state of the onion - books, jobs, ARRRGHH!

[vulgarweed]

Current reading obsession: Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files.

At the bus stop a couple days ago, a woman stared at me and squee'd with a look of recognition, and I'm thinking, like, "do I know you?" and it wasn't me she was squeaking at, but the book (Summer Knight, book 4). "I'm on Book 9" she said, and I said, "NO SPOILERS!" and she said, "Oh no. But you'll love it."


I want to recommend this EXCELLENT post by mofic: Talking to the Long-Term Unemployed: a Few Suggestions. Nowadays, I bet just about everyone knows someone in the this category. This post is excellent because it addresses a lot of the emotional aspects of unemployment and how it affects people socially--there is such awkwardness around matters of income and class status in our society, so much internalized shame and unconscious judgment, so much uneasiness concerning depression and despair especially as related to the cult of positive-thinking in the conventional wisdom about job-hunting, so much dread of imposing-on-friends and wanting-to-help-but-being-unable-to-fix-it, etcetera, that it's a real minefield. Please read this post.

(I am sort of reluctant to say I feel a lot of this applies to me, because I am not "unemployed" per se; in fact, I have two jobs, but neither is full-time, neither has benefits, and neither pays particularly well, so I still feel like I'm struggling and my position is very tenuous and I am looking for a full-time position, so still getting the rejections. But emotionally this post really hit home for me in a lot of ways.)

Comments

[shadowvalkyrie.livejournal.com]

At the bus stop a couple days ago, a woman stared at me and squee'd with a look of recognition, and I'm thinking, like, "do I know you?" and it wasn't me she was squeaking at, but the book (Summer Knight, book 4). "I'm on Book 9" she said, and I said, "NO SPOILERS!" and she said, "Oh no. But you'll love it."

Oh, I love connecting to people over books -- even ten-second episodes like this can totally make my day. ":-D A shame this happens so rarely.

Re: unemployment. Yeah, not looking forward to that one. ":-(

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was really cool. :D (I think the odds are increased with this particular series, because it's set in the city Fellow Fan and I live in.)

((hugs)). It blows, it really does. You know what really helps me? An honest acknowledgment that it blows, free of pollyannism or reminders that so many others have it so much worse.