Hurm. I just wrote a “colorful” rant about people who drive horribly in parking lots, but decided not to post it. Just in case any potential employers might be googling me, I’d rather they not see some of the vitriolic things I occasionally say when I am enraged.

So, I’m on the third week of being a gentleman of leisure. It’s going pretty well so far. No job interviews yet, but these things take time under the best of economic circumstances, which we as a nation are definitely not experiencing right now. I’m not worried, though; something will come along eventually. My money situation, even were I not to get the unemployment, is secure enough for the foreseeable future.

In the meantime, I’ve been staying busy and am pretty happy in the rhythms of my new existence. A typical day might start out with me going to the nearby gym to work out. I am ordinarily too cheap thrifty to pay for a gym membership, but since it is free, I will happily not pay to use it. The reasons for it being free are still unknown to me. All I know is that residents of my apartment complex get a free membership, which is good till my lease is up.

I also go running nearly every day at the park behind Good Samaritan North. There is a path that runs along the back and into the Dayton Metroparks system, so there’s plenty of territory to explore. It is also quite lovely this time of year, with the leaves coating the ground and craven critters suicidally jumping into my path. (Seriously: chipmunks and their furry ilk can suck it.) I’ll be a little sad when it becomes too cold for me to be comfortably outside for more than five minutes.

I have to admit, the whole daily-working-out-thing has been awesome. I had been exercising for a month or two before my office closed, but it’s really nice to be able to do these things more frequently and more intensively.

In addition to this burst of healthiness, I try to do some piece of writing every day. Work on the project of a novel-ish nature has been progressing steadily. (Sorry, but saying, “I’m working on my novel,” sounds much too pretentious to me.) Ever since I have relocated my “office” into the closet, I have been much more productive. Right now, I think I’m about 1/10th of the way done, so there is still a ways to go. But — it’s more progress than I’ve made in the past several months.

What’s been really nice about not working is that I can see my friends more often. We all work different schedules, and I don’t like to be out really late during the work week. I have enough trouble sleeping as it is without shorting myself on a regular basis. Being more socially active has been awesome and definitely been better for my mental health.

Okie-doke. Enough rambling. Time to make dinner.