Happy, my Blog-Friends!
Amy