A refuge

When done right, searching for a job is a full-time gig.  Like any full-time gig though, you start to pine for a change in scenery.  While I enjoy the basement confines of my home office, since I've been dedicated full-time to finding a job, I've started to go a little stir-crazy and find myself looking for an occasional place of refuge.  Here's what I've found that doesn't work:

• The treadmill - I hate it.  It is one of the Devil's many tools.
• The Interweb - you start Googling your own name and suddenly it's a tsunami of confusion and outrage.
• Starbucks, Caribou, and any other similar place - turns out these places are where first and second year sales reps like to hang out in between appointments.  They like to fire up a minimum of three devices (cell, laptop, and some kind of messaging device) so they can take up two tabletops, trying to look important, and talk into them loudly about the tool they just called on and how drunk they are planning on getting this weekend.  These are the people that evolve into the jackwads who inevitably are seated in the row behind me on the plane who talk loudly into their cell phones until the very last minute, blathering on about the tool they just met with and how drunk they are going to get this weekend.  Sadly, they are now in their late 40's.

Here's what I've found that does work (for me):

The Library

Yes, the library.  This place works for me.  Sure, I'll admit it.  I'm a word nerd and I like me a good book.  It's also a peaceful place and chock full o'resources.  It's also a money-saver.  If I chose to hang out at my local bookstore, I'd wind up buying books.  A lot of them and that is not in the self-imposed austerity budget.  The library allows me to indulge my book addiction without paying for it.

I'm not alone in using the library as a refuge.  There are others there like me, professionals who find themselves unencumbered from full-time employment, who are looking for that next gig.  We give each other the knowing nod as we pore over copies of "Crains" and other resources.  One thing I will not do though is show up in an ill-fitting, hole-ridden jogging suit.  If you do that, you've given up, and you're one step away from being the creepy guy spending way, way too much time on the free computers in the library basement. Someone please slug me in the head if you see me do that.

I don't think it will come to that.  So, for now, the library will continue to be my place of refuge.  Now, if I decide to spend my afternoons riding the Metra aimlessly, something's gone wrong.  Again, I don't see it coming to that.