Your Unemployed Daughter

photo credit: Imran…

A quick donation request: I know you were about to donate to me, all of you wildly generous people, but instead, donate to Haiti, okay? You’ve all heard about the earthquake, right? Well, a donation is as easy as texting 90999 on your cell and writing “HAITI” in the text message. The phone co. will add 10 bucks to your cell phone bill, and God knows that thing is so high you’ll never even notice. I just did it, and it was easy-breezy-peasy. I also hear you can donate through your Amazon one-click capability on the Red Cross website. Anyone done that?

Or, check out the White House blog for other donation options. Because as bad as the unemployed may have it, I dare say the poor people in Haiti have it quite a bit worse right now.

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photo credit: hartboy

Rarely is it, since I was laid off in May, that I have to do something so icky, so inauthentic and against my nature that my skin crawls and I have the urgent need to shower vigorously using high-potency Dr. Bronner’s peppermint soap.

YUD’s conundrum is thus: She was offered a high-paying part-time gig with a certain client that does rather yucky, corporate things. The stars were in her eyes a little bit, as the figure quoted included two zeroes per hour. She thought, I can do anything for two zeroes per hour!

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photo credit: Olga Díez (Caliope)

I know, I know, I know. I have been remiss. The blog gods are angry. And all I feel is … ashamed.

For one thing, I said yes to too many things. And if unemployment has taught me anything (and, yes, it’s taught me a lot) it is that LIFE IS PRECIOUS. And I don’t mean baby-in-your-tummy life, I mean, life outside of work.

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photo credit: Keraoc

Today, I am reminded of something. The blissful waves of the 4-day weekend have washed from me, and I am suddenly staring stark in the face of something. Something bad.

Despite the frequency with which I scan job postings, send resumes, and, the past week at least, go into an office for freelance work, there is this problem I have.

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© Denny Renshaw

The most job-depressing quote of the day comes from Judy Putnam, spokeswoman for the Michigan League for Human Services, in an interview with the Huffington Post. Optimism “hasn’t been a problem in Michigan,” she says. “There were no signs of hope in our numbers.”

Poor Michigan! It’s cold up there! And now the jobless rate is at 14.1%, “a distinction the state has held for 25 of the last 26 months.”

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