Choices

Timing is everything. At a time when we need to keep our bills as low as possible, our rent payments are going up by $150 a month. With no clue as to what the future will bring, signing a new year's lease is not wise anyway. Not signing and just waiting it out, doubles our rent to almost $3600 a month to stay here with out a year long lease. 

So, we are moving.

As we look to move again, the question of where is almost impossible to answer. Knowing that unemployment will not cover ANY monthly rent payments in this area, we are in a conundrum. With two girls in school and one working, moving to a random anywhere doesn't make much sense, either. 

So, the question is do we take the small severance check and bank it for 'what ifs'? Or, should we look into buying a cheap, and I do mean CHEAP, camping trailer to park in the local RV park?

Staying there is only $535 a month, leaving a bit of money for food and gas.

It seems to be a better option than four people living in a pickup truck.

There are some pretty nice trailers out there. 

This one comes with a washer and dryer, bedrooms and even a garage. 

https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/rvs/4589713784.html

Another one has two separate bedrooms. Ah, the luxury.

https://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/rvs/4601331288.html

But, what we can afford is not so great...

https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/rvs/4601986487.html

Still, when the choice is walls and beds or homelessness, we should consider ourselves lucky we still have choices we can make. 

Not everyone is as fortunate as us.

Sunshine and Clouds

April survey of about 60,000 households indicated that 73,000 Americans lost work last month, versus the gain of 288,000 in the establishment survey.

Report Shows Resurgence of Hiring but Has Downbeat Notes

I know that the Jobs Report is #GoodNews. Still, it is always hard to be excited about goods news for other people when those numbers emphasis a  prophetic future.

Being a visual person, I graphed out the job situation at the ol' work place. It did not make me feel any better.

Things are #NOT

 looking sunny in California!

“Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us”Samuel Smiles

“But it is a sort of April-weather life that we lead in this world. A little sunshine is generally the prelude to a storm.” 

William Cowper

“The road of life is filled with sunshine and clouds, black and white, triumphs and tragedies. As we continue down the road, we decide which things we bring with us, and which we leave in the rear-view mirror.”
Julie-Anne

“Some people seemed to get all sunshine, and some all shadow…” 

Louisa May Alcott

Lost Your Job...Now What? Revisited

Lost Your Job~~Now What?

You've just been thrown out into the wilderness without a map. The most difficult thing is knowing where to begin. With months of research and trial and error behind us, we have experience in forging the trail. Let us be your compass.

The following is a list of websites with useful information for the Job Search/Interview process, itself.

Just follow the links to the appropriate sites.

From the unemployment fairy

(from my other blog)

Get Ready to Get Out There

What Is The Longest Period Of Time That You Have Been Unemployed?

Now that you know what jobs match your skills and interests, it’s time to get out into the job market and make things happen. Our toolkit will help you prepare with proven tips that can help you perfect your resume, sharpen your interviewing skills and prepare for salary negotiations: Link

What You Should Never Put in an Introductory Email

It's never too early to make a bad impression.

A cover letter or introductory email is often the first thing a potential employer sees when reviewing a job applicant. It's the first opportunity to impress recruiters and hiring managers and, therefore, the first opportunity to disappoint them. Everything from copy mistakes to inappropriate jokes in a cover letter could derail an application. Link

Top 5 Tips for Creating Impressive Video Resumes 

In today’s highly competitive job market, creating the right video resume to accompany your traditional CV can make you stand out from the crowd. The wrong one, though, can make you a laughing stock. Link

Interviews

A collection of resources to help you ace interviews. Includes tips for successfully navigating job interviews, sample interview questions and answers, plus interview practice games that provide immediate feedback online. Link

Thank You Note Example - Follow Up With Information 

Thank you note example to use when you want to follow-up with the hiring manager and provide additional information about your candidacy that you wish you had mentioned at the interview. Link

Hope Floats

Today, I am going to edit through some of the old posts that have spelling and other punctuation issues. And then, there are those other things that seem right when I write them, but turn into a incomprehensible mess when I go back and read them later.


A couple helpful blog sites for those looking for employment help:

Help the 99ers

As a result of the continuing crisis in America's job market, some 1.5 million men and women are still actively seeking employment, even after exhausting the maximum of up to 99 weeks of state and Federal unemployment insurance benefits. At least 5.5 million Americans may have joined the ranks of the 99ers to date. These men and women, your family, friends and neighbors, need access to the same lifeline that the rest of the nation's unemployed have.

Unemployed but Organized for the 21st Century

Staying Positive.

A topic on the #99erAid Twitterchat a couple of weeks ago was ways to stay positive.  A positive mental attitude is essential for 99ers to survive. H.R. 589 would go a long way to helping with positive thoughts. A jobs creation bill would also be helpful.  Both items need to pass Congress, so 99ers must advocate for their passage. Political action alone can't maintain positivity, so long term unemployed need to focus on daily/weekly items to stay positive. In the course of preparing for my life beyond H.R. 589 and 99erhood, I have found two sites that will help maintain a daily positive outlook

A thistle grows by the Castle Wall.

Try to remember that when you find yourself at a new beginning. Just give hope a chance to float up.
And it will, too... 

More Lobser Dreams

Today, I got video proof that somewhere in the world, 

I still have #STUFF. 

A locker full of Christmas decorations, baby books and the random nick knacks that define our lives. All piled in the trashed out stacks of chaos by people who could care less about the memories those boxes contain.


Just days ago, we were, finally, planning our trip back across the country to gather up our belonging and bring them our to our #NewHome. 


Now, with our vacation planned in amongst the likely probability on #Joblessness by the New Year, the question hangs heavy. Do we move the remainder of our belongs out here? Then, we can sit in quiet desperation with familiar ghosts and goblins, snowmen and Santa statues.


As weeks and months pass, the likelihood of this locker being one of the first things we stop paying for is high.


Perhaps the thought that we can still bring our boxes out, means I have not quite given up. With 12 million people in this area, surely there are other jobs to be had.


In just over four weeks, we'll know for sure what happens to our lives.


That gives us another seven months to find a new amazing #CaliforniaJob. Almost as much time as it took to find this one. Surely not an #ImpossibleTask?

I still have the dream of Christmases with my tree in all it sparkling glory, set up again in my life time. Or smaller dreams of birthdays where my youngest girls get presents. Four years is way too long since they have celebrated with actual gifts.

The fact that they understand no gifts will come, makes me saddest of all. They live with the bits and piece we have left our our middle class life. Reminders that we once did alright, with the hope that we may one day be back there again.

Yes, these are more #LobsterDreams!

So, for now, I will plan to return to Minnesota and pack up my things to move them to my new home. I don't quite yet have to acknowledge I may need that moving money to live on, if fears become reality and reality stretches us to that point where we break.

Keep Trudging On

Last week marked our 2 1/2 year anniversary of moving to California. Thirty months in the Golden State and we still feel like newbies. Today, my husband is attending company meetings to discuss the 'future' of the IT department. Yes, for the third time in 2 1/2 years, they are downsizing IT.


Who downsizes IT in 2014? That would Mitt Romney, of course. Or, at least his old company, Bain Capital.

 So what is Bain Capital?

Glassdoor review:

“Bain Capital brought in to sell company once layoffs complete”

Contract Manager Power Procurement (Current Employee)

sssssssss, CA

I have been working at ssssssssssssssssssssssss full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – descent salary, excellent benefits plan

Cons – Highly political, laying off top performers and keeping dead weight in management levels, don't quit a job to join this company as there is no future here and you might be laid off even if you are a top performer unless you are in the good ole boys club

Advice to Senior Management – all political, useless meetings and powerpoint presentations, Bain Capital is going to sell you off so goodbye!
No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company ~~~

We still struggle to put space between us and that never absent trapdoor that threatens to open and drop us back into a pit we won't recover from. Others our age, at this same company, are looking at retirement as an option, as opposed to being laid off.


That is not even a slight possibly in our case.


Everything we had was lost to the Bush recession. Our home and all the equity that went with it was lost when we were forced to sell or lose it at the very bottom of the housing market crash. The retirement savings we had kept us alive during that same time.


Now, we barely make from paycheck to paycheck, while still trying to pay off bills that keep us going when everything crashed down upon us. If it happens again, there won't be any severance. Although, that was never anything we received anyway, thank to co-signing on student loans.


The government took it all because the kids weren't paying them, we couldn't pay them, and then they took the money we were supposed to live on.


Thoughts filter through my mind like flour through a sifter. Some lumps stay stuck forever in places I can no longer get to. I helplessly watch as my husband considers the harsh possibility of yet another job hunt in his mid fifties. The earthquakes around us seem metaphoric to our lives.

We spent the past few days cleaning, hiking through the desert, practicing Spanish. Last night the girls cooked dinner to a full blown acapella rendition of "Frozen". 

And for the first time in a year and a half, I got a new pair of shoes. So, I may soon be homeless, but at least I won't be left barefooted, as well. 

As we wait and wonder...AGAIN, what the fates have in store for our little family, we keep trudging on the best we can.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on,” Nick Fury


Avengers Nick Fury by JPRart

In the meantime, we take advantage of those things we can, like the perks of family working at Disneyland. Seeing Captain America is definitely one of them.

"In case it's unclear, if you try to escape, if you so much as scratch that glass...30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works? Ant. Boot," Nick Fury

Supply and Demand

Last night, on Facebook, that place I love to despise, 'friends' were discussing why the minimum wage should NOT be raised. And yes, these were, once again, the same people who post 'Praise God' in every other post.


Their argument consisted of " if people want more money, they need to go to school and get more

skills, first." Which is, of course, an entirely different argument, all together. Raising the minimum wage for EVERYONE in minimum wage jobs is not the same as an individual going to community college and taking a class in Poodle Shampooing 101 so they can earn 25¢ more an hour.


With an increase in the basic minimum wage, they will still have the opportunity to take Walking the Dog 326 (Or Wokking the Dog 326, for those culinary folks) to increase their job-ability, because suddenly they can AFFORD to go to Community College and EAT TOO!

Basic Economics 101: when people people make more, they spend more. When people buy more, stores sell more. Suddenly, stores have to hire more people~MORE people with jobs~to fill shelves, run cash registers, bag food (yes, they still do that out here in California). More, more, more people to SPEND $$money$$! 


The economy gets better.


What is missing in their argument? Save the 'Let's keep the Poor, Poor, so our life feels better than theirs' sentiment. What happens if EVERY SINGLE PERSON goes to college, to trade school, starts their own business? The better yourself argument only works, if you assume there will always be the gutter people...


Those throw away people who will work our late night McDonalds drive thru windows and stock the Vons supermarket shelves over night.


What happens if everyone betters themselves? No more Joes handing us our Venti mocha cappuccinos, our lattes with an extra shot of espresso and our vanilla bean scones at the local Starbucks on the corner? 


That slave labor class, that can't make enough to live on, while working full time, backbreaking, soul-sucking jobs, while you walk past them unnoticed on your way to your cushy desk job, will disappear.  

With all the 'skilled laborers' searching for not enough jobs in the market positions, the former minimum wage positions will be emptied. Instead of paying people livable wages to fill these jobs--that need to be done--employers will be paying the few ordinary Joes left, twice what educated Joe makes, to hand Educated Joe his latte. 

Supply and demand. 

Wouldn't it be better if, instead of seeing people as lazy, which is ridiculous. Or needing to improve themselves, which is the same. People just, finally, started seeing EVERYONE as a valuable part of our world.

Then the king will say to those at his right hand, "Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me." Matthew 25:34-36

To tithe or no to tithe

The guilt that is breed so completely into the most common of us Catholics, has not skipped me. So, breaching this topic, in particular, comes with that typical discomfort of taboo subjects. 

Philanthropy: The effort or inclination to increase the well-being of humankind, as by charitable aid or donations.

Telling people in a general call out to 'help your fellow man,' is much different than saying, "I did this and this and this, look at how great I am."
  
So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. Matthew 6:2 


So it goes with tithing to the Catholic church. The church has cute little envelopes with which the church tracked each parishioner's donations. I adamantly refused to use those envelopes. We used cash.


With totals published every week in the bulletin, it always felt more like a contest to me than anything else. Who is the most generous. Who will win a seat at the Holy Table of God? What I gave to the church was between me and God.
 
Now, when I hear someone say, "Our life is great because we give money to church," I hear trumpets go off. The implication that our life has suffered because we are not generous enough is incredibly condescending.


I try not to judge people, but when they judge me first, I think it is only fair to return the favor.

 Intrada by Henry Purcell.

 

Wall Art

As long as the trumpets are playing, we may as well dance to the music. ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪

My personal list of charity dos and don'ts...note the personal. When we were unemployed, broke and desperate, I promised myself that when we recovered , we would NEVER turn an individual down who asked for help. This is an interesting promise to keep.

1. The most difficult to keep has been people asking for money on the street, simply because I seldom carry cash. I few months ago, a friend on Facebook posted a picture of 'Homeless Bags' or Blessing Bags'. This has been an easy solution. Our family put to together a few 'bags' and carry them in a small plastic container in our car. The following are a couple of links to different types. 

Blessing Bags for the Homeless  

Pack A Care Kit 

Caring Bags For The Homeless 

Making goody bags

Blessing Bags for the Homeless

A couple of things to know. Our bags cost a bit over $10 each to put together. Water bottles seem to be the most appreciated thing of everything we put in bag. Otherwise, we have used the type things listed on most sites, gallon ziplock bags, deodorant, toothpaste & brush, small snacks, antibacterial lotion.The first time we made the bags, we created man or woman specific bags. I would not do that again.

2. We live in California. It is always HOT. Giving money to the people collecting for the Homeless Vets is always appreciated. As is a cold bottle of water or coke for the person collecting money. 

3. People spinning signs for 8 hours on the corners of the road also appreciate cold drinks.

4. Little kids selling suckers or candy canes in parking lots will happily take a dollar or two, even if you let them keep the candy.

Enough of this.

See people one by one, as people.

I vote 'YES' to raise taxes for the arts. 

I am willing to pay more so someone else can see the doctor. I also know it is easier to give away money I never actually see. I would RATHER have the stuff that money could buy, TOO. 

The understanding that a few more dollars in my pocket won't change my life, but knowing it could make all the difference to someone else, makes it an easy choice for me. 

Finally, do I think anything above makes me a better or more deserving person than you or you or you. NO.

I don't want trumpets or accolades. I just wish people would help one another, because it is the right thing to do.

 ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪  Music off....