When I first found out I was unemployed, I had grand plans to keep myself busy by putting together a to-do list for myself every day. That last about four days before I scrapped it for a carefree, see-how-I-feel schedule. It worked for a while, mostly because it was so God damn hot here in New York that there wasn’t a heck of a lot that I wanted to do. Watching television, searching for jobs, and reading at the neighborhood cafe was really all I seemed to have energy to do. The thought of walking around in 90 degree heat with 70% humidity was just too much for me, so I found myself staying pretty local throughout the day. There were some odd trips here and there, coupled with a few attempts at regular gym attendance and a handful of job interviews (which so far haven’t led anywhere, but I’m hopeful).

Then there was the whole “bed bug” incident, which has eaten up much of my days, now that I have to vacuum all the time and keep things clean. Add that with some late mornings and YouTube marathons of Star Trek: Voyager and 19 Kids and Counting, and I have slowly but surely seen myself enter the phase of life known as The Funk.

In two days, it will be September. Around the country, thousands of kids are returning to school and hitting the books, expanding their minds and preparing themselves to become better members of society. I haven’t had a “first day of school” in four years, although I’ve had two “first days of work” which are fun, and exciting in that “I’m getting paid!” kind of way. After nearly 50 days of unemployment, I have decided that I need to shrug off my lackadaisical attitude and get down to business. Summer vacation is over and it’s time to get to work.

Here’s my plan:

• Wake up at a reasonable hour. No more 10 a.m. wake-up calls.
• Schedule activities that involve me interacting with people: taking classes, having lunch with friends, volunteering.
• Write. I keep saying that I want to do more writing, and yet I haven’t produced very much in the last month. Even if I don’t have any place to publish an article, I plan to start writing articles just to keep my skills fresh.
• Read. There is so much in life that I don’t know yet and sitting around watching YouTube videos isn’t helping. Although it’s too late for me to finish 101 books by my 1,001 day deadline, I plan to assign myself books and a deadline to finish them. No more taking three weeks to finish a 300 page novel. I would have failed every class I took in college if I had done that.
• Network. I was all gung-ho with networking when I was first laid off, but I’ve slowly fallen off the bandwagon. I need to get back out there and make contacts with people, and continue to follow up after the event.

I’m also trying to take my apartment catastrophe in stride and hopefully putting a silver lining on it by doing some “fall cleaning” and reorganizing. Life is too short to be weighed down by meaningless junk from  yesteryear. I don’t have a new backpack and sweet new sneakers to buy, but that doesn’t mean I can’t pursue knowledge with a new zeal. Maybe I’ll buy myself a new school planner. Just for kicks.