I have been hot on the admin job search the last week or so. Since I’m in college, I think that I have a certain amount of skills to offer a new employer, but need some experience to get me going. I have updated my resume so that it’s hot, hot, hot and my cover letter skills have significantly improved. Except, well, I’m pretty sure no one’s hiring right now. Or they’re hiring people that are way more qualified than me.

There have been a lot more layoffs in this area. Mostly it’s been factories, but factories have administrative personnel so that means those people are laid off too. And they have the experience in their field that others are looking for—especially those that are looking for temporary workers. It’s a little disconcerting competing for a job when you don’t have the real experience for it. But I’m determined and I refuse to give up. If all else fails I can do another sort of telemarketing. Or work in one of the nursing homes. I would prefer to do neither of those things, but if there’s nothing else what choice do I have?

The part that really gets under my skin right now, and I know it shouldn’t, is that I don’t have enough time to pursue my other goals of writing and working from home. I have to be out in the brick and mortar world find work that is guaranteed to bring in some money. Unfortunately, I can’t find the guarantee online right now. Sure I’m making some money, and every single penny helps, but I’m not making my goal so that I won’t have to go out into the B&M world. That’s a little frustrating. Of course, I guess if I’d have taken more time to hone my skills earlier—instead of getting wrapped up in things—I would probably be doing all right for myself. So, that gets put on the back burner right now. I’m keeping my eyes open for any opportunities, though. And I’m keeping a hand-written account of anything I’ve found and what I’ve done to improve my skills for that ultimate goal. I feel like that’s about the best I can do right now with what’s going on in my life. I wish I could do more and I wish I would have done more but life is what it is at the moment.

There’s a question at the Mom Blogger Club about what our husbands or SOs think of our blogging. I said that mine thinks it’s a waste of time. And that’s true. Unless I’m getting some money for it. Then he makes sure that I’m not interrupted and I have plenty of time to finish a thought. That’s not too very often though.

I’m a little envious of the ladies who said that their husbands (or SOs, I guess) are completely supportive of their blogging endeavors. I think the only time Grump said anything positive about my time online was when I was able to pay the car insurance with what I made. Then, of course, he was thrilled. Usually, though, I just hear a bunch of moaning about how all my time is given to my “hobby”.

I can’t wait when I’ll be able to open my money account and pay all the bills before he even gets a chance to see them. That will be a happy day for us both. I’ll be contributing a lot more and he’ll have more money which equals more “Happy Husband”. That’s another one of my goals, I guess. Add it to the list. Damned list seems to be growing and nothing is getting crossed off.

I blame Twitter.

P.S.
It completely annoys me that every time I post, WP thinks I want the article title to be the date. No, WP, I want to put something in there. STOP saving the date instead. ARGH.

While I was sitting here dreaming of luxurious leather office chairs, our President was vetoing a farm bill that would expand nutrition programs by $10.3 billion over the next 10 years. If there was ever a bipartisan agreement to pass one bill since Bush was elected 7 years ago, this was it.

The Senate approved the bill 81-15 on May 15, a day after it was passed by the House 318-106. The votes were well above the two-thirds majorities needed to override a veto.

Luckily, Congress is planning to override the veto.

Ignoring inflation and rising fuel prices Bush’s objections to the bill were:

the bill also distorts trade and subsidizes farmers at a time of record crop prices. He said it fails to reduce subsidies for growers of sugar, cotton and other crops or place adequate limits on payments to wealthy farmers.

The bill is highly popular because almost 75% of the monies allocated would go to needy families who are trying to buy food. The subsidies Bush so vehemently opposes would take up all of 16% of the allocated funds.

I live in a largely rural community in Appalachia (Southeastern Ohio) and many of my family members live on farms. Farms that are barely getting by. But even more so, I know many families that rely on some form of government aid to put food on the table. The unemployment rate in this area is astronomical and the majority of the population is poverty stricken. A big issue in my community is NAFTA and jobs being sent overseas. Too many factories have left this area, which means that homes are being lost and kids are going hungry¹. While the President (and John McCain) dine on gourmet food prepared by exclusive chefs (Elite?) people in my area are eating hamburger gravy over white bread.

I mention the Republican Presidential Nominee John McCain here because he opposes the bill too. I know, you’re shocked. But this man would rather the money not go to the poor families because, no doubt, they should be getting out and finding gainful employment. $7.50 an hour at Wal-Mart or McDonald’s isn’t going to cut it for a lot of these folks. They need the help and this bill can give it to them. I just cannot believe this bill gets so much support from both sides (the Democratic candidates both support it, by the way) of the aisle and he still gives comfort to his lobbyist friends.

I’ll be glad when this administration moves out. We can only go up from here.

1. This is also why Clinton and Obama pandered that nonsense here.