*Sigh*

I got some really sucky news yesterday. I had literally just gotten home and checked the mail. I saw an envelope addressed to me from the place I had applied to. I figured it was a confirmation of the background check. I was mistaken. It was a letter basically telling me that while they were "very impressed" by my work history and skill set they have decided to go with someone else.

I was honestly pretty damn upset. I know it probably sounds dumb because it's one of those "don't count your chickens before they hatch" situations but I truly thought I had this job locked down. I'm not joking when I say that I thought that I would receive a phone call any day now telling me that I have the job. I have never been that sure about having a job locked in prior to being told I have it. Never.

Master told me to just keep doing my best to find a job. I will. And I have been applying and applied to two more yesterday. Devastated is too strong of a word but it hit me kind of hard.

I had applied to the job via e-mail with a copy of my resume. I do a forty-five minute first interview. I then get a call about a week later asking me to come in for a second interview. They send me an e-mail with the paperwork I had to fill out for them. It was asking for all of my job history, which is on my resume, as well as my prior salaries for each job, my social security number, and two pieces of paper giving them my permission to do whatever checks they needed with my former employers as well as a background check. I filled that out and sent them an electronic copy via e-mail. I have the second forty-five minute interview and hand them a hand signed copy of the document I had sent to them via e-mail. A week after that I receive an e-mail about the background check and have to fill out an electronic form online in addition to what I had already given them. I wait on pins and needles just to find out I don't have the job.

At this point I'm just bummed the hell out. I'm not giving up. I can't give up. But I never in my life thought I would be unemployed this long. Especially with my job history and skills.

I am applying to jobs and will continue to do so until I land a job. I don't care if it's full time or part time. I truly don't. I just feel so useless. I do what I can around the house. I have found little things to do to keep myself busy and at least partially entertained.

And then yesterday I had a thought. I think paracord bracelets are pretty awesome. People can actually sell them for a half way decent price. I had always thought they were expensive to make. But I looked into it and honestly it's not all that expensive. The thought occurred to me that if I could learn how to make them maybe I could do it as a hobby and sell what I make. People do those kind of things all the time. One of my cousin knits and sells the things she makes online.

Today I went to a local hobby store and bought a kit so I can learn how to make them. I bought a kit that includes enough to make eight bracelets. I've made two. The first one I made was kind of eh. But hey, it was my first one... What do you expect? But now that I know I can do it, at least in the one weave, I plan on moving forward with it. I'm going back to that store tomorrow because I have a coupon for 40% off one item and they had something I wanted at the store for the paracord bracelets. I also would like to make key chains but one step at a time. I also want to learn how to do them with more than just one color. Baby steps I guess. For now I'm just practicing by making some for people I know. Once I get decent at it I'll start cranking out ones to sell. Hopefully it'll work out.

I'm going to continue looking for a real job but this would be at least a chance to make a little bit of money, hopefully.