Overwhelmingly crowded with young, old, and in between. The same was true at Starbucks and Trader Joes. In an attempt to beat the after-work rush, I've instead found others like myself: Day-Walkers. Not vampires who can somehow withstand sunlight (and honestly, can we stop with all the goddamn vampires?). These Day-Walkers are the unemployed, the retired, the confused, rich, weird, scheming, and lost. Good people; mostly.
While you're at the office, we're at coffee shops; on laptops and iPhones, guzzling skinny hazelnut lattes and chasing dreams, ours or someone else's.
Waiting in the "Express Line" at Trader Joes, behind 7 people, various size and age, I wondered: Who the fuck are these people?
Is this mid-day line a product of the recession and downsizing? And if so, how do they have the means to be shopping here? How do I? Are we all sucking from the government's miraculous tit?
Unemployment, or Funemployment depending on your current situation, is floating myself and around 2 million others in California alone. I should say more than floating. I know for fact I'm making significantly more for doing nothing than a friend at a talent agency does for almost 60 hours a week. Floating indeed.
It is my life-vest, my safety net, and my enabler. Like a drug with no side-effects, we binge hard on it, pushing the knowledge of its inevitable finality to the farthest recesses of our brains. We sleep, we relax, we eat when we want, and we save on gas, all the while "looking" for new jobs. But who wants to work? After months of making your own schedule, writing, reading, exercising on your own terms, the thought of any kind of structure or labor for others is a staggering notion.
Staggering, but necessary.
Senate Republicans, and even one Democrat (Ben Nelson, Nebraska), voted against the fed extension in June, immediately suspending all benefits to millions of Americans. It was a terrifying moment which lasted about a month. No more checks? What about rent next month? Why? When? How? FUCK.
The suddenness of the benefits ending sucked for me and was probably tragic for many. I wonder the depths I would've sunk to if not for the genius and prolific financial investment of my parents 13 years ago, which kept my head above water until the Senate re-adjourned and promptly removed their heads from their asses.
Having said all of this, I do believe there is some truth to their concerns. Extending unemployment was necessary, but it's also crippling to the same poor bastards it's saving. It allows our job-hunting to be more selective than "I just need a paycheck." For this, I'm forever thankful. But one thing's for sure: when those sweet-ass checks stopped coming, my search expanded. I was desperate, I was motivated, and I was willing to do anything for a salary.
Luckily I found one Bartending at a restaurant which will almost certainly go belly-up by the end of the year, but at least it provided some help in the mean time. Point being, when I needed a job, absolutely HAD to have an income, it became my only priority.
The current maximum time for collecting benefits is 99 weeks. To the out of work, the scared, the happy, the lazy, the unlucky, I say this: enjoy it while it lasts. Some day we will all look back on this confusing moment in our lives and, hopefully, we will laugh.
No comments:
Post a Comment