All in the family

I sit here the day before perhaps my favorite holiday a bit perplexed. On the one hand I wake up each day and am reminded of my unemployment. My wife leaves for work to go win us bread (and works had for it) and I get up. It's important to me not to treat this gap in employment as a vacation and sleep in or stay out late. I stick to the same schedule. I look for jobs and play Mr. Kept Husband and tend to the house all day. Sometimes I feel the cat mocks my efforts with his lazy glares at me. I must fight through the desire to bake him in a pie. So far so good on that note.

So that constant reminder of my failure to have a job can get me down. The industry I'm looking for jobs in is very competitive. Just yesterday on one job hosting web site there were five full pages of jobs for designers. The number of writer jobs? One. Not one page -- one entry. I winced. So the risk of slipping into a dismal depression over my situation is always looming. I'm sure others have shared it. I try to stay optimistic but I know one day if this stretches too far I'll lose it. My goal is stay on top.

So, on the other hand of that lovely episode there's the holidays. When I can get past the fact that it's the most EXPENSIVE time of year I start to enjoy it. The gifts and travel and everything else add up and send my mind wandering to bad Grapes of Wrath-type place. But only for a moment, because I know we're responsible people, The J and I. This time of year brings my entire family together under one roof. We're minus one aunt who will no doubt be looking down. But we've added three little ones. An entire new generation of our family to raise. I'm thankful they -- and everyone -- are around. We've all been touched somehow by misfortune recently and when we can all come together and be merry and for just two or three hours forget all of that it's truly wonderful. That and the pie. The pie is wonderful, too.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for the togetherness as well as the fact that it's the start of a festive season. Everything's kicked off on this day. By the time Christmas comes around the stress has piled up and by New Years Eve you're just ready to say "for fuck's sake, how much more of this celebrating and family and good will toward men can I take?" Everyone's excited on Thanksgiving and I like that.

So no matter if I let my situation get the best of me. I can remind myself of the good things that surround me with my family and great friends. It's more than enough to keep me going.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Leave your troubles at home. They won't miss you while you're gone and they'll be there when you get back. So break away and just fucking enjoy yourself for a little while.

Still hunting

Finally got in with unemployment. Now I wait for the paperwork. No job leads just yet, so the search continues.

In other news, I'm very much looking forward to Turkey Day next week. The endless supply of food and pie makes it more exciting that Christmas. And now that I'm married I get two of them. Nice.

It's quiet

Day four of unemployment. I spent the entire weekend updating my portfolio. Thankfully I had a feeling things were going south at work and decided to start pulling pieces and putting a new book together about two weeks ago. I hate it when I'm right.

Some things I've discovered while unemployed:
1. You can't pass up a free meal, or for that matter an easy way to make a buck.
2. Downtown KC is just as dead in midday as it is after 5pm.
3. Notaries are picky, picky ladies.
4. Kansas is more generous with unemployment payments than Missouri. It's worth the impossible hold times and getting hung up on by an automated system.
5. The Missouri Unemployment office's hold music is of the trance/techno variety. Who knew?

Tomorrow will be more calls to the Unemployment office and contacting some people for possible freelance work. Here's hoping I reach 'em both.

I've joined the ranks...

To all those in uniform

Today we humble civilians salute you. Thank you for your service. Happy Veteran's Day.

Amazon.com isn't the only one who thinks the end is near...

I think I'll be staying inside a lot this winter. Not because of the cold or the fact that my money is about as valuable as saw dust in this economy. But because it appears that in the sweeping, monumental, hope-filled victory of "that one" (also referred to as Mr. President Elect) my fellow Kansas Citians are stocking up on semi-automatic weapons. Just in time for Christmas and wishes of peace on Earth.

Why, guys? Why? I get the whole Second Amendment "right to bear arms" argument. It was valid all the way up to about 120 years ago. Now that we have things like paved roads, penicillin and indoor plumbing I think the "God-given right" to keep a gun in my pants AT ALL TIMES has been forfeited. But many disagree with me and, I assume under the assumption that President Obama is the harbinger of the End of Times, decided that a shiny new gas operated, magazine-fed, high-powered rifle with 4x optical zoom scope, bipod and a firing rate of 250 rounds per minute seemed like a practical purchase.

It's ironic to think that within hours of our election of a man who many across the globe think will play a major role in helping to re-stabilize our world that many Americans go out and buy a gun. But not just any gun. Not a pistol. Not even a shotgun. But a semi-automatic assault rifle. Their argument? If the United States is ever invaded they'll be fighting and I'll be dying. Forget that right now there's no nation that can logistically invade this country. We're buddies with China, Russia and all of Europe (even France). North Korea is a joke. Iran would be literally turned into beaded glass by the US and 10 other nations before its first boat launched in our direction. Al Qaeda used remote control bombs on cars and vests. The United States hasn't been invaded by an army in 196 years (that's 1812, by the way). Times were a bit different back then. Oh, and lest we forget that in the event of a foreign invasion the list for defense goes as such:

Army/Navy/Air Force/Marine Corps
National Guard
Coast Guard
LAPD
Celebrities
Old ladies with hand bags
Nut jobs with guns in their closets

I don't hate guns (as long as they're not pointed at me). I understand that many former military and police officers, who were trained to think being without a guns means you will die, like to have them around. THEY'RE ALSO HIGHLY TRAINED IN TWO THINGS: GUN SAFETY AND DISCRETION. Have gun, will use it only when life is threatened. I don't have that same confidence in "normal" (used loosely) people who decide that a gun makes them impervious to crime or more importantly, fear.

I live downtown. Violent and nonviolent crimes occur within blocks of my home each night. I feel safe downtown. I don't need a gun to feel safe. I feel safe mostly because I have nothing of value to anyone, I don't wander around alone at 3am and I keep a low profile. Maybe if I were ever held up at gun point I'd feel different about owning a gun. I hope I never find out.

I do know that if the end is near and chaos is about to ensue then I won't need to buy a gun. If I do want a gun I can just pick up a shiny, gently-used AK-47 off the ground, because there will be plenty of them lying around after people have killed each other over left over Chipotle tortilla chips and gasoline.

Read more about guns in KC here.

And now we can go back to not watching CNN and skipping normal annoying commercials...

I've neglected you, blog. And for that I apologize. Not a whole lot has gone down in Patrick-land recently. Keeping busy at work and with Ad Club. We just wrapped up the annual charity casino night, Art of the Deal. That was a hoot. Yes, a hoot. We undoubtedly raised some good money for a good cause.

It's a bit late to bring up the election, but I think a dense haze of joy will be cast over many of us for months to come. I voted in Missouri for the first time to do my part to swing the state to a Democrat. I don't think that worked. Doesn't matter. The rest of the country didn't fuck things up. THANK GOD. You can't dispute that Obama has a massive Cult Of Personality that's attracted a herd of supporters around the world in the hundreds of millions. Some think he's the messiah. That's scary. But he represents what the world has been looking for: just a fucking break from the gaffes, mistakes, explosions and scandals of the Bush presidency.

But there is something about him and what he brings to global politics that is refreshing. He's different from what America has had to put up with for the past eight years. My Republican friends mourn his victory like it's a tragedy akin to 9/11. to them there was something about Obama that they saw through. Whatever the case may be he's now their President elect. He rode to victory on a tidal wave of promises. Promises Americans expect him to keep, because as cliche as the topic of change became in the run for the white house, it's no less true. American needs to change her ways to stay on top and avoid a slip out of the world power arena. Now President Obama will have to prove himself to the Americans who didn't vote for him. Here's hoping he can.

I personally feel relief that he won. Not just because I'm a Democrat. Not just because he's a mixed-race man who round-house kicked 200+ years of American separatism in the face by getting elected. But because he's a humble man with ideas about how he, his cabinet, his world-wide partners in leadership in Europe and Asia and beyond and everyday people like you and me can change the world for the better. To know that outcome is possible makes me feel so hopeful that maybe the world isn't turning entirely to shit. Here's our chance to fix it. Or START fixing it at least.

It's been said the night is always darkest before dawn. I think this nation is about to wake up to a brilliant sunrise that brings warm, gleaming rays of change as the sun's fingers grasp the horizon and illuminate us all in hope.

I'm proud to say I support that. And I look forward to the ride we're all in for.