Catching Up

Okay. I realise that I haven't been writing my blog, and I really have no excuse. So there.

Anyway, I am now writing it again. Amazingly enough, things have come full circle (unfortunately) and I am once again undomiciled. I won't go into details right now, but it had to do with a medication problem and the subsequent loss of my job, back in April. I have spent the past eight months looking for another job, to no avail. This is either because there are not any jobs out there, I am not qualified, or people just don't want to hire a nutcase like me. I suspect the last reason pretty much hits the nail on the head.

Anyway, I got kicked out of my apartment at the beginning of this month, so I and my cats are now homeless. My cats are being looked after by several of my former neighbours, and I check on them daily and take them food. They are doing okay, despite the shitty weather.

I, on the other hand, after exhausting all of my financial resources and selling just about everything that I had that I could get any money for (including two thirds of my DVD collexion and my university ring)am now living in a homeless shelter here in Baton Rouge, which sucks greatly, only slightly less than if I DIDN'T have a homeless shelter to live in and had to sleep under a bridge or something. More about this later.

I filed for unemployment back in May, and got no response, so I filed again in August and got no response, so I filed again in October and (you guessed it) got no response. So, after I got kicked out on my ass, I went down to the secret headquarters of the Louisiana Workforce Commission, to find out how come they never got in touch with me. I talked to a nice man on the phone in the lobby (they won't talk to you in person) and he told me that they would re-open my case. He also told me how to apply for the back benefits that I WOULD have received, had they done something about my claim when I filed it, at least ONE of the three times. Yay.

This process involved my listing each week that I didn't receive benefits in a long, drawn-out three-page letter and giving it to them, which I did. Hooray! I finally got some action out of them!

The action I received was a stack of automated letters (one for each week that I claimed) informing me that I would not be receiving benefits for that week, because I had "failed to file in a timely fashion". As a result, I will now start drawing the unemployment benefits that would have kept me from being homeless, had they actually processed my claim one of the times that I filed it. Imagine my joy.

Well, I was told that I could have my old job back. That is supposed to happen this week, provided I pass a background check. They didn't have one before, but now they do, and I have to pass it. I already peed in a cup for them. So, if (and when) I get my job back, I will cease to receive the unemployment benefits which I am supposed to receive, starting LAST WEEK, which means that I will be able to collect maybe two weeks' unemployment before starting my new (old) job.

I am not making this up. I never thought that bureaucracy could be so convoluted. It is. So, I am waiting for unemployment and/or my job to kick in. Meanwhile, I am staying at an homeless shelter, which I wouldn't have to do had (a) the LWC had processed my claim "in a timely fashion" or, (b)I had gotten my job back a few months earlier, before I ran out of money and got kicked out on my ass.

So now, I guess my blog's title is valid once more. Yay. Tonight, it is back to the shelter, where I will be regaled by my fellow homeless persons, eat a meal (can't complain here)and drift off to sleep with visions of my former life dancing in my head,like, back when I really had one.