It's the End of the World and I Feel Fine

So, yeah. I'm unemployed.
And ya know what? For now, it's not so bad.
I know that eventually I'll get tired of being around the house all the time and I'll have to get to work at finding work.
But for now ... I feel almost zen.
Meanwhile, from many of the people around me, I get the feeling that the world should be falling apart.
And maybe it is. But I haven't seen it yet.
A lot of it was in the timing. I got the news on the Wednesday after Memorial Day -- my work week's Monday. And then, I was paid for the last two days of the normal work week. So it was a few days of a paid vacation.
Vacation. Something we haven't taken in earnest for two years, since our trip to Costa Rica. Sure, we've taken days here and there. I scheduled a few Friday through Sunday weekends off, but those were all staycations. Mostly just chances for us to go to hockey games, spend time as a family.
Family. My poor son has had to put with daddy leaving for work at nights and on weekends. Coming to his office to have dinner, then having to leave daddy again after that. He's been happy to have both parents around for the last few days.
So it's been an OK week and a half being out of work.
Honestly, with the way the industry has been, it was getting to the point where it was a matter of when, and not if, there would be more layoffs in my office. Hell, in most newspaper offices. Those of us who were still employed were blessed to have lasted as long as we did.
Blessed, but put upon. The bleeding in newsrooms has just put the onus of continuing levels of coverage on less people. The day I was let go, there was no one available to work the rest of the night. The main stories remained the same as they were at 2:30. Day-old news lingered until the next morning and the regularly scheduled crew came in and changed it.
And since? Where there were three of us to spread the heavy lifting, now there are two. That means both of them had their lives turned upside down as they were thrown into new schedules, having to work weekends and juggle their future plans (one of them already has tickets to this year's Comic-Con). Oh, and then there's the new system they're installing...
The other factor in all this is that I haven't just been sitting here on my ass writing new blogs and playing games on Facebook. I've been working a bit, too.
Almost immediately, my name started appearing on the news site my wife runs, Loma Linda Patch. I couldn't help her before, because it would be helping a competing news agency. But now that I'm free, I've been jumping in and taking photos for her (three graduations so far, the fourth is this weekend) and writing briefs and turning news releases into small stories to help bolster her coverage.
It's actually been a little freeing, since I hadn't really done much the last couple of years but chase code and edit other's work. Actually contributing items that are published has been nice. I haven't gotten back to the point where I'm actually doing any reporting ... yet. But that's going to come back to me eventually. Been chained to a desk for a long while.
And the best part, I'm not necessarily doing it for free. She has a budget to pay freelancers, so I'm getting a little pin money here and there. Not enough that I'm going to get rich, or enough that it'll replace my full-time salary. But enough that it'll help stem some of the tide.
Don't get me wrong. This is not all sunshine and roses. It's disappointing that it happened. And I'm very grateful for all the support I've received over the last week-plus. It's nice to know people are out there looking out for me and my family.
But maybe, just maybe, this was the right thing at the right time. The proverbial push off the perch of complacency. It's time to get out and find something new. Maybe even outside of journalism all together. Maybe even going back to school and learning new skills.
Or maybe I'm just in complete denial.
I hope not. I'm looking forward to this next chapter, whatever it may bring. And hopefully, the final chapter will read "and they all lived happily ever after."