Start of Unemployment

My extreme extroversion feels like the death of me at work the last couple weeks.  Things are slowing down mightily at work as students finish up classes and head home for the summer, so I return home every day completely drained of energy because my little back office with no windows in the basement of the UC at CMU is keeping me from any social interaction and driving me nuts!

I need some interaction, so how about you comment some answers to these questions?

What is some music I NEED to listen to today?

At the moment, I'm jamming a stream of the new Manchester Orchestra album (out yesterday) as well as Arcade Fire's performance at Coachella.  These two bands are reminding me how much I need to create music, but I need some energy and inspiration first.  I want to start a band so badly, but have no idea where I will live at the end of the summer, so it's virtually pointless to try at the moment.  That will be one of my first endeavors in my new (or old) city!


What are some cool (cheap) things I should do while I'm unemployed for a while?

Tennis, painting, playing music, disc golf, cooking, and reading are already on the list.  Give me some other ideas!  I'll be poor, so the cheaper the better.  I'm about to be unemployed for a yet-to-be-determined amount of time, so I could use some simple or elaborate ideas to utilize in Pittsburgh.

What makes you impatient?

My attention deficit is not designed for long periods of idleness, so my patience is being challenged by my lack of tasks in front of me as well as my job and future uncertainty on many levels.  I know that I need to put my need for patience in God's hands or I'll continue down a slippery slope of insanity due to lack of stimuli.

Patience

Lord, bring us patience to wait on your direction, for Your will is far better than ours.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. - Romans 12:12

Life on Hold

I haven't been writing as much as usual lately.  My life has really been in limbo with the shock of graduation setting in.  I have been so busy working on my last projects that I didn't give much thought to the fact that it would all be over at some point.  Life is certainly different and I'm trying to figure out what those changes mean.

The moral of the story is that I'm in the middle of the waiting game for a while.  I don't know where I'll be in July, August, or September.  I should be starting a new job by then, but Lord only knows where that will be at this point.  I cannot make plans that far in advance (although I did get a ticket for Taking Back Sunday and will get one for Death Cab for Cutie, too!).  It's very unsettling to not know where life is going to take me, but I've never been one to wait for something to happen.

Fortune favors the bold.  This is a statement I've written on my board at work and have been subscribing to a lot lately.  I'm not one to put life on hold if I don't have to, so the fact is that this time of unemployment in Pittsburgh is about soaking it up and enjoying every second I can, not holding anything back.  I plan on surrounding myself with important people in my life and doing all the things I've wanted to do but never had time for.  Painting album covers on a cornhole set, checking out Pittsburgh restaurants, going to free summer events around town, riding my bike everywhere.  This is the stuff I'll miss out on if I don't do it now.


I do not regret the things I've done, but those I did not do. - Lucas, Empire Records

In the end, I need patience.  This time of uncertainty has to result in my reliance on God to take me where I'm meant to be.  Otherwise, I've learned nothing.

Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love,
   for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
   for to You I entrust my life.  -Psalm 143:8