Look what the cat dragged in! (TL) - Act 2

[tigerlily78]

How far is the nearest real (i.e. chain, union) grocery store? Could you bike to it? If you could get a job as a checker, at least that is a union job with reasonable support.

There are free online courses where you could brush up your skills in these areas. These would be things you could do from home, and do as side jobs once you get a regular job, to boost your income. Why not set it as a goal right now to improve your skills in these areas over the next two weeks? You could do book-keeping and website management remotely, so that you are not so limited to jobs just in your geographical area.

Are there any simple craft items you could sew and sell online? I'm thinking about a super-simple bag for baking potatoes in the microwave that my mom bought once. Try to think of something unique and very easy to sew? Poke around on Etsy to get some inspiration?

Another question - what aspirations did you have, before they got derailed by caring for your son? What did you dream of doing? What would you do now if you knew you couldn't fail?

KML, I am a step ahead of you on the grocery store, it is a 12 minute walk. I applied back in late October and keep going back into their Kiosk every 30 days to "update" my application and keep it active in their system. I had already come to the conclusion that the grocery store job is the best of the options I have within walking distance. I have also applied at a coffee shop, pizza place, and Mexican Restaurant. (Several other places are not currently hiring, but I went in and asked anyways just to see if they would give me an application)

I will think about working on the skills, but I am not sure how you go about building a client base for something like that.

I could probably sew something like bags. I have actually sewn some pretty cool stuff, it just takes me forever. I had thought about selling children's costumes or something like that on Etsy. It just seems like there is SO much competition on there, it's a bit intimidating. And you do have to spend money to make money in a sense doing craft stuff because of the materials involved.

Aspirations... well, I intended on being a Biology major with possibly a minor in Education, but that was before I took College Chemistry and had to drop it early in the semester for fear of failing. When I was younger I thought I wanted to be an artist or a journalist. I know it probably sounds silly... but I have never really thought that much about what I would want to "do" for a job... just that I wanted it to be something positive and constructive and GOOD. I don't want to foreclose on people's homes or harass them to pay their bills for a living.