LeahAndMark.com

Whereas many people have trouble finding something to write about – I have trouble writing about other things when I have something to write about. Clearly we can’t write about everything on our blog – but since we don’t really adhere to any strategic format for getting regular niche readers (aside from… well, I guess aside from our real life friends – and the better online ones that we’ve met) – we write about everything that strikes us. 

I suppose we’re sometimes informational. For example: 

About Five (5) weeks after you start getting your unemployment checks here in Georgia, you have to attend mandatory ‘training/job classes’. Actually, you have to attend them on the 5th, 9th and 14th week. They’re about 1-2 hours in length, depending on how many questions your other classmates asks the facilitator – so you can help out by not asking any questions – unless of course… you actually have questions.

But mostly, they’re boring and if you’ve ever conducted your own intensive job search… most of the information is on careerbuilder or monster. But I suppose it’s a small price to pay for the unemployment benefits which if anything… help to pay rent – while the rest of your bills fall behind – unless you can find work that pays under the table or through some other person – I mean… I suppose that’s how you would do it. 

Because being on unemployment is the same as being on welfare – you won’t just take any job out there since any job you get obviously has to be worth it. You can’t just go work at Target – because you might as well just stay home and do ANYTHING else and keep your free time while getting unemployment checks. 

I will say that being unemployed this time around is very different than thought it would be, especially compared to how we felt when I was first let go back on August 21st. At the time, the idea of me being out of work + Leah being in grad school full time was… a bit more stress than we had planned on to say the least. But the fraction of severance + savings + unemployment + magic, has helped to keep us around. 

We haven’t drowned in bills and all of the worries that we’re dealing with are more of the ‘future plans’ nature. Like saving up for a honeymoon, or trips, or just general savings. We have slashed our ‘going out’ – but even still, as you can see we haven’t locked ourselves into oblivion, trying to save money. We’re getting by quite well. It’s… very surprising. 

Yes, there are days and moments where we both freak out and worry overcomes – but they pass. 

…. on a different topic – I am progressing quite nicely with my learning to play guitar. The callouses on my finger tips are coming along, and I’m getting better at switching from chord to chord…

I’m still fumbling with video/photos/editing and that’s kind of fun too. 

Recently I spoke with an old boss who had been on unemployment for a few months – she was a department manager over at EMC in Dallas and obviously her job was gone when they imploded – but we both agreed that being unemployed, and collecting these checks… was kind of fun once you were able to deal with the not having money to do much of anything, but also when you realized how much…  how all of a sudden many things open up for you. 

And they have. I haven’t written about many of them because I’m speaking of either ideas in my head, opportunities that I can’t speak of yet, or simple pipe dreams that really would take whole other leap of faith and cliff to jump from – but generally speaking – options that I wouldn’t have considered from the comfort of a daily job. Of course… that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t take one of the great jobs I’ve interviewed for recently – because I don’t interview for jobs I don’t want. Going to a miserable job everyday is not an option.

It’s been interesting these last few months – since this break was not anywhere in our plans. After coming back from China, we had a hectic May, June, and July. Wedding plans, school starting, moving to a new apartment, planning a honeymoon, saving, and everything except me being out of work. So this wrench has been interesting and it’ll be interesting to see how we recover from it once I do get my next job. 

Ever been lost? I’m not.

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Filing. How. Much. Georgia. Unemployment Post One

Filing. How. Much. Georgia. Unemployment Post Two

Filing. How. Much. Georgia. Unemployment Post Three