Unemployment Redux

Okay, it isn't fun any more.

I admit, it was kind of cool to be unemployed at first. I could sleep until whenever. I could walk around the house all day in my Guinness "lounge pants" (aka pajama bottoms) and a holey t-shirt. I could cruise craigslist any time I wanted. After more than thirty years of continuous employment, this was an extravagance, a luxury, a novelty.

But that got tiresome pretty quickly. Thus was born my current daily routine: rise early (the alarm is set for 6:30 a.m.), make coffee, take care of Jake's needs, get online, hit the jobsites, apply for anything new since the previous day, take a shower, get back to the computer. I spend at least 6 hours every day applying for or looking for employment.

I break up my week with trips to the library for DVD's (a practice that replaced my weekly trips to Best Buy to purchase the damn things) and to the Job Center to print resumes and fax them to places that don't accept online submissions.

I just want a job. It would be nice if it paid more than unemployment, but I can take a little less than that if it comes with medical benefits, of which I am currently bereft. My savings are gone, so frugality has taken on a whole new meaning. The bills are still getting paid... barely.

Unemployment teaches you who your real friends are. I have one friend who shared her bingo winnings with me. She also got me the BIG can of Tim Horton's coffee, just because I mentioned liking it. She's a gem. Other friends take me out for lunch or dinner, the only times I eat at restaurants now. Still others call or e-mail regularly and check on how I'm doing.

And then there are those who act like I have a disease. You know... being laid off might be contagious. Or I might ask them for something. (For the record, I never ask for help. I have gotten better at accepting if it's offered, but that is a very recent adaptation.) Or maybe they have some form of survivor's guilt. Whatever the case, I'll move on without them.

I keep thinking of this refrain from A Chorus Line:
Give me a job
and you instantly get me involved.
If you give me a job
then the rest of the crap will get solved.
Put me to work,
You would think that by now I'm allowed
I'll do you proud.

And yeah, I know how gay it is to quote a showtune in your blog. Like the gay faith healer says, "Get over it, Mary!"