I'm composing the first draft of this post at one of the public computers at Worksource, sitting next to Allison, while we wait for our next appointment.  Allison has just met with our WorkFirst councellor, and is currently printing all kinds of stuff.   This week has been very educational. Being enrolled in Washington's WorkFirst program has kept us coming into our local WorkSource office and utilizing the classes on hand at...

"The night of the fight, you may feel a slight sting. That's pride fucking with you. Fuck pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps."--Marcellus Wallace, Pulp Fiction (1994)That quote was going through my head the morning I applied for government food and cash assistance two weeks ago.We were sitting on a cool $350 in the bank with our $1200/mo rent coming due in few days when we learned that Ken's unemployment benefits weren't going to be...

When Ken called me two weeks ago and told me he had lost his job--where he had worked for over 12 years as our family's sole breadwinner--there was a split second when I saw our family's lives flash before my eyes. Okay, maybe it was more like a good 30 minutes, from the time I got the news, called my mom and cried and panicked, to when I gathered the kids to go and pick up Ken. Either way, it was the longest split second of my life. In it, I saw us losing everything. I saw us standing in lines at soup kitchens and food pantries....

I started the week by filing my unemployment claim for the day I went unpaid.  I read afterward that I can only claim whole weeks at a time.  Oh well.  I noted in the claim that I had been paid for 4 days of the week.  I think I'm good. After getting a few hot tips from some fellow ex-employees of Intel (also ex-military), I registered and submitted a few applications for civilian IT jobs posted for Fort Lewis. They...

Wednesday, October 15th: I had a meeting with my manager, where I was told that I would no longer be returning to Intel. Thursday, October 16th: My first day with no work. A check was delivered to our front door, representing the money I was owed which was not paid for by the next day's check. I signed up for unemployment benefits online, and began trying to figure out what I would be doing next. Friday, October 17th: The last paycheck was deposited.  Luckily, there was still money going to my landlord for rent. ...