Unemployment Diary: Uncle!!!

"It's snowing still," said Eeyore gloomily.
"So it is."
"And freezing."
"Is it?"
"Yes," said Eeyore.
"However," he said, brightening up a little, "we haven't had an earthquake lately."

I'll be honest with you. I considered not writing because how much more can I say on this subject without sprouting long ears and a pinned tail from my backside?

This is distressing because I never identified with Eeyore before.  I see myself as a charming melange of Tigger's exuberance and Pooh's steady cheerfulness with dashes of equal parts Piglet's anxieties and Rabbit's control issues and clenched anus.

The word dash is subject to interpretation.  The word anus is not.

But now, I need a bow for my tail because I am Eeyore.

As Monday comes to a close, I should be writing to tell you how things were resolved regarding the unemployment issue, but resolution is postponed.  What couldn't be addressed over the phone on Friday because of "privacy" issues, couldn't be dealt with today because of five inches of snow otherwise known as a weather emergency here in Georgia.

School closings were announced last night in anticipation of inclement weather.

Inclement weather sounds like your kindly great uncle with those owlish glasses and loose dentures.  This was more like a weather rave with a light show, thumping music and confetti falling into your hair and making it hard to see. The snow started lightly around 9:00, and by midnight, everything was sparkling white.  The brightest lightening I've ever seen streaked across the sky seconds before thunder rumbled around us causing the house to shake.

Georgia is not prepared for this kind of weather.  We don't experience it often enough to invest in snow removal equipment and material.  The way the economy is now, the state can't even afford to mow the sides of the road or pick up debris so when snow that wouldn't be considered significant in other places, better prepared places, falls here, we know what comes next.

Snow day!!!!

Although in this case, it means snow days.  Plural.  School has already been cancelled for tomorrow, as well.  And while this is fabulous news from the Yay, we can sleep in and do snowy things and drink hot chocolate standpoint, it caused me nail-chewing anxiety this morning as I phoned the Department of Labor to find out if the office was open.

You can guess the rest.

In the grand scheme of things, however, it's only money.  It's not life or death.  The world is full of horrors and tragedy. This is not a horror or tragedy.  It's snow and inconvenience and stress that will pass and be replaced with a good day followed by other good days and occasional bad days.

And every one of those days is a chance to be better, to be Pooh and Tigger and yes, Piglet and Rabbit.

"No Give and Take. No Exchange of Thought. It gets you nowhere, particularly if the other person's tail is only just in sight for the second half of the conversation."

Eeyore from "The House at Pooh Corner" by A. A. Milne

How do you pull yourself out of the tailspin?  Do you make up backstories for well-known characters?  You know.  Like Pooh smoked weed,   Tigger's energy came from a raging coke habit that he supported by bouncing in alleys for money,  Piglet popped Xanax like candy, Rabbit was a gambler and occasional huffer of cleaning supplies and Eeyore?  A total wino. Of course. 

Thanks for Rubbing It In, Bing Crosby

Yeah, well, not if you don't pay your gas bill....

Yesterday was one of those days.

The money noose tightened.  We got the gas turned back on so it's not all bad.  You know, if I had to choose though (and the last three weeks have been an "experiment,") I'd rather go without gas than water.  Just sayin.')

As a result of the continued money issues, I've expanded my job search quite a bit outside the field I'd worked in for nearly twenty years.  Whatever it takes....

Using the online form from the Georgia Department of Labor, I tried to apply for a job which is considerably lower on the food chain from whence I came. It sounded like an interesting job in a different kind of setting, so why not apply?  The skills I've acquired over my twenty years in not-for-profit and association management are highly transferable and fit the job description - administrative, communications, coordination, working with people, etc. 

The Dept. of Labor denied my request for a referral.  Wanna know why?  I don't have the required six months of experience in academia.  You know, because admin jobs are soooooooo different from one field to the next.  You pretty much use your skills to do what other people ask you and voila!  Job done.  I mean, even when I was the head of the organization, that was basically what I did.  I made recommendations to the Board of Directors, they blessed it as was or complicated it and then I did the tasks to complete the job.  Sometimes a volunteer came in and helped, most times not.

So I think I could handle this job working for a junior college.  Coordinating a couple of student programs doesn't seem so far out of my realm that the learning curve should be unreasonable. We wonder why people are out of work.  Six months required experience is arbitrary at best.  It occurred to me later, of course, that it may have been a situation where they had to post the job, but already had someone lined up for it.  Ah, well.  I'll keep looking.

In the meantime, I decided to give up the fantasy of publishing a book.  A complete waste of time.  I have no talent, blah, blah, blah.  MathMan was on the receiving end of this bout of self-pity and doubt.  I love that man for putting up with me, I really do.  He sent me a couple of positive thinking texts and came home prepared to give me a stern talking to about my attitude.  He walked into the bedroom and was shocked to see me smiling.

He did a double take.  "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing, why?"

He gave me one of those looks.  Nothing is such a dangerous word...

"Oh, this?"  I pointed at my grin.  "I decided to stop worrying.  Worry or not, doesn't change a thing."

While I was in the shower getting ready to go to Sophia's 5th grade graduation ceremony (hello, contrived sentimentality!) I could hear MathMan rifling through my bedside stand looking for whatever I'd taken to alter my mood.

My mood change really was a combination of his attempts to buoy my flagging spirits and an hour and half of thinking time as I pushed the back and forth across the slope that is our back yard.

Later we sat reading our books while we waited for the graduation ceremony to start.  I'm reading A.A. Milne's The Red House Mystery.  He's not all Pooh, you know.  "Oh my god," I whispered to MathMan.  "I'm losing my mind.  I realize as I read this, I'm editing A.A. Milne.  See here, he doesn't need that was...." I pointed to the words on the page.

MathMan just shook his head in that way he has when he realizes yet again that he's chosen to spend his life with a needy lunatic.  "And you say you're not a writer........"