Today I got together with two other women about my age, also writers, at the food court at the mall (convenient location given where we all live). We all used to work together until our employer laid off the 2 of them in December 2008; I was laid off 9 months later, in September 2009.

It was interesting to see how similar our employment stories have been these past months. Like me, they've managed to cobble together periodic temporary gigs for 3 months here, 6 months here. Only one of the 3 of us is working a f/t job now with benefits, but her husband is still out of work after being laid off from a job a year ago that he had for 25 years.

We shared our war stories.

I caught them up to date on my search for work:

Mid-September 2009: Laid off from a job I loved that paid about $76,000.
Mid-September 2009 - April 2010: This was the worst time..NO jobs out there! Surviving on unemployment, mostly, plus a little freelance, focus groups, medical research guinea pig, online surveys, Craig's List sales and whatever else I could piece together. Even sold some firewood from fallen tree branches on my property!
Late April - early August 2010: Workin' for the Census Bureau at $19.75/hr. Made a profit from their gas reimbursement because I drive a Honda. Two people called the cops on me becus they didn't like strangers on their property, especially federal gov't employees!
August - mid-September 2010: Back to unemployment.
Mid-September - Dec. 31 2010: A full-time but temporary job at Prudential that I liked very much! Hooray for well-paying jobs! ($50 an hour). Was very sorry to see it end.
Jan-mid-March 2011: Nothing going on except my freelance work.
Mid-March to present: Landed a full-time job with no benefits at $25/hour. I work at a sweatshop pace but 4 days a week I work at home. I expect to keep this job until I find my next permanent job with benefits.

I had that job interview yesterday for the mid-sized company in the business of environmental risk assessments. About 200 employees, so not a small company. They sell information and data concerning the history of any given commercial property that a lender is considering making a loan to a customer for. Was there a dry cleaners or a gas station there? If so, uh oh. Given the millions in clean-up remediation at stake, it would seem to be a growth industry.

Sounds like it could be interesting. I just met with the HR person, and hope they call me back to meet the marketing director, who would be my boss. I think the job could pay fairly well and the commute was just 30 minutes (maybe count on 35 in traffic?)

I still have that dang urinary tract infection. After finishing up just 3 days on antibiotics about a week ago, I wasn't sure it was completely gone and sure enough, it's not. Luckily, I have a physical scheduled for Monday morning, so hopefully they can prescribe the same thing the gyno's office would have prescribed. I sure hope this is not some sort of super antibiotic-resistant bacteria.