unemployment, day 1

My first day as an unemployed bum was fun and productive; even though I slept until almost 9, I got a lot more done than I would have if I had been at work, that's for darn sure. I:
1) Did a couple loads of laundry
2) Did a few drying-racks worth of dishes (I shouldn't admit that the sink was piled that high)
3) Went grocery shopping (at Safeway, not QFC). Got a Safeway card.
4) Worked on my portfolio for my SCCC application
5) Applied to a couple of part-time jobs
6) Went to the library
7) Went to the gym and read half of a book: multitasking!

The aforementioned book that I read at the gym is Pet Sitting for Profit. Though outdated ("[a computer] is nice but is not absolutely necessary. If you don't have access to one, or don't type, you can hire a typist..."), it still had a lot of handy information. It's going to be a lot harder to start a pet-sitting business than I had realized; I was seeing as it as a cheap way to be around animals and have some fun with marketing, but if I am to do it legally and profitably I need:
1) Business License
2) Insurance
3) Phone line
4) Website and advertising
5) Pet first-aid certification

There's little additional overhead involved, but this first step may be too much money to justify starting my own legitimate business. I could always advertise on Craigslist and make money under the table, but I want it to be legal. I need to do a bit more research in this area. Once I get it all set up, it might be a good part-time job if I go back to school.

In other news, my Entertainment book has already paid for itself. David and I went to the Science Fiction Museum at the EMP yesterday; it was really interesting. I like some Sci-Fi, though I'm not into the hardcore stuff and I wasn't expecting to enjoy the museum as much as I did. In fact, I didn't realize that many of my favorite books and movies actually are Sci-Fi: it's so much broader than just Star Trek and outerspace. Also, to everyone who has ever made fun of me for studying Russian in college, take this: science fiction in the 1950's developed largely as a response to the Cold War; the fear of communist spies was represented on the page and screen as aliens among us. Fact.