Unemployment Application Fail

Now that I have lost both my scoring center jobs for the season, I am forced to go back on the dole.  But I forgot to do it until Friday, and unfortunately for some odd reason the website is up only from 6 till 6 Monday through Friday.

I am familiar with the application process.  One of the things I remember foremost is that it can be quite involving, and you might need information that you'll need time to look for -- a problem if I want to get this down by the end of this week, the first of my unemployment.  (What I don't know is what will happen if I don't get this done the week of me not having a job.  There's a possibility that I won't get benefits because of that.)  So I needed to get this done Friday afternoon.

But where?  Filling this out means sending over sensitive information, the foremost being my social security number.  I trust the security of my home Internet.  But the goddamn, motherfucking thing remains very spotty.  Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's the wires, but lately I haven't been able to get a solid, consistent connection while at home.  Something like that might be deadly when trying to fill out the application.

One other thing: I don't want to be home when my folks get home.  I keep telling them I'm at "work," so I have to be out of the house for at least several hours in the afternoon to maintain the lie.

So I decided to do what I think is mighty dangerous: Fill out the unemployment reapplication at a public space, the library.  I don't want to do it, but in a time crunch and worried about Internet connections, I didn't really have a choice.  Besides, I needed to go to the library to print out some letters for Father because the fucking printer still doesn't work.

The one thing I realize once I get into the application at the library: It's been so long since I applied that I forgot all the information that they want.  So after getting, oh, halfway through, I had to stop because there was no way I could fill it out.  Then I realize that the info I need might be at home.  But then I realize that I can't come home too early.  And then I realize that I need to complete this by 6.  Fuck me.  So I get out of the library at around 5.

I come home to the commotion of workers tearing up the kitchen.  That morning I was woken up to by the sound of chainsaws and general tearing-up noises.  Father didn't tell me he was renovating the kitchen that day.  More on this later.  Anyway, I immediately unpack my laptop, but goddamn, I knew this would happen, the fucking modem is on the fritz.  Maybe this time it's all the (de)construction out in the kitchen that's somehow fucking with Internet.

For about a half-hour I dealt with cut-off connections and waiting for them to reconnect.  I quickly start to lose my mind and my bearings; once I get back on I fill out erroneous information that I have to spend to going back to and correcting.

I'm getting pressed up against the 6 o'clock shutdown date.  I review the application one last time before sending the whole thing in, and with a short and disquieted sigh that doesn't completely believe I'll get money, I hit enter at 5:58 p.m.

I forget that upon sending, even though people have to review it, there is a preliminary estimate as to how much money you'll get per week.  My estimate was too low for a guy who worked a lot.  And then it dawned on me: I forgot my PCA job!  It's only the job that paid me the most.  It's also one that I lost when my folks threw Grandmother into a nursing home two months ago.  And, if I recall correctly, it's one that the state has had problems with figuring out if it needed to be factored into my unemployment.

Not to say this isn't my fault, but I will say that since they have my name on file, they also have a listing of previous occupations I have had and that I've put into previous applications.  If they have those, why don't they have my PCA job?

So I beat the deadline and sent in an incomplete form.  And there's no way to change it -- well, at least not now because it's shut down.  I don't think there's a way to amend the form.  All I can do is wait for them to mail me a determination letter and appeal, throwing myself at the mercy of the state and telling them I totally forgot about the most important job I've had the past six years.  Wish me luck.

Whatever, fuck my life.