Dear President Obama:

Today my unemployment benefits ended.  They were scheduled to end 12/29, (which, itself is premature), but they stopped short.   I didn’t think this crisis could get worse, but now I know it will.  In effect, I’ve been thrown off the fiscal cliff/… Read full post »

I have been writing a blog on Open Salon for about a year now (http://www.open.salon.com/blog/homelessscribe).  Unfortunately, Open Salon has had major technical issues which take down the site for days at a time.  OS Bloggers are leaving in droves, afraid their beloved work will soon be su/… Read full post »

“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.  Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.”

Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus.

… Read full post »

I thought it had only been several months since I had last written a post to this blog.  In fact, it’s been over six months, at once an eternity and an instant, because time moves in relative terms when life has no structure to mark its passing.  And, free time isn’t/… Read full post »

I don’t usually write about things I know so little about…  love being one of them.  But, on Valentine’s Day, with declarations of love flying through air, it’s difficult not to contemplate about love. 

Most people first learn of love from their families.&nbs… Read full post »

For most, Super Sunday means setting out the junk food and finding the perfect focal length between the couch and the widescreen.  For me, Super Sunday occurs every other week when I am able to file my “Continued Claim for Unemployment Benefits.”  In years past, I would be waiti/… Read full post »

I started working when I was fifteen (or, several years before that if you count baby-sitting).   Back then, if you were under sixteen, you could get permission to work from your parents.  I was already living on my own, so forging their signature(s) was easy.  I applied for a min/… Read full post »

When all hope is lost, we surrender.  Two weeks ago, I lost all hope that I would find a job soon, or that my circumstances would change quickly enough to allow me to keep my dog.  And so, I surrendered.  Surrendered to failure.  Surrendered to hopelessness.  Surrendered/… Read full post »

I’ve owned two dogs in my life.  One was a dream.  The other, a nightmare.

Dream dog was ten months old when I met him at the animal shelter.  He had run away after being chained in the back yard all day, every day.  When his owners learned someone wanted to/… Read full post »

I was in the women’s locker room at the gym this morning, when, as I rounded the corner, I heard a woman say to her friend, “There she is!” 

It came as a complete surprise to learn she was referring to me.  I was the “she,” and “there”… Read full post »

This year sucked.  I expected it to suck.  It exceeded my expectations.

In January, I was still recovering from surgery and was feeling pretty lethargic.  Plus, I was working at a job I hated, for less than half the money I was used to making, at a skill level that made/… Read full post »

This morning, I was supposed to receive my unemployment benefits – I had the whole day planned.  Pay off some bills, put gas in the van, eat…  Only, the money was not transferred to the bank as per the usual schedule.  No doubt because of the holiday.  In addition to/… Read full post »

Far from being the hap-hap-piest time of the year, the year-end holidays are a frustration to be endured when you’re broke, homeless and unemployed.  Given employers’ propensity to schedule most lay-offs at year end, I’m sure many people are standing on the sidelines of the fes/… Read full post »

Today is November 11, 2011, and, as I predicted almost two months ago, I am both Unemployed and Homeless.  Once again, the confluence of events in my life hit all at once, and I got pulled under by the great tsunami of obliteration.

In fact, my life barely resembles what it… Read full post »

I’ve been unusually sad the past couple of weeks.  It wasn’t until I realized the tenth anniversary of 9/11 was drawing near that I knew why.  Because thoughts and feelings are often shared between individuals within a society, I expect my/… Read full post »

I love my brother so much it hurts.  When he was born three years and ten months after me, it was as if I had a real-live baby doll.  Our mother was uncomfortable performing the traditional tasks of motherhood, so I fed him, changed his diapers, read stories/… Read full post »

The day I truly began to understand my mother was the day I saw her through my grandmother’s eyes.  For years I had asked, “what do I, as a daughter, expect from my mother?”  After conversations with my grandmother, I began to consider “what does she, as a mother, ex… Read full post »

The last time I saw my father was nine years ago at my brother’s wedding.  He did not speak to me.  Over the past thirty years, we have spoken twice on the telephone.  Once, in 1996, when he called me out of the blue, and, ten years before that, when I… Read full post »

So, there I am, begging off Labor Day weekend plans with my best friend of 40 years because I had a rotten day/week/month/year and I’m just not in the mood to be around people.  My dog is sick, even after three trips and $600 at the vet, on-going problems in my… Read full post »

Today is September 1, 2011, and in all likelihood, I will be homeless within 30 days.  Unfortunately, we live in an era when this statement has become commonplace, so the most I expect from others is passing interest in my circumstances.  If you find yourself sharing in my experience, you m… Read full post »