I'm no longer unemployed, under-employed or semi-employed:
I am self-employed.
I start work tomorrow morning as a contractor in my former industry -- some obscure part of telecommunications networking that is likely of little interest here.
The situation is not ideal.
I'm working as a contractor for the same salary (before taxes) that I earned in 1999. No insurance. My commute is one hour and forty-five minutes each way. It's only for nine months. But this is ... what it is ...
This last eighteen months has been an interesting journey for me.
I've gone from being a highly sought-after member of the professional class to last year's trash fast enough to make my head spin.
I had to give up my apartment and move out of state.
I went back to college for two semesters to complete my degree.
I discovered that it is perfectly impossible to maintain your unemployment eligibility after you move to a different state and enroll in a training program, even though the rules in my state expressly permit the first and encourage the second. (They just didn't have any way to handle my claim administratively.)
I found out a way to make fairly good pocket change running my own digital publishing business -- more on that later.
The best news of course:
I found myself on my way back to New York City a couple of months ago to form a household with my partner and all is bliss on the home front.
I'm not one for public announcements, but I thought I'd drop this one here, since my experience with unemployment has driven so many of my diaries and comments on Daily Kos.
So:
Thank you.
Seriously.
On a related note, the three hours a day that I'm going to be spending on the train between now and the end of March have me itching to resurrect a project I initiated last year here on Daily Kos:
Online Writers Workshop for Kos-Type Folks
My e-mail address is myleftbook@gmail.com.
E-mail me or leave a comment here if interested in participating in such a thing.