Life, or Something Like It

OK, this will be a mishmash of completely random updates, cuz it's 2:35 a.m. EST and I can't sleep, but I'm really tired, so therefore... I'm not at my most eloquent or coherent, LOL! Anyway, here's a general update:

I am still unemployed. Still have not even gotten an INTERVIEW yet with a real employer... Still registered with five headhunters, who are all telling me to be patient, something will come along. Still sending out oodles of resumes daily... and networking, schmoozing, etc. Friday I had to go to a mandatory "Unemployment Orientation" thingy... it was essentially a two-hour lecture on How To Find a Job. Most stuff I already knew, but I did glean some really good tips on jazzing up my resume and making it more loveable to employers, LOL. A bit of a format change, highlighting accomplishments a bit more, weeding out some extranneous information, yadda yadda yadda. So, I'm working on revamping the res. a bit and see if that helps any. I'm also seriously considering trying to find some form of training for a career change ~ being a legal secretary can pay great, and there's tons of lawyers in the universe...but it seems that right now in the ATL area, the market is glutted with out-of-work secretaries and paralegals. But there isn't anything I could get training for fast enough, that would even come close to what I theoretically could make as a secretary... once I find a job again, lol.


Hubby was working two part-time, low-wage jobs, 7 days a week between the two of them. With my unemployment, and his two jobs... we were just over the limit to get food stamps or medicaid. Seriously. How sucky is that??? Esp. considering, I'm not gonna be unemployed FOREVER....SOMEWHERE in ATL or surrounding area, there's a lawyer or two that needs a secretary! I'm starting to think that it might really be true that nothing will open up before New Year's. But we'll see. Anyway, the point is, we'd only need the help for a couple months, maybe 3 at most... but even unemployed, we make too much...even tho we make almost nothing. To make things even more cheerful... the day I got home from the unemployment seminar, hubby advised me that his two jobs have cut his hours... Lowe's, he's only allowed to work up to ten hours (cuz they cut ALL employee's hours by like half), and the pest control company he's working for, well, this is their slow season, and so hubby is only needed for the occasional sales call, one, maybe two days a week. So while I was feeling ok about possibly being able to pay the mortgage next month (or most of it, at least ), between his two jobs, my unemployment, and eating realllly cheap...now, not so much, since those checks are gonna be almost nothing. Even more of nothing than they were before.. or should that be, less of nothing? LOL! I was able to pay the car payments this month (before his hours were cut, as murphy's law would dictate), which is good, they wont' get repoed now, lol.

Fun times, huh? Oh well... us and 999,000 or so other Americans are in this same boat at the moment.. This Too Shall Pass!

Enough whining - on to the bright side! Saturday was the last day of Operation Love From Home's annual Christmas Card Drive for the Troops (see www.OperationLoveFromHome.org). While we fell short of the 50,000-card goal this year (thanx in large part, I believe, to the economy...folks just plain don't have the $$ to buy and ship cards to us), we have raised at least 10,000 cards for sure -- and I think by the time we ship on December 1, we'll hit 15,000 or even more. Cards always pour in during the days following the deadline... that's just the way it goes, lol. That 15,000 or more just a guess on my part... final totals will be announced once we know what they are. :) Last year we shipped well over 27,000 holiday cards in December... so while the 10-15,000 mark is disappointing, still, though - that's 10,000 to 15,000 more SMILES on our Troops' faces than if we had done nothing at all. And THAT'S the important thing. :) Next year will be better... and if things still suck next year, well, no biggie...we'll just carry on and send as many smiles to as many deployed Heroes as possible. We'll just press on and keep on workin' to make our troops' days a bit brighter, however we can.

Anyway, today we (me and the other Board members and some volunteers extraordinaire) set up a table outside the door of our local Walmart to get folks to sign cards for the troops. (And OMG it was freaking FREEZING out there today!!!) I don't know what our final total from today was, they are still being read and counted, but we got a LOT. And also a good bit of postage donations. (This is one thing that is a huge relief to me about becoming a non-profit corporation... the other years, I did this as an individual with community support...so guess whose pocket the postage (or any postage shortfalls) came out of? This year (the year I am literally broke), I don't have to worry about that... the corp. should have enough in the the account to ship our cards and candy canes and such (knock on wood) without me having to stress over it this year. :-) Cuz if it depended on me this year? Um, yeah... we'd have a warehouse fulla cards going nowhere.) So, God is good...it all worked out just fine, becoming a non-profit just a few months prior to everything in my world going downhill, LOL. And truthfully, if it wasn't for three of my dearest friends who are on the Board of Directors with me, I don't know how successful this year woulda been. Between my knee surgery, bronchitis, job searching, and various and sundry crises, LOL - I could NOT have done anything this year, not by myself, on my own. They were (and are) a huge GODSEND, attending events when I couldn't, doing radio interviews, seeking out donations, putting out card-collection boxes around the local community, the works! Heck, they even arranged weeks of dinners for me and the family when I had my knee surgery and couldn't walk or stand for a month following! Yep, God is good, and His blessings are many. :)


Hmmmm.... I guess that's about it for now. I'm really tired and should probably at least try to sleep, LOL! Y'all have a great sunday, and remember to give thanks for everything... 'tis the season, and we have MUCH to be grateful for. :)

Hugs and love to y'all!