Exciting news! I’m now employed. Technically, I have been for a month but I start work on Monday. This is exciting for many reasons, first (and maybe most importantly) is that when you get a job you get paid. Getting paid is good. Money is fine by me.

Secondly, it means I’ll get out of the house. Which kinda sucks because it’s currently -24 but with the windchill it’s actually -40. On the plus side, the bus stop is right outside my house and there’s very little outside time for me as I travel to work.

Another thing that excites me is wearing clothes. If I’m at home, I’m in sweatpants or yoga pants or PJs. I don’t know why, but if I’m at home my body rejects any kind of restrictive clothing. I have a closet full of business casual, work clothes that are dying to get out and see Edmonton. Dresses with leggings for everyone!

And maybe even more importantly, I’ll get out of the house. Which means I’ll interact with people. And meet people. Possibly people with similar interests, with whom I can forge a friendship with (Yay!).

Yes, I’m aware that last sentence sounds like I’m a wee bit crazy.

My strategy
My strategy

While I’m excited about starting work and getting back into a routine, I don’t regret having over three months off from working. I’ve done a lot of stuff in that time that has helped me realize what I want to do with my life (and what I don’t want) and it’s given me time to get to know this city a bit more. I’ve also had time to do not much of anything.

And it’s exciting to start a new job (seriously guys, I’m very excited), here’s a few things I’ll miss about not working:

  • Not waking up before 7am. This one is going to hurt the most, I’ve been a night owl since birth and I don’t mesh with mornings. It’s particularly hard to get out of my nice warm, comfortable bed when it’s cold as hell outside.
  • Wandering my neighbourhood. I’ve been on a lot of good walks around this place, and seen some pretty things. I won’t get to devote as much time to getting my 10,000 FitBit steps in per day.
  • Sunrise and Sunset (or as I called sunsets yesterday, “reverse sunrise”). I probably haven’t seen as many sunrises in my life as I have since moving to Edmonton. In the winter, the sunrises between 8:30 and 9:00 am, so I see them. And when the sun sets around 4:30pm I love nothing more than capturing them on camera (see my Instagram feed for many examples). When working 8:30 – 5:00, I’m not going to see so much of this. I’m getting ready for perpetual darkness.
  • Grand Theft Auto V. I can’t believe it took me so long to get into video games here, my brother has a million games for a million systems, but the only one I’ve gotten into is GTA V. I love this game despite the recent heartbreak when they took away all my Festive clothing after Christmas. I’ll have less time to devote to my characters: Juanita and Roseitta
  • Podcasts. In case you wondered, I’m actually 80 years old and love to listen to podcasts while knitting. Sure I can still listen to podcasts on my commute, but I can’t spend a full afternoon listening to multiple episodes of Sword and Scale anymore. My podcast recommendations: Sword and Scale; Pod Save America (formerly Keeping it 1600); Here to Make Friends – A Bachelor Recap Show; Making Oprah; Side Hustle School (a daily 5-7 min pod) and Stuff You Should Know. Please leave your pod recommendations in the comments!
  • Being healthier. Since being unemployed I’ve had the chance to lose weight, mostly due to having time to cook healthier meals for myself and the walking I mentioned above. I’ve found that when you have a job you have less time to cook (or maybe it’s that by the time I get home I’m too lazy to cook and grab whatever’s easiest) and there’s a law that if you work in an office that there must always be office chocolate/cake/goodies around at work.

That’s what I got for now. I’m excited to start this thing on Monday, but don’t forget to give me podcast recommendations in the comments. My list of unplayed podcasts is at about 15, why not add more?