So I’ve been through this before. The last time this happened, I was working for a big fancy-shmancy firm in D.C., commuting three hours a day, and waiting for a real assignment. (They had me working on a favor site, called the Museum of Cake, for about a month. I’d come from the corporate dot-com world, and it was hard to shift gears into baked goods from satellite broadband delivery.)

That time, I had a pretty sizable war chest saved up. I also had a rock-bottom mortgage payment, I owned my car outright, and I was looking forward to some time to work on the basement of my house, so it kind of worked out. I spent most of those two months painting, putting up drywall, running electrical, and living frugally. I didn’t have the heart to work much on the computer—in fact, I took most of that month off from the computer entirely, looking only occasionally at my email. For a lot of reasons, I was depressed and demoralized. The industry I’d claimed as my own was in steep decline in Baltimore. Most of the shops who’d flown so high were now closed down. There was noplace to look for work locally, and I’d not spent enough time in D.C. to make contacts there.

This time is very similar, but also a little different. The mortgage payment is much bigger now, but we still don’t have to make any car payments. We have an equity line of credit, which isn’t the same as having money saved, but also means we’ve got an emergency fund. I’m looking at a house which needs a monumental amount of work, and I suddenly have a lot of time to do it. This time, I’ve also been keeping busy on the side doing freelance work, so I’ve got a current portfolio to draw from.

I’m going to use this as an opportunity and try not to look at it like a curse. I’ve been wanting to switch back over to web design full-time for a while now, and also resurrect my illustration career. The only thing that’s been keeping me from doing that is a lack of time. You’ll see the progress here and over on my portfolio site (which is going to see a major overhaul in the next couple of weeks) while I make about a million lists, start drawing again, continue developing websites, and try not to freak out too much about being self-employed.

I drove all the way out to work this morning in the rain, and before I got to unpack my laptop and settle into work, I was asked to meet some folks in the upstairs conference room. They had the look on their faces that I’ve seen before, and they said the things I’ve heard before. I packed my stuff back up and walked with someone to the entrance and shook his hand—no hard feelings—and left.

Know anybody who needs a web designer?

This weekend, Jen and I did something we usually never do—I took her to a real movie theater, and we saw Corpse Bride with other real live human beings. The real live people didn’t disappoint us either. We were four seats down from a group of loud, annoying high school kids who thought it was fun to throw M&M’s at each other, play games on their cellphone, and talk loudly during a nine-dollar movie. The movie itself was great, although it could have used (in my opinion) about five more minutes of exposition.

Saturday morning we met up with my old friend Jeff from New York, and his girlfriend Katie, for brunch at the Golden West. Due to the Race For The Cure clogging downtown traffic, it took us longer than anticipated to get into the city for pickup, but once we got into Hampden, things were better. It was great to catch up with Jeff, and we made tentative plans to have them back down for a visit in the future.

Saturday evening, we ventured back into the city again for an art opening at the Shinola gallery for our old pal Logan, who’s in town for a week or so. We picked up Rob and his wife and made our way to the wrong address on the wrong street (my fault) then followed a couple to the wrong address on the right street (Logan’s fault) and finally to the gallery door. It was great to see Logan again (Our visit was a surprise) and catch up with him; he’s been doing very well in L.A. and his art has come a long way. I also ran into a few other folks from the scene, including the daughter of an old friend and a few people from the MICA scene back in the day.

After the show, the four of us retired to the Brewer’s Art for a cocktail and some food, and we were able to score one of the tables by the window on the top floor. There’s nothing more cosmopolitan for a country mouse like me than to sip a vodka tonic among the hip and beautiful, if only for an evening.

My good friend Rob took me on a boat ride Sunday, on his ’68 Donzi. It’s a sexy little fiberglas speedboat with minimal styling and a LARGE engine. We crusied through the no-wake zone for a while, sipping coffee to the rumble of the engine behind us, until we got out to the open channel, and he opened up the throttle. It’s a fast enough boat that you feel like you’re on the edge of control, depending on the skill of the driver and the height of the waves—thankfully, the boatbuilder put an “oh-shit” handle in front of the passenger seat, because there’s no windshield and little else to hang onto. We zipped past the cabin cruisers and sailboats, out to Gibson Island, and turned for home in the flat wake of a passing boat. All in all, it was an excellent way to spend a warm October morning. Thanks, Rob!