Have You Got Yourself an Occupation???

Not really, though I am sufficiently adept at procuring for myself daily endeavours for which my being can entangle itself, such that I am 'occupied'. But, alas, these undertakings are not, in the traditional sense, considered to be An Occupation. Also, nobody's paying me. (Capitalism hates me).

So, to summarize the previous paragraph: I have no job..I am not employed..I have not got myself an occupation. But I am significantly happier and healthier than when I did have an occupation. It seems to me, at this point in time, that the thing that was giving me the biggest headache/heartache/lifeache was the workplace. Retirement is the drug I've been looking for. (Sorry, meth dealers).

There are many things I love about being retired from the workplace. Here are some examples:
* Minimal responsibilities
* Having autonomy over my days
* Not being judged and assessed all day long
* Not having to answer to my 'superiors'
* Being allowed to feel unwell until I get better - with no pressure to 'soldier on'
* Not having to interact with people who I either don't want to interact with or don't know how to interact with
* Not having to get (coerce) my brain into a work-headspace configuration
* Not having to keep my brain in a work-headspace configuration for many hours of the day
* Engaging with whatever meaningful or non-meaningful things as my daily moods decree (usually via the internet or the library or the video store or the windmills of my mind)
* Wearing whatever clothes as my daily moods decree
* Wearing whatever mood as my daily moods decree
* Not being around toxic chemicals (specific to laboratory-based workplaces)
* Not being bored
* Drinking as much tea/coffee as I like
* Using the bathroom as often as I like
* Hanging out with Willow all day

Of course, being in my mid-forties means that society thinks I should have an occupation. Retirement isn't really culturally acceptable until a person reaches mid-sixties. Social gatherings are tricky for the non-retirement age not employed; people avert their gaze when informed that the person they are conversationing with is 'unoccupied'. I live in terror of being called up for jury duty and not knowing what to write in the occupation section - is it perjury to say I'm unemployed when I have worked as a scientist (ie is this the kind of information that would entice a defendant's lawyer to challenge me as a jurist)? Also, there is the not insubstantial issue of requiring a livable income. (I will not, however, be using my knowledge of science, and specifically organic chemistry, to undertake a career in meth cooking, even as exciting as it may seem - I've watched Breaking Bad!).

But I think it is not beyond the realm of possibility that, one day, and after actually starting to search, I will find myself a proper occupation (maybe even one that pays). Perhaps by the time I reach my mid-sixties I will have encountered an occupation (maybe even more than one) which not only doesn't suck, but which is not entirely unenjoyable to do. (Capitalism will love me - but it will not be some kind of namby-pamby-touchy-feely love, it will be a wild unrestrained triple X-rated kind of love).

Political Art

Art lovers, rejoice!
I have made a highly artistic and politically charged collage of all the pre-election campaign material I have received for tomorrow's glorious election:

Willow added her own interpretation: