FUNemployment Day 4: Busy

Day four of FUNemployment and I am exhausted. Part of it is a release of months of stress, part of it is running all over Detroit for three days straight and part of it the residual effects of a yoga class last night that was so much more advanced than I currently am that I'm pretty sure I dislocated my liver. 

My LIVER people!

Day four of FUNemployment also marked the day that I officially became unemployed. As of about six hours ago I am officially off the United Way payroll. The milestone came and went without any fanfare. After 5,360 days as a United Way'er I was half expecting something more like, I don't know... that the skies would part, angels would appear, smile benevolently and whisper, "The girl hath done all She could. No go forth into a world where no one expects you to justify your overhead."

But no angels, no clouds, no promises of a life free of restricted funding. Just a phone call from a vendor I had previously used to buy t-shirts for staff asking if I had any upcoming employee engagement needs.

One... no.

Two... what vendor calls at 5:00 p.m.? on a Friday? on my personal phone?

I assume the call was the universe's way of getting me over that, "I don't work there anymore," hump real, real quick. So, thanks for that, universe.

Now that I am at this point where life as a UW'er is officially over, as well as grad school, I had promised myself some down time. What I have discovered, however, in these first four days of FUNemployment is that I am failing myself miserably in keeping true to that promise.

I've got pokers in the fire everywhere - meetings to finalize with potential partners, conversations in the work with a potential "landlord" for the new business, phone calls with the lawyer to get my business license going, my first coaching engagement kicking off on Monday, three writing projects in the works, two books partially read, an application out to join a new nonprofit Board, and a round three interview for a job that will take five hours and entails the creation and delivery of two twenty minute presentations. I have taken four yoga classes, had two lunch dates, four coffee dates and two back porch conversations and have a dozen more of all of the above scheduled for the next week.

I've been unemployed for five hours and forty-four minutes.

I'm so scared that if I slow down for a minute I'll slow down forever and lose all momentum, so I stay busy. But busy was not the goal of FUNemployment. Busy is a false sense of accomplishment. Busy is what you do when you are not sure what exactly to do and, admittedly, I'm not sure exactly what to do at the moment - so I'm doing it all. I'm even doing ALL the yoga. Seriously! My LIVER.

Next week I'm going to get better at not doing it all.

Maybe.