This week I had a hard decision to make: stay at my comfy, boring job or quit and face the unknown.

If I quit, my security would be gone. No more regular paychecks. No more health insurance. Nothing to get up for in the mornings.

But if I stayed, what would I have? More paper shuffling. More gray cube walls. More of the same.

There are loads of job out there, I told myself. Oh, yeah? And how many of them do I want? And how many responses did I get from the dozens of resumes I've sent out in the last year?

I was tense. I couldn't concentrate on my work. I needed, I needed...an early lunch. It was a beautiful day. Maybe some fresh air would clear my mind.

I picked up a pastrami on rye and a cup of soup from Uncle Abe's Deli then headed to Cal's Liquors to eat lunch and drink beer.

I arrived at Cal's just before noon, but the bar was closed. I sat down--right on the sidewalk--and started on lunch. As I slurped soup, a man approached and asked for change--32 cents, a strange amount. He wanted to buy something to eat, he said.

Now that I was leaving my job, I couldn't just throw money around. "Sorry--can't help you," I told the man, well aware of the quarters in my pocket. I offered him some crackers that came with the soup. He refused.

Soon after, the bar opened.

Cal's ain't a fancy joint. The walls are plastered with punk rock posters and old set lists from visiting bands. The bar smells of stale beer. So I was surprised when the bartender took time off from serving customers to call his broker. He bought stock in a company that makes bottled water. "Water is going to be more valuable than oil," he said.

Was the world trying to tell me something?

Across from me was a fish tank, and I watched some small fish feed. A larger fish lurked at the bottom, and every so often it would have a go at one of the small fish. But those small fish were quick, and they always escaped.

Who or what was waiting in the shadows to gobble me up? Would I be quick enough to get away?

This was getting depressing. I paid the bartender and left.

Outside, the streets and sidewalks were packed. With the warm weather, it seemed the city's population had suddenly tripled.

At Daley Plaza, parents watched as their kids slid down the front of the Picasso sculpture. The city's fountains were bubbling, and next to them pale legs stretched out in the sun. In the harbor, moorings bobbed in the waves, waiting for the bridges to rise and the boats to return from dry dock.

The city is waking up, I thought. Why would I want to return to work, to my air-conditioned nightmare, and miss it?

The next day, I handed in my notice.

now that you unemployed, why don't you organize a dive bar pub crawl?

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