faulker009

I was dreamin' when I wrote this Forgive me if it goes astray   -- Prince, 1999 I’ve been writing A blog since the beginning of the year. I’ve been waiting to write THIS blog for nearly 23 months. I could wax poetic and build up the drama for the next 900 words, but instead let me cut to the chase: MY JOURNEY THROUGH UNEMPLOYMENT IS OVER. I have been offered a job and gladly accepted it. I will begin working again on Monday. And I can’t wait. I’ve been waiting for something to happen For a week or a month or a year   -- Jackson Browne, Lives in the Balance For nearly two years, I have been part of a growing group that is just looking for a chance. A group of people who have been dealt a bad hand through no fault of their own. A group of people who just want to start life all over again. A group of people who have been kind enough to embrace me as they connect with my story. Connect with my story from across my street and across the globe. I am so excited and so humbled to be...

The movie High Anxiety was a Mel Brooks classic. Not as classic as History of the World or Young Frankenstein or certainly not as epic as Blazing Saddles, but it was great. The feeling of High Anxiety sucks. It really sucks. It’s that pit in your stomach caused by stress. These days there are about a million legitimate reasons to be anxious. But usually for me, its the small stuff, you know the stuff that Richard Carlson told me not to sweat. Big life-changing events, piece of cake. Small stuff, PANIC ATTACK. The good news is once that small stuff moves from future tense to present tense, the pit somehow disappears. Pretty much immediately. Unfortunately I have gotten used to feeling that pit in my stomach, but I definitely sweat it. The source of the current pit is the upcoming back-to-school picnic. This is not just any back-to-school picnic. This is the picnic at the school where my wife is a teacher and my three kids attend. And the featured attraction of Monday’s picnic is... ...M...

There are as many emotions in unemployment as there are colors in the rainbow. Today, I am feeling them all. Anticipation, excitement, fear, sadness, excitement... This Thursday my anonymous blog will no longer be faceless. Last Friday morning, I woke up to five emails in my sirbacon mailbox. Four of them said I had won the Irish lottery. My apologies to two of my musical heroes, U2 and Sinead O’Connor, but I deleted those emails without opening them. But it was the fifth email that informed me that I had won the American lottery. I opened that email faster than my kids open a package from Santa. It was from a producer at CNN, who said she enjoyed my blog and wanted me to appear on their “30-Second Pitch” segment. For those of you at work during the day, that segment is where CNN gives unemployed people the opportunity to pitch themselves for 30 seconds to millions of viewers (and possible employers). Actually, it wasn’t me that she was contacting, but Sir Bacon, the kind-hearted facel...