This not working and not working out is not working out.

The third week of unemployment is almost up, and while I’m trying, as my dad would say, to keep my dauber up, it’s starting to sink a bit.

Could be that I’m tired of winter. I haven’t been to the gym. I’ve had a sinus infection for two weeks plus. And my computer’s been sick. (Speaking of, my wife asked me – who makes those viruses? And why? Well, geez – hon, there’s bad people in this world. Some of them lie, cheat, and steal. Some kill people. And some hijack computers to kill pictures of people. And song lists. And word documents with favorite recipes.)

And oh yeah – there’s that not-having-a-job thing. Even when I’m not sitting diligently at my sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy hard drive searching high and low and lots of medium heights for work, it’s constantly on my mind. It’s like a pebble stuck in my shoe that I can’t get out. I keep walking and walking and it keeps digging and digging; a constant reminder that it hurts to have your savings account slowly dwindle away.

My advertising partner and I did score some freelance work that kept us busy for the first couple of weeks. And it was great to keep the creative juices flowing, think on some new clients, and make a couple of bucks (if you’re reading this and looking to hire, check out our link here: www.nateandjeff.com), but this week’s been slow. Too slow.

“Awwwww,” say the over 740,000 Michigan unemployed. “You haven’t heard anything in a whole week?!”

I know. I know. Plenty have been out of work for a year or more. A year! I can’t even contemplate that.

What I can contemplate is that bag of cookies in the freezer. Yes – I did pledge to peel 15. And I still plan on it. But one can’t hurt, can it? I’ll get to the gym tomorrow. Right now a homemade oatmeal cookie is exactly what my dauber needs.



Footnote: The term dauber supposedly comes from an old painter’s tool called a dauber. When painters would get sad and stopped painting it was said that they "had their dauber down"