Here I am. After 18 months of active job searching, I’ve sent, delivered and called on over 1,200 possible positions. I am now the proud owner of a small stack of rejection emails which I can print out for dartboard covers. A high percentage of employers don’t even bother informing applicants that they are rejected. Applications go out into some cyber-void now circling the earth, or a trashcan where they are assimilated and recycled into new wood products. (Ok,Toilet paper.)

Hi Everyone:

This has been in my heart for a while and finally decided to post it. Being unemployed has enough stress attached to it without having folks presuming you are at home with your feet "propped up"...

Is it just me, or has anyone else experienced the NERVE of some folks to call themselves "visiting" with their kids in tow - then leave without them (lol)?

Before I moved in with my boyfriend, I did not have this issue. But now I am dealing with his family and all these women who lay around having babies and then want to "drop them off" at someone's house (lol).

I started this escapade in September of 2010. A little late to the game but unemployed none-the-less.

I was being constantly set-up for failure in my job. The management at the company didn't like me. I was successful in spite of them, not with their help.

My marriage was a disaster. It was my second and I knew it was a mistake shortly after the "I DOs". Then it took me 4 1/2 years to actually do anything about it.

The failure of the unemployment extension has affected me strongly, even though I don't collect. I've been surfing around the web reading discussions on the subject, and it's just... devastating.

One guy told of losing his young wife to cancer two years ago and trying to raise his two young children himself. He's been out of work for 18 months and can't find anything. Now his benefits are running out and he and his boys will be in the streets by the end of the month. They have no food.

Anger can motivate you if you direct it that way.

On this issue, I am an expert. If you've surfed around my blog at all, you've probably noticed a pattern of optimism punctuated by periods of searing rage, or maybe it's the other way around. All I know is, unemployment pisses me off sometimes.

Toward the end of this post, I'm going to tell you how I deal with it and even use it to my advantage, but first I want to address the issue of anger itself.