Greetings from your unemployed friend on a Thursday
I’m just out here building relationships, doing community work and letting my creative juices flow
A few weeks ago my friend Julia brought a new meme to my attention. The ‘unemployed friend on a Monday’ meme.
Here’s the original:
Here are a few of my favorites:
I love how, instead of portraying the unemployed as lazy or any of those other negative stereotypes, these memes celebrate unemployment and show how it can be an opportunity to explore interests. Some days of underemployment really feel like this for! Outdoor adventures, diving into special interests… the benefits go on! I’m no meme designer, but at the end of this post you’ll see a few of my own attempts…
What is the life of the “un(der)employed” really like? Back in the fall I did a post on “A week in my life”, where I shared some of the adventures I’ve been up to. Folks seemed to enjoy it and things have changed a little bit since then, so I’m doing it again.
Saturday:
This week starts on a Saturday because this was a really exciting one! I spent all morning organizing, making signs, and getting super prepared for… my first Art Market!! It went really well and I was really glad to have my partner D there for moral support and to bring snacks. A lot of friends came through and bought some of my work as well as a bunch of strangers who are now friends. After the market ended, D and I went to a bonfire hosted by a queer urban farm collective.
Sunday:
D spent the night, but we had to sleep in their (camper)van because their dog couldn’t handle sleeping in the same house as our foster cat. Waking up in my own driveway and going inside to use the bathroom and make breakfast reminded me of being on the road out west in March. We walked the dog around the neighborhood and then had our monthly(ish) relationship check-in conversation. After D left I caught up on my favorite Youtubers and took a nap. A friend asked me to body double for her and we had some good conversation while she worked in the backyard and I lay in the grass. She then lent me a sparkly top and drove me to Melina’s birthday party which was Mardi Gras themed. Halfway through the party I took a break to pick up my bike that I had left at Z’s house (nearby) a few weeks ago. After the party I rode my bike home.
Monday:
Monday was what I call an “office day”. I mostly sat on the couch going through a long to-do list of admin-like tasks. I caught up on some tax-related things, updated my finance tracking spreadsheet, renewed my phone plan, re-applied for some state benefits and applied to more art markets. In the evening I went for a walk around the neighborhood and made a new friend who gave me a bunch of supplies for our foster cat since his cat recently passed away.
Tuesday:
I usually don’t do errands until after noon, but I got an early start on Tuesday and took the tram downtown to print fliers for the Buy Nothing market I’m hosting and then bought some matte-boards at Blick. After lunch, I rode my bike across the city to document the food selection and prices at a grocery store for a nutrition study being done at the university. On my way back, I stopped in another neighborhood to help plant a pollinator garden in a public park. Someone had shared this opportunity in a mutual aid group that I’m in. They’d also gotten some local kids involved and we all got a bit wet while watering the new plants. In the evening I walked around my neighborhood putting fliers in mailboxes for that Buy Nothing market I’m hosting.
Wednesday:
I was TIRED from the day before and felt a bit of soreness in my legs from all that biking. I worked on a few admin tasks in the morning and then saw a call for support at the court house where some asylum seekers had been arrested by ICE as they left their hearings. I rode my bike there but the protest had already ended by the time I got there. Back at home, I worked on a couple watercolor paintings of homes that a realtor ordered from me (another side hustle of mine!). I went to a nearby bakery -cafe with my roommate who just finished work for the summer and then picked up my car from the mechanic despite it not being fixed yet. After having dinner with my roommate I started a gouache painting and then had a video chat date with Z.
Thursday:
In the morning I finished my gouache painting and did some reading (currently reading: The Warmth of Other Suns). In the afternoon, I visited a friend at a Fab Lab/Makerspace that is being developed in my neighborhood. I’ve been hoping to go there often this summer, volunteering and doing some of my own work, but a few weeks had passed since I’d made it in last. On my way home from there I stopped and did some grocery shopping at a cooperatively-owned grocery store. The prices are a tiny bit higher, but I’m paying for everything with food stamps and I get excited about being able to support local autonomy on the government’s dime. After that, I drove my car for the first time this week - to the house-sit where I’m currently at with a super cuddly dog and cat.
Friday:
After taking care of my new animal friends, I took my car to a second mechanic. Following the diagnostics and some more research of my own, we agreed to try a fix… and it worked! My car is running “normal” again! (Keep an eye out for a blog about this next week). In the afternoon I had a virtual session with my therapist and finished the watercolors that I started on Wednesday. In the evening I drove back to my regular “home” where my roommate was having a gathering.
Just for fun, I made the below memes with activities from my real life. I hope they make you smile :)
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