I'm Not Young Anymore (How I Spent my Thanksgiving Weekend)

For the long-term unemployed, there is no such thing as a "weekend" or a holiday -- usually. Sure, we try to make time for our loved ones on those days; but, for the most part, even weekends are still spent looking up jobs (and, maybe sending resumes out -- that's my plan this evening, at least).

However, with the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, like another friend of mine, I decided to take a break from the job hunt to 'enjoy' the weekend, the way those who ARE employed do....

I did have one interview last week, and then, was asked to present a class on Tuesday, which brought me to Wednesday. Obviously, there was no need to send out resumes on Wednesday (who was going to look at them the day before Thanksgiving, really)? So, it was much easier to hold off and send them after the weekend.

Effectively, my "long" weekend, began Wednesday evening then. I did a few errands, and a friend came over that night. We watched two episodes from the TV show LOST (which, I think I've posted about earlier -- we've been watching the show from the beginning; basically two episodes a week, which definitely helps keep the interest (as LOST, certainly, is a demanding show to watch). We then decided to keep expanding our minds by playing approximately four hours of videogames after that. I stumbled into bed around 1:45am.

Got up the next morning in time to watch the Thanksgiving Day parade, and headed to my sister's for Thanksgiving dinner. Returned home by around 10pm, and ended up going to sleep, again, by around 1am.

Friday was an all-day gaming fest -- first, I still had to go food shopping (tangential note - grocery stores are WAY empty on Black Friday!). Then, off to my friend Allan's house for monster games -- 1830 (6 hours), Through the Ages (about 4.5 hours), Tichu (about 2 hours). Home by 4am, into bed by 4:45am.

Up by 9:45 on Saturday -- did some errands and cleaning around the house, and then some friends came over for MORE gaming -- Hanging Gardens (1 hour), Dominant Species (about 4.5 hours) and Tichu (about 30 minutes). People left by 12:30-ish, and I was into bed by 2am.

I had planned to hang all my outdoor Christmas decorations today, but the absolute killer headache ruled that out, completely. The Excedrin took hold later than I'd hoped; so my afternoon was a combination of trying to be quasi-productive, and keep my eyes from falling out of my head, due to the pressure. Eventually, that cleared up, and now, I have an evening of resume submissions (so they're on people's desks first thing tomorrow morning). Then, for the first time in nearly a week; hopefully, in bed by a reasonable hour.

While this was an enjoyable way to spend my "days off," I think I did learn that the days of repeated 4-5 hours of sleep a night are well in the rear-view mirror. Now, hopefully, my system can right itself quickly enough (as I have at least one interview already scheduled for this coming week, and I have to imagine yawning and circles under the eyes are NOT high on the employer's list of "desired traits.")

How did you spend your Holiday weekend?