i win.

It's not a victory along the lines of getting Exactly The Right Job or anything, but still, I win.

The trouble is, I'm completely, comprehensively, thoroughly employable, but I'm having some trouble getting the word out. I've spent the past week or so sending resumes all over town, applying for things through craigslist and USAJobs and the WaPo classifieds and so on, and registering with every temp agency I can think of. Getting slowly nowhere. On the better days, it's frustrating; on the worse days, it's driving me to tears. There is a minor bright side in that I looked at my credit card statement and my bank balance a week or so ago and realized that I can actually make it for a few more weeks like this, so while it's not like I want to, at least I'm not quite sinking like a stone. But I can't go spending money like a mad thing for these few weeks, of course. So I have stuff stacked in corners of my apartment pending the acquisition of furniture -- I have bookshelves (though not enough), but no video racks. I have hangers in the closet, but no dresser. I have one overhead light in the living room here, but no lamps. (I've been reading at night by the light of my lava lamp, because it's the only thing I can switch off without getting out of bed.) I do have a bed, because I can finance it over 28 months for the same price as paying cash up front. :-)

So anyway, this afternoon, finally, one of the temp agencies called, and I'm going in tomorrow morning for the testing and the interview and so on. It's not a proper job interview, but it's something, thank god. Something has to be done with my hair, so I was going out to get some hair clips (all I have is rubber bands), and it occurred to me to try on my suits -- which are both a little snug. Usable, but not great. It would be better if I got something else to wear for the interviews that I hope to have in rapid succession any day now. (Incidentally, I've actually lost weight recently. A lot of my clothes are fitting looser than I'm used to. How this adds up to my suits fitting too tightly, I don't know.) Struck out at Old Navy, where they used to have stuff a person could wear to work but where they now have very little I'd wear out of the house (caveat: this may just be that store, which is kept in very bad shape), so I headed to the mall, where through a series of good fortunes and benevolent salesfolk and so on, I got me a three-piece Tahari suit originally priced at $300 for

(wait for it)

$79.96.

I totally win.