New blog

Welcome to my new blog documenting this unique and finite period in my life. This blog will continue until 1. I get a job, or 2. I have a baby. In either case i will no longer be an unemployed mom to be. In the mean time I will use this blog to keep sane through a potentially stressful stretch.

We started trying to conceive last November. I started looking for work last September. So though I smoked pot in college and love beer and coffee, conceiving proved to be easier than landing a job in this freakin economy - though not by a lot!

I am blogging from a coffee shop in Brooklyn which is full of fellow bloggers, unemployed New Yorkers, and at least one very pregnant mama to be.

The day I took my first positive pregnancy test I did not believe the results. Was it a faint plus or a minus that I just wanted to be a plus? I waited till my husband got home and we ate dinner and tried to talk about other things before taking the 2nd test. It still had a plus but a disturbingly pale plus. My boobs had been throbbing for days, but I was convinced it was bad PMS. I sent Mr. T to the drug store to buy a new test at 9:00 PM. I wanted a non-generic that was impossible to misread. He returned with one that read PREGNANT or NOT PREGNANT, pretty unambiguous! and 2 pints of ice cream. People in the check out line gave him funny looks. It said PREGNANT in no uncertain terms. We ate all the ice cream.

Finding a job is kind of like finding a husband, there are millions of potential ones out there but you only have to click with one to make it all work. But as my single friends can attest finding that one is way harder than you can ever imagine!

Here are a list of jobs that I have had interviews for, sometimes multiple interviews, in the last year. They all felt kind of like blind dates that wouldn't end:

1. Conference organizer for NYC grassroots media conference
2. Educational distribution manager for a documentary about Iraq
3. Temporary director of street vendor project - Urban Justice Center
4. Journalist Assistance Program Associate (Committee to Protect Journalists) 3 interviews and a test!
5. Site Development manager, Jewish Funds for Justice - worst interview of my life.

I will be updating this blog with my favorite Craigslists job postings from any given day. Potential jobs that I can't imagine ever being desperate enough to apply for.

Here is today's. It goes on way too long, so it's just half of it, but you should get the idea!

Do You Strike Up Conversations With Strangers in Elevators? (Manhattan/Brooklyn)

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Date: 2009-10-07, 2:03PM EDT
Reply to: job-4jt7m-1410762905@craigslist.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

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Hi. Even for Craig's List, this is going to be a strange ad. But read on – it’s strange but legit.

I'm a single, straight guy, in my early 40’s, recently moved to NYC, with almost no social circle here (and, even worse, I work on my own). No history of mental illnesss, jail time or listening to country music. Moving to NY has been fantastic, but the one thing is, I have been finding it hard to meet women. So I’m doing the normal, typical, rational thing that any guy in my position would do -- I'm looking to hire a female "wingman," that is, a "wingwoman," to break the ice for me in social situations.

Strange but true.

This is a real job I'm offering; it's not a personal ad in disguise, and I’m not a Nigerian scammer or a reality show producer, either. Perhaps more surprisingly, I'm also not a freak, weirdo or serial killer - I am just not good at walking up to a woman I don't know and getting beyond "Hi" and I want to do something about it. (Basically, I want to avoid this guy’s fate.)

This would be a part-time, occasional gig. Get-togethers would be in Manhattan or Brooklyn; sometimes weekend afternoons, sometimes evenings. (Generally speaking, NOT in bars or nightclubs. I am more of a Brooklyn Flea / The Moth / Big Terrific / Midsummer Night Swing type of guy. This is also my kind of thing.) Probably 2-5 hours per stint. We would only meet in public places and I would pay you ($20/hour) cash.

And you don't have to be single or even "unattached" to apply - there's no "hanky panky" involved. (I really don’t care if you have a boyfriend, girlfriend or significant other, as long as that person knows about and is cool with the situation.)

If you want to know more details about the arrangement, check out these articles:

Are You With Him? Why Yes, Want to Date Him?

Wingwomen (8 pages long)

I am NOT looking for someone to “lure” 100 unsuspecting women my way so I can sleep with and then dump them. This is SO not about that. At this point in my life, I’m not looking for 100 women, I’m looking for ONE special one. This is all about Quality Over Quanity.

And I’m probably going to hire several different “wingwomen,” part-time, depending on who’s interested in doing what kinds of things.