Strange Days Indeed

After 4 days celebrating the genius of Michael Jackson, re-living all of the moments and memories, real life has set in again. As we know, no amount of entertainment can hold back the tide of the matters at hand. I must note here before I go on that it is oddly coincidental that ubiquitous pitchman Billy Mays died a few days later of heart disease at the age of 50. Strange days indeed.

Strange for us is getting used to the fact that both of us are unemployed, still. Perhaps the unseasonable wetness of June was a large contributor to this strangeness as it cast a decidedly gloomier pall over our hopes and dreams. By all accounts we weathered it well, pardon the pun. Needless to say, we are two well-heeled technology professionals meeting way too many people of a similar ilk also out of work. We recognize the game has changed, we see all that is familiar disappearing. Even the condition of unemployment has changed, it is no longer stigma now that the unemployed run the strata of the socioeconomic universe; no one is immune.

The mind-numbing unemployment statistics have us jumping through a different set of hoops for this job search. And so we rise up to the challenge. I am in school for a professional certification that will boost my resume and my husband is taking full advantage of out-placement services provided by his former employer. Even though it is summer, we will not let down our guard and we won't let a little sunshine deter us from the task at hand.