The (Job) Hunger Games: the odds were in my favor.

I'm employed.

Next week I'll be working part-time two days a week, and on call for 6, at three local funeral homes.

If you read my last blog, you'll already know my feelings on working at a funeral home. 

I'm so happy to be employed again, even if it is part time. Essentially, it depends on how many people need their services. So, here's hoping for booming business!

Not that I want more people to die.

Practically, it means a few life-style changes. No more going to sleep at 2am. Not as much time to mess around Tumblr and Tickled. I won't be able to cook and clean like I (mostly) have been.

But I think this is just what I need to get writing again. I'd always feel the drive to write when I was at work, ideas flying into my head. Then, I'd go home and sort them out. This might just get me motivated again.

And if not, at least I'll have some money coming in. Even part-time is better than nothing.

So, next week, it starts. Thank you to everyone who helped me, and wished me luck over the last month and a half. And don't expect these blogs to stop: it's only part time, after all.

For now.

The (Job) Hunter Games: DoA?

Well Maria, you always said I'd wind up working at that funeral home in Keego. And now, it may be coming true.

Let me back up a bit.

A long time ago, when proto-hominids walked the earth, and my friend Maria lived 10 minutes away, I was in high school.

I'm not that old. I'm not even as old as this poster!

Well, near my home there's a small funeral home. None of my relations were ever memorialized there, and I've never been in the place. But I pass it every day. It's literally a half-hour walk from my home, and even closer to where my friend Maria used to live. We saw it every day in high school.

And with my fascination with all things dead and dreary, Maria would joke "You should work there!"

I only have 122 horror movies on this shelf ALONE (the tall one).

I would laugh and smile, but didn't take it seriously. I was going to college. I was going to be a teacher. I didn't need to work so close to home!

Now I've applied for a part time job there. My teaching aspirations are long since tucked away (no regrets there, not in this job market), and a part-time position with on-call possibilities sounds like a great way to get back into being employed.

I'm an approachable person, I'd like to think. The kind somebody would feel free to talk to if they have a question or an issue. I think that would translate well to the memorial industry. I've been to enough of them: I know the atmosphere of quiet dignity and grace. I think I could do that.

I think I could help.

I'm not gonna bring you down much longer, promise.

That's what it really comes down to, in all the positions I've had. Help. Help answering questions, approaching hard to approach people, finding a table, finding a file, getting drinks, getting figures, getting the right info to the right people. I can help. I am a good helper. I am a person to ask for help.

I miss that. I've been unemployed long enough to miss things besides the money. I miss people. I miss getting them answers and hearing 'thank you'. I miss being helpful.

I don't know if being helpful is 'What God put me on this earth to do', or anything that lofty/pretentious. But there are a lot worse ways I could spend my time here.

So. I'm off to seek jobs, post silly pictures, and clean the house. Maybe it'll help someone, maybe not. 

Maybe it'll just help me.