Unemployment

It's been a while. Perhaps it is because contrary to my expectations, unemployment is debilitating rather than liberating. I have often thought about what I would do if I didn't have to go to an office every day and, to put it bluntly, I am not doing any of them. I am not working out or doing yoga every day. I am not writing every day. I am not "networking" enough, which, according to the career counselor I have been seeing (courtesy of my former employer) is the only way to get a job.

I have been following the elections (it was like and obsession almost) and the financial crisis, in which what I used to do for a living and was always reluctant to explain to people around me has gotten a starring role. Expressions like 'credit default swaps' and 'CDOs' that (if ever I uttered in an answer to the "what do you do" question) used to induce empty stares and yawns have now become part of our collective vocabulary. Most commentators pronounce the words like kids mouthing a swear word for the first time and explaining these in human language seems like a big challenge. So my prior frustration that what I do for a living has no effect on anything in the "real world," or if it did then it was bad, turned out to be frighteningly justified.