A Working Class Hero Is Something To Be

• Yesterday, I found that my sheer dread and subsequent avoidance of going to the unemployment office could really be the spark that lights a creative fire. I did two freelance jobs, wrote lyrics for 3 different songs and worked on melody for 2. It was a much needed release. I love how you go into auto-pilot mode when you're working on a creative project. So focused, and yet not really focusing at all, like you're taking it in through your peripheral. I feel lucky when it comes, because when it's not there for a while, sometimes I think I'll never get it back. It's like trying to harness air. 

• Money is tight, with a capital "T". Collecting unemployment is a pain in the ass. Delays, questions, delays. I'm finding one of the key differences between KY and IN is that in IN, when you apply for your weekly check, you must list 3 places you've applied for work and say what happened, like "no response" or "didn't get the job." In KY, you apply bi-weekly, answer a series of yes/no questions and you're done. For 6 weeks. Then you have to go into the unemployment office to show them your work in looking for a job. Going to the unemployment office is worse than the DMV. By far. The first time I went, I drew number 98. They were on number 86. It took 3 hours. The second time I went, I was there for 2 hours. They say to be there by 3 pm at the latest, in order to be seen. They close at 4:30, so I came a little later this time, in hopes to minimize my wait. By the time I was seen, it was dangerously close to 4:30 pm, as the woman was so kind enough to point out. She gets to go home from her job at 4:30, sharp. Clearly, she's not going to be late for that on account of my broke ass. Anyway, if the two of us could just not keep getting our pay periods interrupted, we could actually stop putting things like groceries on our credit cards.

• My friend S. said when she went to prove she'd been looking for a job a few weeks ago, the line was around the block, and both the news crews and military recruiters were there. As if being unemployed and making a trip to the Land of The Depressed & Jobless isn't bad enough. We have to create a spectacle. It is a spectacle though; look at how high the unemployment rate is. Shit, just talk to your friends. I don't have to tell you. We all know somebody who's jobless at the moment. Anyway, despite the judge-y tone of the clerk, there is nothing to be ashamed about. But you're still at their mercy, and that's a shitty place to be. I was so close to telling off the woman at the unemployment office in New Albany when I went to keep B company. She looked up his claim and said in a scathing tone, "You're just now coming in?" Well, maybe if your effing website was worth a squirt of piss, we'd have figured out what we needed to do. 

• On this same trip to the New Albany Work One office, I heard a woman complaining to the judge-y clerk that she had to cancel her cable. The clerk got all defensive and said, "I don't have cable! I don't have money either!" This is what people have been reduced to, a pissing contest about who's the brokest.

• All the inconvenience aside, winter has been a lovely time to be unemployed. There's nothing I enjoy more than holing up in my house when it's cold out. There is plenty of stuff to do here; I'm not the least bit bored. I do get restless if I don't get out of the house from time to time, and unfortunately, that is often commensurate with the state of our finances.

• I've been going to this awesome video store a lot lately. There have been several days where this is the only trip I make out of the house all day. Last night I discovered an entire section of live music dvds. I'm a goner.