Tags


The title really says it all.  I would have made it a size-70 font if I could have, because I just don’t think capital letters does justice to the raw, abundant energy with which I want to make that point perfectly clear.

Back in April, I was essentially run out of Arizona by the horrible housing market (rent for your average just-above-ghetto apartment was going for more than your average 4-bedroom-house mortgage, thanks to everyone dumping their homes).  I said good-bye to a job I loved, and have regretted it ever since.

Here we are, the 13th of July.  I have put in about 15 to 35 applications a day to various businesses across every conceivable industry.  I have received ONE interview, for type-setting, but that failed to produce a job.

I’m going stir-crazy.  And I live in the country — nothing but pine trees and copperheads and alligators chillin’ in the front yard and the sounds of the neighbors shooting all the actual pretty wildlife into oblivion, locked away in a 2-bedroom trailor with six dogs, two cats, and my parents whom I do not always get along with.  It could be worse (right?). 

Of course, there is the unbearable reality that if I were offered a job, there is very little real incentive for me to take it.  You see, most of the jobs out here that I’ve found want to skirt by paying at most 8 dollars an hour (which I guess is an improvement over the 5.15/hr rate in 2006), and many do not want to give you shifts longer than 4 hours at a time.  Now, I’m not greedy or anything, but my little town has the unfortunate property of being completely boxed in — a lake to the east and south, an enormous army ammunitions plant to the north, and an even bigger airforce bace to the west.  This essentially means that to get to a job that may be 20 miles away as the crow flies, I’m looking at a 1.5+ hour commute crawling AROUND these features.  In summer.  With a small SUV.  By the time I’ve paid for my gas to get there and home again, I’ve probably earned a negative income that I now owe taxes on.

Oh, but Sarah!  Why do you not apply for unemployment?  Or food stamps?  Or SOMETHING?

Well, you see, the local government has decided that, with my 8 dollars total and no income and surmounting debts (approximately $2,100/mo + interest), I do not actually qualify for any form of hardship.  Why?  I have no idea — but if I’m in such good shape, then I suppose this state really does have some issues it needs to work out.  Not to mention that the second you start looking for help, you’ve become an worthless ingrate who just wants to live off the teat of society in the eyes of Every Republican Everywhere.

But you could MOVE!

Why, yes, I suppose I could.  If 8 dollars could move you.

I know it’s not constructive, or even slightly informative — but I needed to rant.  And it felt good.