Having recently attained my three month anniversary of freedom from the ranks of the overworked and underpaid, I have gained some perspective into the views of a large mass of people inhabiting this town. One, it's tough...but hey, it's tough all over right? Two, it can be fun if there is room for error (I'm a prime example, thanks amelia!). But the bottom line is that unemployment is not nearly as acceptable here as it is at home. Work here is a grind, a marathon of short weekends, long and/or normal hours backed up a measly few weeks vacation a year and the possibility of insurance. It seems eternal and I have no problem seeing the deeply grooved ruts people get into living this sort of life.
What i've come to realize over these months of idleness is that I'm not cut out for that type of rat race, that type of living, which I know is a direct result of living the peter pan lifestyle of the seasonal worker for the past twenty years. Yes, I did have the Cantina for five of those twenty years, but c'mon, if that wasnt fun and peterpan-ish no other job was. That place was like PeeWee's funhouse most of the time.
Looking for a job, scanning the want ads, craig's list, jobdango are all new activities for me, and ones that I have to say I dont like very much. I havent actually LOOKED for a job since I put an application in at Icicle Seafoods in the spring of 1989 to be a slimer! Part of the shrinking job market here has to do with so many people moving to the northwest out of the hellhole to the south that is California. Another is that the industry here is flooded with illegals. I speak from experience when I say this, and I have nothing against hiring illegals as they provide a valuable service to the industry that I have thrived in forever, but my wages at the job I just left were on par with what I made twelve years ago at Ray's Waterfront. There are more aliens willing to line cook, wash dishes, bus tables, bartend, janitor then there are jobs...hence the flooded market and depressed wages.
Guys on street corners, seasoned waiters working at TGIfriday's, chefs slinging pans for $9 an hour, resumes required for a moving company job (do you have experience moving a couch? nope, but I'm a fast learner.), it's all become a game as once you land a coveted $10/hour job, you hold onto it like your life depended on it. So I hold out in the hopes that I find what my heart desires and I try not to let it get to me. Many people wondered how I could leave my great job, working with my brother, running the show at a family style Italian restaurant where I liked the food and the people who worked there, without a safety net. Without some other job lined up already in these troubling economic times. It was easy. I didnt like it anymore and was done sacrificing for a paycheck.
Now that I have a commanding view of my economic landscape from the saddle of my high horse, I see that it's pretty bleak for guys like me who want out of the only industry they have ever really known but dont know where to turn next. The doors that opportunity knocks on are now weather beaten and worn down, maybe hanging from a broken hinge or two, but it's still knocking and as I sit in my proverbial easy chair with my ears cocked, I can faintly hear something happening outside.