All I can say is wow

I know it's been a long time since I posted anything, but it's been a busy time since then and much has happened.

Let's start with the bad news first, last May I was laid off from my job at a major aerospace company here in Everett. I'd been with the company 11 years, but I'd just changed careers about a year before and ended up ranked low because of lack of experience in that job. In addition to this, my ex-wife continued to actively avoid paying child support and as of this time owes almost $2000 in unpaid support. She was paying occassionally over the last couple of months, but mainly because her paycheck was being garnished by the state. She's lost that job, and does not appear to be seriously looking for another one.

I've been looking for work without success for almost a year now. I filed for unemployment when my severance ran out and even signed up for ProjectHIRE, a partnership between Washington State DVR and WorkSource. I only got one interview in that entire time, and because I've been out of IT work for almost two years, didn't get the job in the end.

Now for the good news, my wife returned to work both as a substitute teacher at one school district and as a private tutor. This has been just enough to help us just scrape by and not loose the house (but we did get rid of cable and suspend Netflix.) More recently my employer petitioned for Trade Act coverage for their laid off employees, and because of this I'm going back to school. I start next month.

So in short, I lost my job, my wife got two part time jobs and I'm going back to school while my ex is still a dead beat parent. More exciting news to come I'm sure. I may write about ProjectHIRE, dealing with unemployment and the joy of filling out tons of paperwork for a federal program in the next couple of days.