UEB: Unemployment Espresso Bar

Before reading this, I have an assignment for you; go get a cup of coffee. Or tea. And a spoon; no, it doesn't matter if you drink it without sugar. Just do it. Please.
Ready?
Monday was the first day of the rest of my unemployment life. Although I hope it has an expirydate, it was so special, it deserves it's own blog.
The world, or better yet, the office is divided on the matter, but words like 'brave' and 'gutsy' (the women) were more used than 'crazy' or 'stressfull'. Because it is something else, giving up a set contract with steady income for... well, nothing concrete yet. But the freedom I felt on monday was incredible.
I sat in the Urban Espresso Bar stirring in my glass of cafe Latte and it hit me:'this is all I'm doing; stirring honey. With a spoon. In some milky coffee'. You should try it (see, there was a point to the assignment, I'll give you a few moments).
It doesn't get more 'NOW' than that. No worries about self-imposed to-do lists, deadlines, dishes, the judicial system or even Japan. Just stirring coffee.

Off course I don't plan on spending the next few weeks or months or God forbid, years doing nothing but meeting up for coffee and taking up space in the UEB. On second thought, I could live with 'weeks', though. But for now it's lovely; I feel relaxed, full of ideas, I'm getting my head round my future. For now.
Hook thinks it's hilarious. Apparently I said I wasn't going to do anything (no letters, no job agencies, nothing) for two weeks. Today is wednesday and I already worked my ass off on a large event in Ahoy, re-installed my Mac, attended my fabulous leaving-do, wrote two letters in addition to the dozen I wrote in the last few months. Unfortunately I received an equal amount of rejections. But in all fairness I'm not schooled as a communication expert, staffing employee or web-editor. And some of them are probably right when they turn me down 'because they are afraid I'll be bored shortly' and 'I'm overqualified'. In addition to that, I explained my disastrous meetings with temp-agencies in a previous blog (the NUT). I'm not worried yet, but ask me again in 3 months time.
Secretly I'm hoping for an experience like Renee Zellweger. Rumour has it that she worked in an office in order to prepare for her role as Bridget Jones. I would love to do the same, but than to get some inspiration (or should I say: dirty workplace secrets) for my Criminology freelance project; the Right Trace. But for now, I've got places to go (Prague and Russia), coffee-cups to stir and blogs to write.

Law and Order: special coffee victim

Meanwhile back home, they added a new member to the Law and Order family. And even though it's hardly a reason to come back early from a trip to the Philipines or miss out on sleeping in mountains with gorilla's, it is a welcome change for me. After 'criminal intent', 'special victims unit', trial by jury' and 'the one with Mister Big', there is now a UK-edition, and because my motto is 'you cannot have to many British detectives', I am a happy camper.

I celebrated this birth with a cup of coffee. I've been having a lot of coffee lately, actually; there is something comforting about it. I had coffee with friends while discussing either non-existing lovelives or the flourishing ones. I have coffee alone, in the morning to get myself out of the shower (is it bribery if you use it to convince yourself? I wonder, over yet another mug enriched with honey). A smaller espresso at an emotional birthdayparty on saturday evening, to acompany the chocolatecake and cheese (in any particular order). It took me two mugs of coffee and a cup of tea to get through my best friends paper on 'secret language and graphical design', which I had promised to review. Now, this also got me reacquainted with the concept of 'work-delaying behavior'. I now have a clean bathroom (well, it smells like all-purpose cleaner, which is good enough for me) and I took the trash out. Twice. Furthermore I put tile-stickers on my kitchenwall, fabricated two pink felt muffin-shaped cups and written a whole blog on Law, Order, coffee and other life-consuming events that happen back home.

ps. don't worry, I did finish checking the paper