Did you miss me?

I thought I'd make an appearance here to ensure that you all are aware that I am still alive and kicking. I am also still (kind of) unemployed. Do not worry though, I have utilized this time off wisely. I have, for example, had more time to volunteer and more time to develop professionally on my own. While I haven't yet gotten enough business to replace the permanent job I used to have, I have learned a lot.

Other than work, I have done a lot... no no, A LOT of traveling. I went to Europe for 5 weeks where I visited friends and family. I went to Paris (France), Zurich (Switzerlan), and several cities in Spain. I have been to Paris and Zurich before, so that was just a matter of catching up with people there. Although, I did meet up at the end of my trip with some buddies from college that I haven't seen in over 6 or 7 years. In Spain, I went to new places like Valencia, where a friend that I met through my friend the Spaniard hosted me and showed me a REALLY good time. I also was able to go for a week to Southern Spain to visit the land that once was ruled by my people, and I hit Granada, Cordoba, and Sevilla.

I also went to Hawaii for about week with a couple of friends, and we had a great time. It was my first time there, and I really enjoyed it beyond expectations. Although it is a beautiful place, it certainly would have not been as much fun without the great company with whom I went. Thanks ladies, you know who you are :)

Since becoming unemployed, I was able to do a couple of long weekend trips to San Diego and Houston to visit friends. I also drove to St. Louis to visit my best friend and her new born baby boy.

While my traveling has been one of the great highlights this year, and I am by no means done, the best thing about my unemployment has been the fact that I could enjoy my life, and be there with my friends and family when they got together or when they needed me to be there for them or with them. For example, one of my cousins got married a couple of weeks ago on a Friday. I would've never been able to make it to the wedding had I been working the way I worked before, staying in the office way later than anyone should on a Friday, every Friday. I was also able to hang out with all the family that came from out of town for the wedding. They came from other countries and were staying for two weeks. Normally, everyone just gets back to work and can only entertain them in the evenings after work or on weekends. Well, since I am not working and I liked the people involved enough to want to hang out with them, I was able to entertain them, or at least try to show them around Chicago. Spending all that time with people I love has shown me exactly why I shouldn't ever be upset about what happened. These are memories and events in my life that I can't make happen later, once a day passes, that's it, you can press rewind or redo. So would you rather spend the day working from morning to night without being able to spend even part of your day with the people you love? And if you think the people you love are those at work, then you're only fooling yourself and trying to make yourself feel better. You can like your coworkers, but if you don't have friends and family that you'd rather be with instead of coworkers, then your life needs overhaul!