10/03

I haven't been meaning to neglect my blog since the terrible duo of Hurricane Rita and Katrina. My life has turned upside down recently, or should I say, right side up.

I was working as a VISTA Volunteer with a nutritional program at the Houston Food Bank, hence my complete ignorance of all things having to do with the warehouse and food distribution. Well, my friend Jenna at the Food Bank just moved to Philly to pursue a law career, leaving her position open. My whole application and interview process was kept confidential, but in under a week I was hired and had moved offices. I am no longer a volunteer; forced to live at 110% of the poverty line.....let me tell you from first hand experience, it isn't pretty down there in that economic bracket.

My new position is a Grant Writer and Researcher. I have a salary, health benefits, life insurance, 401k, and sick leave. More importantly though, I look forward to going to work where my supervisors value my skills and opinions. Oh, another nice benefit is that I'm off welfare, but I'll have to write more about my experiences as a single Mom on every government program that would support Zac and I another time. Most people at this point in their writing would say something like, "I'm not proud of going on government assistance, but *sigh* I did what I had to to for my family to survive." I say, "SCREW THAT!" Hell yeah, I proud of all of the phone calls, faxes, visits, and forms I had to fill out just to keep Zac and I as healthy as possible.

It isn't the poor that is lazy, it's the rich. The folks in the upper classes know that they can go to the store and buy whatever they need, go to the doctor and not care how much the visit costs because they have the comfort of the health insurance, and walk into the daycare center with their head held high because they paid their bill on-time.

But for me, I'm back in the comfortable middle class. Snug as a bug and smiling all the way to work.