Bits and Pieces from the First Thirteen Days of Underemployment

A week ago underemployment was fairly new to me.  It's still fairly new to me.  Let me write down a few notes that likely aren't substantive enough for a single blog post, but are worth remembering.

--There are still days when I feel startled, like I'm supposed to be in the office, but I forgot to go to work.  There are still days when I'm a bit disoriented here and there, but it quickly passes.

--I do not miss clocking in.  I have not had to clock in since the Reagan administration, and I never got used to it.

--I still have plenty of work to do with my online classes that I'm teaching and my seminary classes that I'm taking.  It's wonderful to be able to do that work in the order that makes sense to me and not to have to squeeze all of that in around a job that requires an office presence for 45+ hours a week.  It's wonderful not to commute.

--It's easy to feel wonderful right now.  My last day is Feb. 18, so I still have health insurance and a paycheck.  Will I feel differently when I'm paying the full cost of health insurance without my old salary to support all my expenses?

--Last night, before my virtual synchronous seminary class, some of my students talked about finding out the our professor is part of a nearby church service (giving the sermon?) on Sunday.  A group of them are planning to go.  I felt a pang about being so far away--but that pang is cushioned by knowing that we are planning to be there by fall.

--Today I will call Wesley Theological Seminary and get more concrete information about married student housing.

--It is delightful to have time to cook, especially on days that would have been heavy with meetings if I was still employed at the full-time job.  Last week, I made lemon muffins.  This week I'll take the pumpkin butter that I made and experiment with turning it into pumpkin bread.  My pumpkin butter recipe is essentially cans of pumpkin, spices, and sugar.  Next week, I'll try turning pumpkin butter into a ricotta cake.

--My pumpkin butter recipe makes WAY too much for one household, and I make it so seldom, that I always forget.

--I am delighting in lunch dates with friends.  It's good to reconnect with people, while at the same time sad to realize how unconnected I had become.

--I do like having time to walk, although there are days when I feel like Dorothy Wordsworth.  Of course, a life of long walks, cooking, and journaling about it all does not seem like a bad deal to me.

--I am reminded of a friend who was reading a biography of Wordsworth and came away convinced that British citizens in England had gobs more time in the early 19th century regardless of social status,  She may be right.