Looking for Work IS Work

My luck seems to have run out. Over the last three years since my return to Seattle, I've found it quite easy to find work. Most of it was temporary work, but that's all I was looking for. Not sure of what I wanted to do outside of travel, play and write, temporary gigs were ideal for my lifestyle. With one foot out the proverbial Seattle door, a temp job was preferred over anything too committal.

In the past three years I've been an ESL teacher, a janitor, a receptionist at a theater supply store, a law firm and a seafood company called Ocean Beauty Seafoods (I kept answering the phones "good afternoon, Ocean Booty" and they offered me full time work anyway!), an administrative assistant in the City of Seattle's Engineering Records Center, a Seattle Art Museum librarian assistant and education department admin assistant, a pet nanny and dog walker, and I did market research for WhitePages.com. I was head of programming and development at a non-profit international education organization, catered an event at an art gallery, was a mystery shopper and drove a woman's car from Denver to Seattle.

The jobs over the last three years have been as diverse as my interests in life. Intriguing and entertaining. Unfortunately, the opportunities seem to have come to a screeching halt. No longer are friends or friends of friends tracking me down with the random odd job. Those days seem to be over for this "professional service provider." sigh.

I knew it would all have to come to an end eventually. I was just hoping I could hang on to the multiple thin income strings (or threads rather) a bit longer. With thousands of out of work talent hitting the streets with every layoff announcement, the competition for these and other crap jobs is fierce.

So, as Dr. Phil says, "if you're out of a job, then that's your job!" Oh, the reality of it all. I've been hitting it hard and letting up is not an option. Keeping the momentum up along with the optimism is a full-time job!