It's Scary Out Here

by Terri Wagner

I'm thinking maybe it's time to start a blog about being laid off. First, it's scary out there. By my age, you have learned a specific skill set that doesn't really translate to another field. And yet I have increasingly felt I should look further afield than the publishing industry.

So I opted for some schooling only to discover the school is filled up for this fall and won't take another class until next fall. Hmmm a year of unemployment checks???? Ok my math is not good, more than a year of unemployment checks. So should I consider this a closed door?

Go back to my field and hope I can get something online? Or prepare to move?

I went today and took a teller assessment test. I have a newfound respect for tellers. I'm pretty sure I flunked it. The math questions were multiple steps with 15 seconds to complete and no calculators allowed. That meant I had to figure out in 15 seconds when a person gave the teller a check for say 4,789.46 and wanted to put some in their interest bearing account and some in their pocket. And frankly that was the easiest math question there was.

I'm getting discouraged. Unemployment won't start until June 17 which btw is when I have to get a new driver's license.

It's scary and I want to dive under the covers, put on my all-time favorite tv show dvds of Starsky & Hutch and eat chocolate. But I can't. Now I have absolutely no excuse for not visiting teaching as in actually visiting my sisters.

Who upped retirement to 70 from 55? I want to have a little chat with that person.