Oh! Where do I even begin?

I imagine everyone is holding their breath to find out how this morning went. Well good and bad. On the plus side I made it on time to my appointment. Got there right as they were opening the doors. The bad part of that is that DSHS doesn't give a flying fuck about 'time'. I got there promptly at 8 so I could wait in a line for 10 minutes to tell them I was there. After which I got to sit on my ass for another hour and a half before finally hearing my name called. I went dutifully to window 7 to talk to the lady there who explained all about 'Work First'.

What is work first you ask? Let me tell you. Work first is a government conspiracy to separate mothers from their children as soon as is (quasi) morally acceptable in this country (3 months) and get said children as quickly as possible into some kind of state funded (of course it's state funded, they're paying for it) daycare. I'm sure others would disagree but that's my radical-unschooling-mom take on the thing. Work first works like this. You want money from the state they make you work for it. The first week you spend Monday-Friday in 'classes' designed to help you get a job. The classes are from 9-4 and both Shawn and I would have to go. Oh and did I mention that they would pay for our kids to be in daycare during that time. No problem. Finding a daycare provider in a week. No problem at all. Especially for two kids who have never been in daycare EVER!! And then in this program you have to make 15 job contacts per week. 15!!! To put that into perspective for unemployment you have to make 3. Not only that but you also have to accept any job offered to you. Not that that's too bad really but applying for 15 jobs a week you don't exactly get to be selective you know.

SO logistically what this means is I could end up working at McDonald's making slightly above minimum wage, Shawn could end up working at Taco Bell, our kids would be in daycare paid for by the state, and we would be no better off financially than we are now. I don't see how exactly this is working toward their goal of helping people provide for themselves financially and getting them off public assistance. It seems to me that it's just going to make them MORE dependent!

Anyway, I agreed to go on this program knowing I could quit as soon as Shawn starts getting his unemployment compensation.

And then I got to sit down and, to quote The Cat in The Hat, that is not all, OH NO that is not all! Then I got to wait some MORE!!

My sister who had given me a ride at Damn Early in the morning actually had an appointment at 11. Since she was there she asked them if they might be able to see her early. They agreed. So at 10:10 she got in to her appointment. While I waited. At about 10:35 she came out of her appointment. I was still waiting.

What you really need to understand at this point was I needed to PEE!!! So bad! But you don't dare pee before your appointment because if they call your name and you miss it they aren't very understanding. So I couldn't really hold it any more. Since my sister was back I handed her my coat and she said if they called my name she would come get me. As I reached for the bathroom door handle...they called my name!!! I kid you not! I'm cursed!!!

The lady I met with was nice. I had a whole list of documents I was supposed to bring with me. I was very stressed about them because many of them I didn't have since I got my letter for my appointment in the mail Friday evening and my appointment was first thing Monday morning. The good news is she didn't ask for ANY of it. She asked my for picture ID and called my landlady to verify my rent. That was pretty much it. After we filled out tons of stuff on her computer she disappeared for a while and returned to tell me that because Shawn has a 401K we are not eligible for cash assistance. At the same time if we withdrawal the 401K and spend it. Then we will be eligible. Apparently they want to make sure you're good and poor. None of this saving for retirement shit!

But what this also means is that I don't have to worry about the Work First program although I was assured that I could still do it if I anted to! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!! It also means I have absolutely no money until Shawn's unemployment comes through someday in the supposed future. *sigh*

In the end I walked out of DSHS after 3 1/2 hours with a EBT card (food stamps) with $371 on it, two bus passes, and tons of papers. I met up with my mom later in the day who gave me a huge box of diapers (remember NO MONEY means no diapers) and a $20 gift card to Safeway, which will help buy cigarettes for Shawn and gas when the car is moving again.

My brother In law is coming to work on the car tomorrow and my parents have offered $100 towards it's repair.

Tomorrow we're hopping on the bus of a ride to Outback to spend out Christmas gift certificates and maybe we'll stop by the video place and rent a movie with our free movie coupon.

Things aren't as bad as they could be.

: )

P.S. My sister and I came up with a plan. Take all the women in the DSHS office. Train half of them to work as social workers and help half of them make an on site daycare center for all the kids who come in and all the kids of the women who work there. Everyone would have jobs and as a bonus the actual social workers would have a clue about what it is to be poor. It's not perfect but it's a plan. :)