Day 7

After a weekend reprieve from blogging, I guess you could say it's now officially a week since I was laid off last Monday. A new week and I'm now trying to structure a daily routine.

Being laid off allows me the luxury of sleeping in - a bit. I set the alarm to wake me at 8:20 a.m. but usually don't attempt to get out of bed until I feel the heat start up. Then the routine starts - make my bed, get washed up, coffee, war paint, get dressed. The pace is slow and before I know it, it's 11 a.m. The rest of the day is e-mail, networking on and offline, researching for meetings and of course, searching for a job.

Today probably wasn't the most productive day. It started off with a surprise call from a former Globe and Mail colleague. We figured it has been almost 13 years since we both worked at PointCast Canada. It was nice spending some time catching up. She gave me some advice about a start-up she is consulting for - bTrendie.com. I had connected with the President, through a old eBay Canada contact, about some possible marketing opportunities. She tells me the start-up is still in the early stages and nothing is likely to happen, marketing-wise, for another couple of months. And of course, they have very little money. Time to move on to other things.

Put a call in to my friend at Scotiabank to see if she had any leads about a contract opportunity. I followed-up directly with some old colleagues; hopefully it will lead to my resume landing at the top of the hiring manager's pile.

The afternoon went by quicker than it would have if I had still been working, if you can believe that. Gulped down a Campbell's Soup-in-Hand and received another surprise call from a former Bell colleague - she's currently on mat leave. Spent an hour getting caught up on the Bell Aliant goings-on and all of my former colleagues who have since joined me on the unemployment line. We're going to do lunch once she gets settled into her parents house - likely towards the end of the month.

Late afternoon and most of the evening was spent looking through the online job boards. Nothing new.

The unproductive part of my day was spent looking for online episodes of The Mentalist, my newest obsession. Clips and highlights everywhere, but no full episodes anywhere. I searched high and low - YouTube, Joost, Hulu, TV.com, CBS.com; I was even willing to pay to download an episode from iTunes. Nothing. I finally found a site that is illegally streaming full episodes which I'm watching even as I type this.

Tomorrow, I'm meeting with my financial analyst and have an information meeting that I'm hoping might lead to something. I'm seriously considering offering my services pro bono for the opportunity to make a contribution to the development of a "new organization" we're going to discuss. Let's see how the meeting goes first.

And now for my tea with cheese and crackers.