Blazing - Olivia Zelig by LadyDragonTamer

Waiting on a Woman by sozoteki

I just need to vent, I think. I know that I’ve told some of you parts of this, but it just seems like I can’t get a break here. My husband’s work just announced that they’re going to have a two week shutdown without pay starting next week, and I’m so stressed out right now that I can’t see straight at all. I mean, we were already barely making it, and now this? Then his boss tells him that they should all go out and go on a real vacation, as though anyone has the money! I feel so bad right now, and I just don’t know what to do. Internet bill aside, we don’t even have the money (nor will we this month) to pay the electric bill, and if we don’t pay that by the 24th, we’ll have no electricity. Eric’s checked with unemployment and he doesn’t qualify for only a two week downtime when the factory refuses to call it a “lay off”, so we’re totally screwed. I just … I know that we’ll figure something out, but honestly. I’d ask someone if I could borrow money, but no one around here has it. I’ve tried to find work (any kind of work) but no one, not even fast food, is hiring. It frustrates me to no end when we’ve never actually lived above our means, but it’s a little messed up with one thinks that something like CAR insurance is a LUXURY that we can’t really afford. We’ve spent the last two weeks eating nothing but peanut butter and ramen. I swallowed my pride and went to the local food pantry, only to be told that they’ve got nothing. It’s like adding insult to injury, but I just don’t know how much more I can take.

We bought our oldest a ten dollar game at Walmart for his birthday; it was all we had, and that came out of our 75 dollar a week grocery money, and I just feel awful, having to tell our kids that we can’t even afford to take them to Burger King or anything like that. It’s completely demoralizing to me, especially when I think about how many people in this area are already on welfare because there just aren’t that many good jobs around here, to start with. Four out of six factories in the area have already shut down completely, and I know damn well we’re not the only ones in this kind of a problem, but heck. What kills me is that Eric and I are proud of the fact that we’ve not needed any kind of financial help, and it is such a blow to the ego to admit that we can’t do it, but I suppose that’s nothing in comparison to the overwhelming need to do something as basic as pay an electric bill or to buy groceries. Too bad we make about four bucks a week to qualify for public assistance, as well …

So I’m pretty sure that I will end up being offline indefinitely after the factory’s two week shutdown. I just really have no idea what to do otherwise. My deepest apologies for leaving people in the lurch; that was never my intent. Sorry for the rant, but thank you for listening.