Wanderlust

I was driving a friend to the airport this afternoon. She's also unemployed, so naturally our conversation centered around what we do with our free time, as well as what we have the potential to do with our days. I suppose I should mention that the reason she's on her way to the airport is because she's spending the next three weeks in Australia.

The trip I couldn't pull off for my 30th birthday... (and yes, I'm still bitter).

But she's also considering a month-long trip to Africa in late June, and suggested that I should tag along with her and a couple of her friends. Her line of thinking is that she's at a point in her life where this the only time she'll have the opportunity, so what's the harm in increasing her debt a bit, to have a potentially amazing trip and life experience.

She told me while speaking to her mother on the phone last week she said,

"Losing my job is the best thing that ever happened to me."

I can't relate to that... I agonize, I wallow, I stress daily. I spend significant amounts of my time applying for jobs, and significant amounts of time checking my bank account balances. Not that I'm in any current danger right now, I'm decent with money and I collect unemployment. But I can't convince myself that it makes any sense to throw caution to the wind and treat myself to a vacation that I haven't had in years.

I just drive and shake my head... I'd rather not care.