Thursday, March 20

I was up bright and early to go to No Worker Left Behind orientation at MiWorks. This was depressing. It brought back memories of the unemployment office from many years ago. It was the beginning of what promises to be tons of red tape. I have an appointment in April to discuss my "situation" with the advisor. NWLB is a program that will provide money for me to go back to school. But the adviser informed me it will not pay for my chosen degree program. I came home and researched a couple other schools and called Spring Arbor, my school of choice for my chosen degree program. SA said that some counties pay for it and some don't. We agreed this made little sense since it is a state program run with federal funds. I will wait and plead my case in April. It is too late for me to make this cycle at SA now.

Then I went to apply for unemployment benefits, armed with my letter, and was informed I have to wait until I am actually laid off before I can apply for benefits. See what I mean by red tape (a/k/a runaround). I looked through all the jobs available while I was there. There is one job that I think I could actually handle and it was a light bulb changer for Home Depot for $10 an hour. Sounds kinda fun. You drive to different stores, climb a big ladder and change bulbs.

On the way home, I thought I would stop at the library and apply for a library card. This is one of my plans to save money. I will borrow books instead of purchasing books. I usually only buy used books these days, but I thought of my huge Wish List on Amazon and realized I wouldn't put a dent in it anytime soon. And would I really want to own all of those books? Well, yes, I would, but I must be realistic. So while I am applying, I am thinking I could do some networking also. I know the librarian, love libraries (more geekiness showing though), and need to let people know I am willing to work part-time/temp work this summer. Well, before I know it we are spending the next 2 hours commiserating in the conference room about technology, schools, and lack of funding, and what is in store in the future. In the process I think I found a possible income generating job that might work for me. I will let you know more when I hammer out some details and get some more answers.

I hadn't eaten anything at this point and it was almost 1pm. I was shaky and felt blurry. I came home and had a protein ball and some cheese and sat down to go online to the library and order some books to check out. If your library doesn't have the book you want, you can request books from several other consortiums of libraries and have them delivered to your library for you. Once you have your card, you can log in and create a wish list and then order books. Like shopping without spending a dime.

Then it was time to get ready for Happy Hour at my parents. The guys were going to hunting camp and the girls were getting together to visit. Some people invited I had not seen in over a year. That was fun and we took lots of pictures.

When I finally came home around 10pm, I needed to wind down a little so I watched a previously recorded L&O and checked my email. I had an email from the Ugly Kitchen people indicating they had chosen a family and it would be announced on the news Friday evening. I wasn't surprised, but I was disappointed. Of course, I will have to follow their progress and live vicariously through them. Now I will have to check into rental costs for a reciprocating saw....that wall HAS to come down!