It may sound a little egotistical but I have always felt that due to the variety of friends that I have in different industries and occupations that I am able to look around me and get a general picture of the state of the larger economy from the condition of folks I know.

In years past while people in my life may have been between jobs or in a state of temporary unemployment, I was always confident about the state of the economy knowing that most folks I knew were doing all right. That has definitely changed in the last six weeks or so where blog entries and emails and Facebook status bemoaning a recent layoff or the necessity of a group or company tightening their metaphorical belts began to increase.

Things hit immediately home a few weeks ago when I found my own department would be closed shortly and I was sent out on a job search. I always thought to myself when I was employed that I would make job hunting a 40 hour a week job for myself. What I discovered very quickly even in the course of being continually employed during this time was that just the process of having your job taken away takes an awful lot out of you. I found myself sleeping for a disproportionate amount of the day and participating in activities that were more forms of escape than anything near productive job hunting.

Worse than that, it all didn't really sink in until a few days after. It may be that having had been fully employed for ten years that I was in less of a condition to come to terms with that sort of thing than a consultant who might have more familiarity with the ups and downs of jobs coming and going and the ability to handle an experience like this.

This was really an important lesson for me to learn: in addition to knowing and planning what I needed to do from a cold procedural standpoint, there was a definite emotional reaction that can't be planned for or avoided except to just work through it from start to finish. .I was lucky to have the support to do just that.

One of the other things that's probably been obvious has been a lack of desire on my part to sit down and put my situation into words -- either public or private -- and especially not in essay or journal form. I'm glad that I had smaller blogging platforms and Facebook to release some of my anxieties and worries to folks who could give me an immediate feedback. Its hard to say how I would have managed without that sort of response. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of job and help offers that were extended during this time.

I have been feeling much better in the last few days, and I feel my creativity and desire to get out and try new things returning fairly quickly. I hope to be back in the thick of things within the next week or two.

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