For someone who is unemployed, I feel as though I do not have enough time in the day these past few days.
I have been collaborating with a friend for the past few weeks as she's been starting up a business. I agreed to help her out with her business website - handle the writing and some aspects of social media. Since I got back from Mexico I've been working on the website here and there. As the ideas continue to start coming to me, I continue to spend more and more time honing the website. On Sunday I spent the majority of my day formatting the website, doing some writing, and setting up social media tools. I was up until 1 a.m. The beginning of this venture is going to require the most work -- us figuring out what we need to put on the web site (probably through trial and error). Once we have everything figured out, it will just be a matter of maintaining. Writing is easy for me and it's what I love to do, so this has been an exciting time for me.
That being said, I have finished my novel. I am in the process of rereading once more to make any more revisions it might need, and then I'm ready to have others peek at it and give me feedback. I'm finding as I read through the prologue and the first few chapters that I'm making more revisions than I imagined there would be. Then again, I'm not sure I'll ever be satisfied with my writing. My cousin recently published a book. He had it self-published at one of those web sites that offers publish on demand, which means his book will never be carried in a Barnes and Noble or a Borders. He mentioned to me that he got rejection letter after rejection letter, and finally he decided to self-publish. This is not a story that gives me hope.
Last week I noticed on the California Unemployment web site that Microsoft is handing out a limited number of vouchers for certification in several Microsoft Programs. The program is called Elevate America. On Monday I drove to the Career Transition Center near my house with Driver's License and Proof of Social Security in hand, ready to receive my free vouchers.
I arrived and stood in line behind 10 people before I was able to fill out a form simply to 'register' with the CTC (a requirement to receive the vouchers). Once my name was finally called, I was brought back to a row of cubicles to begin the registration process with a woman named Tala. She took one look at my social security card and told me it wasn't an approved form of identification. Despite the fact that right on the card stub was printed: this is proof of your social security number. Tala advised me to drive to the social security office five minutes away, register to get a new card, come back with my print out and my birth certificate in hand, and then she would be able to finalize the registration process. Tala mentioned that I needed to be back to the office by 11 a.m., or I would have to start the process all over again the following day.
I wanted to stab Tala in the eye.
I drove to the SS Office, which was on my way home anyway. When I arrived there twenty minutes before the office opened, there was a line of at least 40 people snaking around the side of the building all the way to the back.
I decided to forgo waiting in line. I went home feeling very defeated. On a whim I decided to sift through my rolling wicker four-drawer dresser hoping to unearth my social security card (where I used to keep it years ago. I wasn't positive I'd brought it with me to California.) Within minutes I had found my social security card. I returned to the CTC with my driver's license, SS card, passport, and birth certificate. (Just in case!)
I walked straight into Tala's cubicle, handed her my social security card, and within two minutes she had registered me. I was then passed along to a career counselor where I again needed to show my social security card. After an hour long counseling session, I was signed up to come back to the CTC from 3:30 to 5 p.m. that afternoon to listen to a presentation on the vouchers; a requirement before I could receive them.
The voucher demonstration only took an hour, and I left the CTC for the third time that day with five vouchers in my hand: Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Outlook.
After a bit of procrastinating I started the on-line training sessions yesterday. I didn't get very far. Apparently, I need Microsoft Office 2007 to effectively complete the training sessions. On the three computers that Daniel and I collectively share, not one of them contains Microsoft Office 2007 software. So now it looks as though I'm going to have to buy the software in order to complete the online tutorials before I can take the exams and become certified through Microsoft.
I swear this is something the CTC and the EDD website failed to mention in their advertisement for the program. I need to have all exams completed by June 6 when the vouchers expire. That means I will be dedicating the next couple of weeks to Microsoft.
And I guess whenever I have the time, I'll have to squeeze in some job searching here and there.
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