Went to my first job interview since I started my adventures in unemployment. Aced it. They want me. I’m hired. I start tomorrow morning. Kidding. It was an interview for a state job; the state doesn’t work that fast.
I totally aced the tests I took yesterday at Job Center of Wisconsin. The counselors I was required to see there if I wanted to continue to receive unemployment benefits, and I really do so long as I’m unemployed, strongly suggested that I should take a series of tests, called Work Keys, to receive a certification telling potential employers I’m so very smart that they should hire me. Since I’m not all that smart, I figured a certificate saying I was could be a big help. Certainly couldn’t hurt, anyway.
I totally chickened out today. When I stepped out with My Darling B to the car this morning we could both tell it was going to be another day hot and humid enough to boil the most hale and hearty person until he’s limp and stinky as spaghetti with a double helping of garlic pesto, so as soon as I got back home I closed up all the windows, drew the blinds, turned on the air conditioning and retreated to the cool, cave-like confines of my basement lair.
Eleanor Roosevelt used to write a daily newspaper column called My Day. I’ve read the ones that were considered interesting enough to compile and print in a book (imaginatively titled My Day) and they’re about what you’d get if you went to any random blog, adjusting for the fact that Eleanor lived in the White House and was married to FDR. She didn’t let that prevent her from writing about utterly mundane things.
I attended a meeting of the newly-unemployed today where I nodded when the speaker appeared to pause for effect, spent a lot of time pouring over the many brightly-colored handouts they gave us, and whenever the PowerPoint slide had the phrase “show of hands” on it anywhere, I raised my hand. Non-participation could mean ineligibility for benefits, so I was one hyper-participating mofo.
Okay, I admit it: I’m getting restless. I’ve been unemployed for three weeks now and it’s making me antsy, BUT IT’S NOT BECAUSE I DON’T WANT TO STAY AT HOME READING BOOKS, PETTING THE CAT AND WRITING DRIVEL ALL DAY. I hope we’re straight on that. I’ve always said I don’t understand people who say …
I had to call the Department of Workforce Development on the phone after filing my initial claim for unemployment benefits because I ticked the “No” box after the question, “Did you look for work during the week?” Bells rang, lights flashed and a page with lots of red-letter warnings, all in capital letters, told me …
It’s easier to find an image of a dandelion on the internet … no, wait: It’s easier to find more than 2,010,000 images of a dandelion on the internet than it is to answer this question: Do I have to declare my military pension when filing for my unemployment benefits? I know, because I’ve spent …
Let the four-day weekend begin! Oh, wait … I’m unemployed, so it’s really more like an indefinite weekend. Well, whatever. I applied for unemployment first thing yesterday morning … or rather, it was first thing after doinking around on the internet for an hour, because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do it until …
Today is the first day of my last week at the bank! I’m still debating myself as to whether that’s a good thing or a very, very bad thing. When I reminisce about the adventure we went on after I retired from the Air Force (exactly five years ago at the end of this month!) …