I have not dropped off the face of the earth, merely been going through some difficult times. No, I did not manage to snag a job in January, although I came very close twice. I picked up some more work from friends in other states that I was able to do online, sold a few small things and fed myself almost entirely on food that my co-volunteer brought in for me (which meant a lot of trimming off mushy spots on fruit, peeling green skinned potatoes and steaming mushy vegetables to as to disguise their limpness and dousing them with hot sauce to hide the taste of rot – not that appetizing, but far superior to going hungry). Putting so much more effort into looking for work has made me not want to post anything on the blog. The weeks of rainy weather have not made it very pleasant to walk around and hand out resumes, either, adding to the malaise.
However, there have been bright spots from time to time. When the weather has been nice, oh how nice it has been. There’s nothing like getting to the top of a big hill and looking out across the City with patches of blue sky and ultra white puffy clouds drifting past. The air seems clean due to all the rain and the ornamental fruit trees have started to bloom. That has lifted my spirits when I’ve needed it most. A friend in L.A. who has been out of work for a long time as well emailed to tell me he finally found some work – at least one of us has. I’ve been reading books about the history of San Francisco, including a book on self-guided walking tours that gives a lot of history as well. I never knew there is a system of huge cisterns underneath the City to be used for putting out fast-spreading fires in the case of another major earthquake, did you?
Am I being realistic, maintaining optimism that I will find a job? While it would be easy enough to give up and wallow in self-pity until I get thrown out of my apartment, I keep thinking that it is going to work out, eventually. I’m not sure why. The job availability figures are still not good and there hasn’t been an increase in hiring around here that I can tell.
Tags: looking for work, no money, San Francisco, Unemployed, walking
