The waiting is the hardest part

My first week of being unemployed was spent looking around on Web sites like journalismjobs.com and usajobs.gov and tossing my resume around with reckless abandon.

What those and other sites showed me is that there's not a whole hell of a lot out there right now for unemployed journalists - especially ones that are passionate about science.

But I'm pretty much ready for a career change after two layoffs in the past two years anyway. So at this point I'm looking for science writing at a national lab or university or technical writing.

That said, it's still pretty barren out there.

I also decided that I would walk a half hour each day, try to find something creative to occupy my time and try to not get sucked into the malaise of the whole thing.

I've been partially successful, but it's still a bit of an up and down road - and not something that's easy to get used to after pretty much consistently having a job since I was 17.

I also spent time trying to get the unemployment office everything it needed. But it turned out in week 2 that they needed more paperwork - although I had to spend another hour on hold on the phone to find that out.

What they needed, they told me, was a scan of my drivers license and social security card.

I have a social security number, but no card. And they told me my passport was no good for that purpose.

So I rushed off to the social security office in Albuquerque, which I found through the federal Web site at www.ssa.gov.

That led me to my local office in Albuquerque at 4300 Cutler NE.

It takes up to two weeks to get an actual card in the mail - although I got mine in about a week. But in the meantime the office can give you a printout saying that you are who you say you are for the powers that be.

You'll also need to fill out the form here to get your card, if you don't have one: www.ssa.gov/ssnumber/

The social security office generally has long wait times before they see you. But I found out that at about 3 p.m. they expedite all the folks waiting to hand in their paperwork for a replacement card. That was extremely helpful, since I got there at about 2:30 that day.

Once that was done, I had to find a fax machine to get all that stuff to the unemployment office. Who uses faxes anymore anyway?

Fortunately I found one at one of those mailbox places, and sent it off.

That was followed by no confirmation on whether the office received it.

So, by Friday, that meant another long wait to get through on the phone to the office. When I finally got through, they referred me to another number of an actual auditor.

I left a message. No response.

I tried again later in the day and she picked up. She told me they received my fax and things should go through fine.

Today is Monday, August 17, and after filing another weekly claim on Sunday, I noted that it was denied again. So I called in again.

She told me there was another problem - I think the original problem I had in saying no to that question on my first claim. But she talked to somebody there at a nearby desk who told her it was cleared up. And she told me that the fax I sent should make my claim go through in 24-48 hours.

And so I wait.