Rant #2,529: Welcome To My Nightmare

Yes, I overslept again.

It seems that Thursday is my day to oversleep.

I have yet to figure out why that is, but it is what it is.

I did have a dream last night, or perhaps it was a nightmare. I still cannot figure it out.

I dreamt that my family and I had clothes in the washing machine and in the dryer, but the main focus of the dream was what was happening in the dryer.

The clothes were turning as they normally would, but the lint filter kept on tumbling out of is place inside the dryer, necessitating me to open the dryer and put it back in where it should be.

The problem was that it kept on tumbling out of that area, and I had to sit and watch it and put the lint filter back in every time it fell out.

It was also affecting the wash in the washing machine, which almost instinctively would not finish until the dryer's load was completed, which, because of the problem with the lint filter, was taking forever to accomplish, and it never did in this dream.

Compounding matters is that the entire wash was being done as a prelude to a cruise my family and I were soon taking, and we needed the clothes done ASAP so we could leave and board the ship.

I have no idea what this dream means--any dreamologists out there have any ideas?--but again, it is probably somehow linked up with my employment status, which is currently unemployment.

Maybe it alludes to the fact that even though I am doing everything right in my job search, the wheels keep on falling off my cart, and even when I put them back on where they should be, they just fall off anyway.

The end result of my due diligence should be a new job--equal to the cruise in the dream--but as in the dream, getting to that point appears to be elusive.

(And as an aside to all of this, I just did the laundry for myself and my family yesterday morning in between looking for jobs.)

I might have mentioned, or I might not have, that for the very first time, I actually had to take a "test" as part of my application for a particular job. That happened late last week, and to sum it up, I had to write up some ad copy related to a nutritional supplement.

It was challenging, fun in its own way, and although I thought it would take longer to do than it actually did, it was something that at least gave me hope, that my resume did catch the eye of someone at this particular company, they thought I had a chance, and they gave me one.

Whether it is good enough to attain the particular job--or at the very least a followup interview--is another story, but at least it gave me hope, and proved that at least some people are actually doing what they are supposed to do in the employment process, which is to actually look at my resume.

Wow! What a concept!

So today after I finish writing up this Rant, I will go on the job boards again, go into Linked In for who knows what reason, and see what is around for me to apply for.

On Friday, I have been "ordered"--my word--to appear at the local Job Office, so I can prove that I am actually doing what I am doing, which is looking for a job.

It is all so demeaning, in particular when they ask you to look for and apply to three jobs per week, and I apply for three jobs per day, sometimes per minute.

Yes, it is demeaning, but nothing as demeaning as I went through some 30 years ago while I was going through my divorce.

I lost my job right in the middle of the proceedings, a job, like the last one I lost, that I had had for a good amount of time but was lost because the company I worked for at the time was going out of business (they laid me off probably two months before they went under, if even that long).

Anyway, in those pre-Internet days, you went to the newspapers--particularly for me, the New York Times--and you searched for work, in particular on Sunday, when they ran the big job section. You would find a job that looked appealing, and sit by the phone and start making calls on Monday morning, and you could literally set up your week doing this.

Some of the jobs required sending out your resume and cover letter to a P.O. Box, so you spent your Mondays both calling and using the Post Office to help you find a job.

Being that I was in the middle of a divorce and custody situation, when the court learned that I had legitimately lost my job through no fault of my own, they put on my head that I had to prove to them that I was looking for work.

So what I had to do was set up a looseleaf notebook, where I had to cut out each and every job ad that I answered, and put them into the book on a page with Scotch tape. I had to date the page, and I had to bring that book--which became huge, since I was out of work for 18 months--each and every time that I went to court, which was pretty often back then.

The judge scrutinized each and every entry out in the open, and often times I had to explain a particular job to the judge and why I applied for it, again, out in the open.

If this wasn't the lowest of the low, the most demeaning thing I had to do probably in my entire life, then I don't know what was.

But I guess if I could get through that, I can get through anything, and I vow to you that while it is very difficult, I will get through my current situation one way or the other--

Probably with an emphasis on "the other," to be honest with you.