No progress at all on the job front. I send in applications in waves; I apply for anything I am even remotely qualified or capable of. Rare are the times I here back, and rarer still (so rare, in fact, I've yet to see one) are the times I've actually had a decent chance at the job. The issue always comes down to my lack of experience; specifically in retail. I spent the first five years of my working life washing dishes, and the next two moving boxes. While in times past, before the economic crisis, this stability may have been seen as an asset. Instead, I am but one in a hundred applications passing over their desk; that day/week of training I will require over the teenage girl who has worked five jobs over the course of her two years in the workforce (most of which in retail and none for more than six months, typically) gets me sifted into the Do Not Call pile. I wait the requisite 60-90 days and reapply. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Likewise, progress on the automobile (referred to henceforth by her proper name, Eris, Goddess of Discord) has been forestalled. Not only do I have no money with which to make personal progress, but the man I'm buying it from- once a family friend- is being... less than honest. Having paid him what he was owed, which is a great deal more than what the car is worth, he is withholding the title to the car in hopes of weaseling more money out of the deal. This will not stand, of course, and will end either with a title in my hand, or a phone call to some friends who will make her disappear in pieces. Not a call I'd like to make of course, I have very much fallen in love with Eris, but I will not be held over a barrel. Fortune favors me if I can wrestle the title from his greedy hands, however, and I will try my best to do so.
As for life after that.. without the momentum of a steady paycheck, not much can be done about it. I will say this, though; time, as well as my patience, grows ever short. In the last month we have had several new tenants under our roof; among them a young cousin abandoned by his father, an older cousin reformed from a life of bad decisions, and a pit bull puppy saved from a life of dog fighting. Also frequently residing under our roof is the brother of the younger cousin, who is, to say the least, a bad seed. He is taking advantage of my mother's generosity and I can not stand for it. Deception, thievery, and drugs are his tools of choice, and he has been caught, repeatedly. It is times like these when I become painfully aware of how out-of-place I am. It should not be my problem that my mother chooses to give shelter to a rake who intends to rob her blind. I should have an opinion, certainly, but I should not be here, this should not affect me so directly, and it pains me that there is still so little I can do to correct that.
I have so much ahead of me, and so much behind, but so little in my hands right now. It is disheartening at times, surely, but I can only keep my head down and hope that, so long as I keep moving forward, I will eventually find my way out of the storm.
