The Year of Sean has been going on for 364 days but sadly is coming to an end. One more official blissful day of freedom remains before I’m compelled by the Faustian agreement I made to look for a regular job. Of course, as the Houseguest pointed out, there could be a Year of Sean Part II if no one hires me. She’s used to the cutthroat museum world where a thousand applicants fight for one job — I’m hoping my search is a little easier.

Actually, I updated my resume yesterday and reposted it on jobs sites where it’s been sitting for years and already I have heard from a number of recruiters and had two phone interviews with them about positions. Of course, most of the recruiters were contacting me because, after perusing my resume, they decided I’d “make an excellent sales manager.” Please, your reading skills suck, dude, if you’re getting sales manager out of my resume. Nothing in there would lead one to think I would be remotely competent at motivating other employees to pimp life insurance.

A quick year

Wow, my time at Institute for Supply Management ended June 30, 2017 — it seems like yesterday. I have to admit, when I handed in my two-month resignation, the decision to not look for work right away was kind of nerve-wracking, but I had some money in the bank, so I’d decided to go on vacation for a bit. When I got home, I decided to play it by ear, though I did start driving for Uber and Lyft part-time in November. But not having a regular gig was also kind of awesome — well, other than being poor and not having any health insurance in case something went wrong.

But I needed the time off. I was stressed from work and my brother’s death had taken a huge emotional toll and dealing with bullshit had ground me down. And let’s face it, working for a company is all about the bullshit. The more people you get working together, the bigger the opportunity for bullshit.

So what did I accomplish? Not a hell of a lot at first. I went to the U.K. for about a month and thought about moving there to be by my mom’s family because I’m pretty close to my cousins who are all guys around my age. I definitely enjoyed the camaraderie.

Following that, I went to Florida to hang out with my sister and family, which was also good for the soul.

Oh, after returning from England, where I ate and drank everything in sight, I did lose about 25 pounds while sitting at home on my ass (woot woot!).

Getting up in the morning is going to suck

One thing I did accomplish during the Year of Sean was to start this blog, and I’ve enjoyed doing it and plan to continue though I’m not sure how having a regular work schedule is going to impact me.

Being underemployed let me go back to my natural sleep schedule and, yep, I’m a night owl. I routinely went to bed between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. — and I usually started working on my projects around midnight. I still got up fairly early — typically between 7 and 9 a.m. because, apparently, I have some farmer gene that’s kicked in and is turning me into my dad — and then took a nap during the afternoon. I kind of feel naps are natural and underrated — I’m pretty sure if our ancient ancestors felt a bit weary following mammoths around, they just laid down and had a kip. Employers, however, tend to frown when I take naps at my desk (though I’ve seen a photo of me zzzzzing in a cubicle taken by one of my traitorous friends).

Having to drag my ass out of bed on someone else’s schedule and then fight rush hour traffic to and from the office is going to suck. Totally not looking forward to it.

I would have preferred to work from home, but let’s face it — I suck at chasing work. Things looked good for a while — I was getting work from a couple of agencies, but it dried up and one of the people who was my contact at the new agency just disappeared one day.

Maybe I should hold out for remote jobs?

The never ending project

There was a benefit to not working (other than more video game playing time) — my personal writing took off. I didn’t get as much done as I wanted, but I think I made significant progress (100,000 words), so if I finish this book (eff you, Etzel you Doubting Thomas), it will be well worth the loss of income over the last year. I just hope I’m able to sustain my effort because I am worried that once I get into the grind, I’ll use the excuse that I’m too tired from working to do any writing.

My original plan when I went to England was to work on a fantasy novel and I wrote all kinds of background material while I was there. But then I started looking at all the material I had on family stuff that I’d scribbled down over the years and it just made sense to me to switch projects and finish it– so that’s what I’ve been doing (slowly). I hope I do get it done.

Since I have no idea when I’ll be done, check out these sample chapters. The first one, Car Swimming, is about searching for my brother after a drug binge. The second is Late Night Offerings to Mammon about an ill-conceived trip to a casino.

I have posted some other pieces of writing from yours truly as well as the occasional guest writer. Check them out and I’d love to get some feedback from you!

FYI, I still want to work on the fantasy novel.

Was the Year of Sean worth it?

Unless I end up homeless, hell yeah, the Year of Sean was worth it. Anyway, if you get a chance to not work without imperiling your finances, I highly recommend it.

Interested in more of my work? Read a sample of Not Helping, a tale of addiction and the importance of communication! (It’s a work in progress)