Things are not great. I am trying very hard to remain positive, but it's very difficult. I worked all week, and attended classes two hours each night in preparation for being jobless at the end of October. Those classes are at the state employment office's associates that help us determine our skills and aptitudes. After being tested all week, the results were in--and they weren't good. Apparently, the only jobs that matched both my interests and my aptitudes require at lease a Masters degree. Not one of them required less than a bachelors' degree, and those that didn't require a bachelors were for specific careers like social worker--not my degree, and not one the state will fund education moneys for. Because my current job is very unique to the industry, I doubt that I will find another job that will pay as well in this area and using my job skill set. None of this is good news.

I then worked all weekend at the respite job that pays about $4 an hour...and I have to pay all the self-employment tax type things. It's not good.

Then I get home and my daughter informs me she had a meeting on Friday with her employer--and the job she thought was going so well isn't apparently as good as she thought. They told her they weren't sure they hired the right person because she didn't look professional and often looked disinterested in her job--and she needs to be able to reorganize her time as necessary. They told her she needed to dress according to the dress policy, and she looked that over--the only thing that really was not being followed was that she wore a tee shirt in the office once in a while. Otherwise, she followed the guidelines, so she's not sure how to fix that except that she went out and bought some new clothes--borrowing money to do so--but she's still not sure this will do the trick. As for looking disinterested, she's not sure how she's supposed to change that. I told her that as far as looking disinterested, she could ask her co-workers to remind her to smile or something if she looks bored. But her actual work, they had no problems with. Still, she thinks it's just a preparation type of warning to getting fired when her 90-day review comes up. I told her just to do her best, and that's all she could do. I'm not sure what else to tell her.

And I can't seem to get my money situation sorted out. It just keeps getting worse and worse. And tonight everyone else seemed to have similar problems. So, what do we do? I'm looking into maybe finding a cheaper place to live...but I don't know if that's possible.

I just want things to get better. It seems to me that if you are working your hardest and doing your best, life should be easier....