shitty economy – marginalia and such

under the rainbow

I may be losing more hours than I thought, I may be losing a whole semester actually (summer term, but a good six weeks nonetheless). It looks like the budget for my department has been squandered on who knows what, seems that our brilliant director wasn’t doing much.

I’m trying to stay positive and take things as they come. There are others facing situations that are far more dire than mine. It’s hard. As someone who just completed a graduate degree, I’m one of the many dealing with the lack of options brought on by the recession. The markets I would have worked in with my degree (publishing or advertising) are nearly nonexistent in my region at the moment, so I decided to get my MLS sooner rather than later and take advantage of the upswing in library jobs that are predicted to result from baby boomer retirements.

I’m hoping and waiting and taking the extra hours in my day to get creative (and work on schoolwork when I start the library program in May). I even took advantage of the Tara McPherson coloring book kit that my friend gave me for Christmas. I took it to work and colored these two pages. (pictures taken with my phone while at work).

The kit brings a coloring book, art cards, and a box of crayons in the palette that McPherson generally uses for her artwork. It was fun. It has been ages since I used waxy crayons.

the munnys and the moneys

Now that I am in a relationship, I have been attending more festivals than ever before… I wonder if this is because I am not taking classes at the moment, or just because my bf and I seem to share an interest in festival hopping? Hmm… Perhaps a combination of both? Anyhow, classes start next week so I’ll see if this trend continues.

We went to a local festival on Saturday night and had some of the best soft serve ice cream I have ever had, so creamy it tasted more like mousse than ice cream. Then on Sunday we took a trip to PinkGhost for a Munny Mobile painting party… and got free Munny Mobiles! It was lots of fun, though I really didn’t think they were going to be giving the Munnys away, so I didn’t plan a design and just started painting with the supplies on hand at the party. This limited me to a palette of yellow, red, blue, and black (and some blue glitter than the bf managed to grab for me), but I managed to create a whimsical dandelion design on my little buggy.

They had a nice crowd going at the shop, lots of the other artists obviously planned what they were going to paint on their Munnys and clearly had prior experience, so I learned some strategies that I can use when I decide what to paint on the little Munny that came with the kit.

So it was a nice, lazy weekend… then I found out that they had to cut some of my hours at work, if only for the Summer A term. I’m lucky enough that I can get by with my second job (barely, but still managing), but it makes the job hunt all the more desperate. I’m applying for every library job that I qualify for so I can get some experience/money/benefits while I work on the MLS, but many of these aren’t even going to start hiring until August, meaning it might be months before I hear from anyone 😦 .

no job. lots of bills.

Not only is it worrisome enough to think that I will be entering the job market during an economic crisis, apparently Florida (and esp. South Fla) is one of the absolute worst locations for potential employment in the country. So, a) I am out of a proper job until I finish my thesis, b) I may not find a proper job for some time to come, c) good thing I live with my parents or I would be evicted. And… because as a TA I made squat this year, my earnings were too small to merit an economic stimulus. This makes absolutely no sense to me. Couples, as usual, are rewarded for being married while singles only receive a bonus if they earned enough to begin with?! Shouldn’t this boost go to people who really need the cash (like impoverished students with ridiculous tuition fees, attending a school that is sinking under its own economic crisis)?

Bad situation all around.