Excuse me while I ramble…

Since beginning my “work hiatus”, as I like to refer to it, I’ve had a lot of free time. Nothing but free time. What I learned, once I had nothing but free time, is that free time is only fun for, oh, about a week. Then it becomes crazy time, where I sit around and dwell on my thoughts. Dwelling on your thoughts is different than being alone with your thoughts. Being alone with your thoughts is great, dwelling on them is deafening.

Will I find a job? What if nobody ever wants to hire me? I can’t afford movers if I get evicted. Does my cat like me? Should I drink more coffee? Should I take a shower? Does dating still exist? When am I going to do laundry? What is my purpose on this planet, if I don’t have a job?  The list goes on, and it only gets worse with each passing day.

You know how, in the movies, when someone is “going through something”,  they take out a wall in their house with a mallet in a music-montage series of jump-cuts? Well, that was basically me for two weeks. Painting, installing door knobs and scrubbing became daily rituals. I can’t remember whether or not there was music in the background, but in the movie of my life, that scene would be a turning point.

There was brief a moment, before I received the “we’d love to hire you” call, when I contemplated installing doorknobs for a living. I’m not sure there’s a huge demand for doorknob installers, but I was good at that. I could get into doing that full-time. Any time I can write a power tool off on my taxes as a work expense is a win for humanity.

Thank God I got the call, though, otherwise I would be posting Craigslist ads for doorknob installation “at an affordable rate!” right now. Now that I don’t have to search for jobs or gouge holes in anyones door to put food on the table, I’ve had some time to start doing fun things again, like writing this blog entry.

Aside from inundating everyone with blog entries, I’ve also spent the past week interviewing various women about their pivotal roles in Chicago comedy and, holy crap, what a surreal experience it has been. I’ve had the privilege of hanging out with women who I think are funny, successful and important. Not only that, but now I get to write about them. That’s two things that I love at the same time! I’m not sure how I’ll contain myself, but I’ll probably start by watching videos on the youtubes.