Well, a topic that hits near and dear to my heart is sitting at home all day, eating Chex Mix and watching Jenny Jones. I myself have been unemployed for just over two weeks now, and have no desire whatsoever to get back into the workforce, other than the fact that I desperately need money. I can only get any kind of real money with an under the table job, but I know no one who needs anything done. Maybe I'll shovel walkways this winter. Maybe not. The point is anyway, that while unemployment, or even being between jobs is the most fun and relaxing time anyone has in their lives, it really, really, really sucks not pulling in a paycheck. I cannot stress this enough. Well, now that I think about it maybe a paycheck isn't all it's cracked up to be. What do I mean? Well, I can't speak for everyone, as all people make different amounts and have different salaries, etc, but the one and only time I worked a forty hour work week, I made about nine dollars overtime, and the check was in the neighborhood of two hundred and fifty dollars. Jesus Christ. Bill Gates makes that for wiping his ass. Pulling in a paycheck only means something if you have any money of that check left over after rent, food, utilities, clothes and school. No matter how much I worked, I never seemed to have any money. And I don't even have to pay for any of that!
Anyone who goes to college can tell you that it's not cheap. When I got out of high school, I tried applying for financial aid so I could attend the community college of Philadelphia. All they would tell me once I was finally finished applying, was how much I would be responsible for. The amount they would handle never came up. I cannot tell you how much fun it is to deal with the government about things like this. This led me to say "Fuck it" to college and get a job at J.C. Penney's. After working there for what felt like an eternity, although to my dismay I later discovered that it was only four months, I was laid-off so that they wouldn't have to give me benefits. I was unemployed for three months after that, although I was unable to enjoy my time off because my parents, God bless them, kept telling me how much I had to get a job. With decent benefits. And full-time hours.
I hate working.
Maybe I'm just lazy or something. I don't know. I never used to be this unmotivated- but at this point in my life, for some reason I am only happy when I'm sitting at home writing. That's all. Just sitting, writing a screenplay, or a short story, or a letter to my congreessman for Christ's sake. Just writing.
Well, to get back to my story, I spent three months out of work, until a friend of the family told me she could fix me up with a job at a local grocey store. Now I going to sound like a total ingrate when I say this, and maybe I am a total ingrate, but at the time, I didn't want her to get me the job. I liked having no responsibilites, outside of my household chores. It was like being on summer vacation again. The good ol' days. But, anyway, she did get me the job, and I thanked her. It was extremely nice of her to do this for me of course, to go out of her way like this. I won't forget it. Well, the company I was now working for is called Holiday Supermarkets, also know as Thriftway and Shop'N'Bag in other areas, but it's all the same store. I worked for this company for five months before quitting. I'm not going to bore you with the details of my adventures here, unless you're interested in hearing them. In such a case, I can write a whole nother rant on this place alone. For now, suffice it to say that I could no longer work for those people.
So now it's been two weeks since I've been there, and my parents, who are only trying to look out for me, are hounding me to get a job or to go back to school, which unfortunatley, although I want to, seems impossible since I probably couldn't get a big enough loan.
I hate school.
No I don't. But what I really wish I could do is magically finish a story that someone in the publishing business thinks is worth a fuck, so that I could be published and get my hands on a little cash. That way I could sit at home, and write, and make my money that way, which is what I really want to do! Last year I had my heart set on acting, but it's looking like a much more realistic way to eek out a living, or to even break into the entertainment businessis to make my own stories. And so that's what I've been doing while I?m unemployed. If anyone who's reading this has any ideas for a film, I'm all ears. My email is mikhael@home.com. I'll just be upstairs eating Doritos and watching Maury Povich.