When I Paint My Masterpiece, It Will Be In Red Colored Font

For those who have been following this blog for a while, you will know that I have a hard time with cover letters. Or, well, not really a hard time with them.  More a hard time writing the same old, boring, self puff pieces that you're supposed to write.

No.  I have to pontificate.  I have to make the reader giggle.  I have to be slightly unprofessional.  You know, much like this blog.  And then I hope all of the customer service awards listed on my resume will show the employer that I am *very* professional when it comes to actually dealing with customers, members, and leadership.

Well, today, I actually applied for a social media job for a place that probably won't hire me.  Like so many times before.  The difference is that this one didn't require a writing sample.  But I gave them one anyway.  I looked at their Twitter and Facebook presence - and I stared it down.

This was what came out...

Dear Sir or Madam,

When your potential Twitter audience is half the population of the United States (at base, since women care about the men in their live's health as well) and you have just over 5,000 Twitter followers, you've got, as the famous movie line said, "a failure to communicate." But my name is Michael Goldman and I think I can help. I would be interested in applying for your association's open Communications - Internet and Web position.

I know that my opening might come off as harsh since 5,000 followers isn't a bad number for an association. I have applied at many places with a lot fewer Twitter followers. But what I can tell immediately from looking at your account is that you're not engaging these followers. Web 3.0 is about engagement and user-generated content, not press releases. Your Twitter presence is currently talking at your members and potential donors and not even asking them to participate. The lack of "@" signs (and comments and likes on Facebook) is a tell-tale sign of this. You've taken the first step toward a turnaround by posting for a web-specific communications position.
If you decide to interview and hire me for this position, you will have taken the next step toward a great advocacy and fundraising future.

While I do not have a formal degree in Marketing, in the time since I was last in a job, I have taken it upon myself to learn the ins and outs of social media. From my own (limited) funds, I attended the recent Social Media for Non-Profits seminar in Washington D.C. I have learned the intricacies of TweetDeck and WordPress to supplement the skills that I had already attained in InDesign and Photoshop in my past. I even know my Klout score - it's 60. Your organization's is 38. If you don't know what a Klout score is, then you need me, or someone like me, even more. Again, I've seen worse. But I can make you better.

If you are looking for proof of my skills, they can be found at http://twitter.com/#!/greenmind0428.  Though, trust me, I am much more professional in my business dealings. My multiple customer service and employee of the month awards should be proof of that.

My resume and salary history, as requested, are attached. I am always available at the contact points below to answer any questions. Should you feel my qualifications fit this position, I would look forward to discussing the position more in-depth with you.

Sincerely,
Michael Goldman
xxxxxx
xxxxxx
xxxxxx
twitter.com/greenmind0428

I do want the job.  But since I haven't heard back from any other marketing positions yet, I just let full guns rip.  We'll see what happens.  As it stands, even if there are errors in it, this will be my masterpiece of a cover letter until the end of my working days.

How I Spent The Thirty-Third Week Of The Rest Of My Life

After last week's mad resume sending frenzy, this week has been much slower.  I keep waking up every morning saying that I'm going to send resumes all day but then end up playing around on my computer and napping a lot.

And yesterday when I went into the city, I was rudely interrupted on my job search by an earthquake!  The nerve.  The funny thing is that it happened immediately after I applied for the job that I have wanted the least of any of the jobs that I've applied for.  Not to be all Eric Cantor (whose district, suspiciously, the earthquake was epicentered in), but maybe that was a sign that I've hit rock bottom in the job search.

Though I still have over 30 bookmarks that I want to apply for before September 1.

The irony of my sudden lack of job searchiness is that I ran out of unemployment last week.  I'm eligible for an extension which I'm going to file for.  But I feel guilty since I didn't really apply for many jobs before I moved here to Washington D.C.  Though I think that I'm still unemployed is punishment enough for that.  I have enough money to survive on for a while without it (especially since I put my money market money into my checking account since it was losing value where it was).

That's one more thing to put on my to-do list.  At least I can be not lazy enough to finish this blog today.

Here's how I "spent" last week:

TUESDAY, AUGUST 16 (Free)

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17 ($21.32)

• 11:29 a.m. Washington Sports Club - Free.  I didn't really get out of bed on Tuesday.  It was pathetic.  It seems like I can only start my week with a trip to the gym.
• 12:39 p.m. vFalafel - $8.75.  If there's one thing that I've learned that D.C. kind of loves even more than Chicago, it's a falafel.  One of my friends gave this a good review on Yelp so I tried it.  Can't say I was a fan. And it was expensive and in Dupont Circle.
• 12:57 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  Trying out yet another nice Starbucks in Dupont Circle led me to apply for a lot of jobs.  So many that I forgot that I was in the area to go to a museum.
• 4:29 p.m. Kramerbooks & Afterwards Cafe - Free.  I decided that I was going to buy a marketing reference book to more formalize my training in the subject.  Kramerbooks, not surprisingly, is kind of short on business books.
• 5:23 p.m. Barnes & Noble - Free.  Going into a Barnes & Noble hurt every fiber of my being.  But there are no Borders left to go into.  They didn't have any books I wanted either.  Especially offensive was one about learning marketing from the Grateful Dead.
• 5:57 p.m. Union Station - $8.57.  Since I didn't really feel well from lunch, I decided to go for Sbarro instead of Taco Bell.  Just to switch it up.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 18 ($31.33)

• 10:31 a.m. FedEx Office - $5.04.  I decided not to wait any longer to liquidate my money market since it was  declining and I needed the security blanket.  Of course they wanted me to fill out all sort of paperwork.  So it was back to my "office" again.
• 12:09 p.m. U.S. Post Office - Cleveland Park - $.54.  To be even more annoying, I had to mail in the forms. They wouldn't accept a fax.
• 12:37 p.m. Naan and Beyond - $8.75.  I figured that a standalone location of this store would be better.  It was still absolutely disgusting.  But other people seem to love it.
• 1:33 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  This was more of a mercy Starbucks since my stomach was not happy with the crappy Indian food.  And there wasn't much seating anyhow so I didn't apply for many jobs.
• 3:18 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  I had planned on watching the Fulham match at Lucky Bar.  They were closed.  At Fado, I found out that it wasn't being shown.  So, this is not a misprint.  I was buzzing!
• 5:39 p.m. Washington Sports Club - Free.  Even though I was planning on exercising drunk, exercising while circling the ceiling on a caffeine high was just as good.  I needed to burn some of it off, or I wasn't going to sleep.
• 8:33 p.m. Katerina's Greek Cuisine - $9.00.  There were "flash flood" speed restrictions on the VRE on the way home.  Getting to Manassas in-between the two late buses meant I had time.  I wanted to get something different than their delicious veggie pita, but I was trying to save money.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19 ($42.11)

• 11:51 a.m. GW Bookstore - Free.  I decided to get academic in my search.  Of course I accidentally chose a college where marketing is just a business specialty and not its own degree.  So they didn't have an intro type book.
• 12:44 p.m. Big Cheese Truck - $6.75.  Sadly, food trucks are my cheapest lunch options.  I should just stick to them whenever I go into the city.
• 1:23 p.m. National Geographic Museum - $8.00.  This was my last possibly chance to check out their exhibit on Antarctic exploration.  It's a cool museum.  I just wish it were free since the exhibits change all the time.
• 3:34 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  I went to the Starbucks on K Street.  It didn't really help my job searching much since it was a really loud location.
• 5:41 p.m. Barnes & Noble - $23.36.  Since I couldn't find anything better, I bought Marketing for Dummies. Reading it on the way home, it's not as academic as I'd like it to be, but it does serve its purpose.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 20 (Free)

SUNDAY, AUGUST 21 ($15.14)

• 5:23 p.m. County Center Owner's Association Clubhouse - Free.  Returning to the condo's fitness center reminded me why I joined a gym in the city.  But since I wasn't planning on going back into town any time soon, I figured going here was for the best.
• 7:27 p.m. Amici's Restaurant - $9.00.  I had pretty much run out of food in the condo so I was really hungry by the time I got to this buffet.  So worth it!
• 7:58 p.m. Harris Teeter - $6.14.  Everyone who has ever been to a Harris Teeter knows this was a miracle.  Surprisingly, they have .75 cent burritos.  I mean, it's no Aldi.  But it's tons closer.

MONDAY, AUGUST 22 (Free)

So that's $109.90.  And that included buying a book that I can read while I'm sitting at home applying for jobs all day and night.  When I get to that.  Tomorrow will be better!  Then after Friday in the city it's an all-out resume blitz next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before I call the temp agency on September 1!  My total spent since I've been unemployed is $6637.39.

How I Spent The Thirty-Second Week Of The Rest Of My Life

This was another busy week of absolutely no results.  Thursday marked the one month anniversary of my all out resume blitz.  And still not a single place of the 50 that I sent to last month have called me back about an interview (including those that I sent to after correcting the phone number on the document).

I still have a lot more to send.  Though I do need to locate a professional writing sample.  It's hard to believe I never sent myself a copy of anything that I drafted for work to my personal account to work on at home.  I'm sure that I did, in fact.  But I must have deleted them from my e-mail.  And the hard copies are on my desktop computer.  Which is sitting in storage with no monitor.  It's like past me is the greatest enemy of future me.

Having read up on what constitutes a good writing sample, people recommend that you don't send blogs (unless they have to do with the subject matter you'll be writing about at a job) or creative writing.  And while my Yelp reviews have gotten plaudits, they're not the kind of hard hitting, tear inducing, wallet opening sort of writing that non-profits are trying to look for in their marketing efforts.

And according to this article from Psychology Today, writing samples are supposed to avoid humor at all costs: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/career-transitions/200906/the-dreaded-writing-sample

For those who knew me at my old job toward the end, never was I so humorless in my writing.

The only hopeful article that I've read on the writing sample was one that I can't find the link to right (almost spelled it the wrong way there) now is one that said, "they're just trying to make sure you don't write like an 8-year-old."

What's ironic is that I *know* tons of people who do write like 8-year-olds who are gainfully employed.  And, yet, I've consistently been given good reviews on my writing of all sorts and can't find a silly sample.  Guh!  Then again, for the positions that I'm applying for, in general, the people I'm applying against are all excellent writers.

Speaking of which, I have been working hard on my marketing skill set as well.  I'm currently reading "Marketing for Dummies."  Yes, I know that's silly.  But I looked for marketing text books at the George Washington University bookstore yesterday and couldn't find any.  I'm going to look online when I'm done with this.  There's also an online marketing certificate that I can take.  But I'm guessing that's worthless.

If something doesn't happen in the next week, I'm definitely going to need to figure out what I'm doing wrong again.  This feels like a process instead of something that I'm succeeding at with what I'm already doing.

Here's how I "spent" last week:

TUESDAY, AUGUST 9 ($15.75)

• 12:19 p.m. G. Richard Pfitzner Baseball Stadium - $15.75.  The Baby Red Sox were in town and it was a day game.  So I decided to go.  The Salem Red Sox actually won this time, so it was a pretty perfect day.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10 ($33.06)

• 12:41 a.m. Subway - $6.09.  Since I had spent so much the week before, I decided to stick close to home and apply for jobs at the closest Starbucks.  And get Subway so I could be carbed up to do so.
• 12:52 a.m. Great Clips - $18.00.  I felt scruffy and felt that perhaps getting a haircut would make me feel more up to applying for a lot of jobs.
• 1:56 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  The staff at this Starbucks should know me better than at any Starbucks in the city.  This is not the case right now.  I intend to change that.
• 4:40 p.m. Harris Teeter - $4.97.  I was out of food at home.  But I was good and just bought one night's worth of dinner.  Though it was pretty shocking how much that cost.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 11 ($33.81)

• 11:11 a.m. Washington Sports Club - Free.  Since I hadn't been back to the city since I signed up for my membership, I wasn't really neglecting it.  But this first workout hurt a lot.  I really had been neglecting fitness.
• 12:27 p.m. Chinatown Express - $7.00.  After working out, I always crave cheap Chinese food.  And since I work out in Chinatown, this could get dangerous.  But at least it's pretty cheap.
• 1:04 p.m. Curbside Cupcakes - $3.00.  Even though I wanted to get to work sending in resumes, I couldn't pass up the food truck since it was so close.  I ate my cupcake walking to Starbucks.
• 1:27 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  This was a very active day.  I sent in four resumes.  It was also the day that I discovered that they all had the wrong phone number on them.
• 5:06 p.m. Safeway - $17.81.  As has been the case a lot recently (since I've only been buying one week at a time), I was running out of food.  I managed to hit all the bargains and only bought one box of Cheez-Its.
• 6:42 p.m. Simply Sweet On Main - $2.00.  I actually wanted to send out more resumes (with the corrected phone number), but my brain was fried.  Even an Italian soda couldn't save it.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 12 ($14.00)

• 11:54 a.m. Truckeroo - $10.00.  When I walked in, I had thought that I had eaten at most of the trucks that I wanted to try.  But they had brought in some Arlington trucks for some freshness.  I managed to keep my meal lightish on the wallet.
• 12:56 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  After some major revisions, I was ready to send my resume out into the wild again.  My brain would not, however, cooperate due to how late I stayed up revising it the night before.
• 3:30 p.m. Washington Sports Club - Free.  Going to the gym after Starbucks didn't particularly help to wake my brain up.  But it did mean that I got two workouts in this week.
• 4:39 p.m. Fado Irish Pub - Free.  My friend had a gift certificate that he had won during the World Cup and I got a free boxty.  Since I pretty much take the VRE every day now, it was convenient to get home.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 13 (Free)

SUNDAY, AUGUST 14 ($11.14)

• 7:07 p.m. Walgreens - $4.99.  I could no longer survive well without replenishing my Benadryl.  I think it's part of the reason that my brain was getting foggy.  My sinuses had been keeping me up all night.
• 7:18 p.m. 7-Eleven - $6.15.  Since I was already walking home by it, I decided to grab some bad burritos and a Slurpee.

MONDAY, AUGUST 15 ($28.88)

• 10:17 a.m. Washington Sports Club - Free.  After a weekend of nearly complete inactivity, I decided to get to the gym first thing in the morning.  Even if it meant the trip on the Metro was a bit more expensive.
• 11:25 a.m. Chipotle - $7.00.  Nothing else seemed very appetizing before noon.  But I was absolutely starving.  I think I ate my burrito bowl in record time.
• 12:02 a.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  Since I planned on watching the soccer match at Fado, I decided not to walk the extra few blocks to my normal Starbucks.  The Chinatown one is pretty amazing.
• 2:55 p.m. Fado - $14.00.  The crowd seemed to all be Australians on vacation, but it was still an enjoyable time.  Especially after Manchester City decided to wake up and beat Swansea 4-0.
• 6:01 p.m. Union Station - $3.88.  I had chips at Fado, but I was drunk and couldn't wait to get home to eat.  So Taco Bell it was.

So that's $136.64. But it was well worth it since I was in the city and, therefore, excited to be looking for work.  It was expensive to go there so much (though I went four times this week), but I figure it's preparing me to wake up every morning and take on the world once I do get a job.  My total spent since I've been unemployed is $6527.49.

How I Spent The Thirty-First Week Of The Rest Of My Life

That was quite a busy week.  Usually when I sleep away a Saturday afternoon, I feel guilty.  But not this week.  I sent out 15 resumes between Monday and Friday (even with USAjobs.gov pretty much taking the week off due to technical issues).  But, in reality, I might have only have sent out two that were any good.  Ever.  See, my dad volunteered to look over my resume.  And he discovered a huge error.

For the last seven months, I have been sending out a resume with an incorrect phone number on it.

It hasn't been intentionally of course.  It was just a mistype.  But, looking at it dozens of times, I never noticed this particular error.  There was something funny on The Colbert Report about trusting all of our data to the cloud instead of our minds.  And, apparently, I have done this with my own phone number on my resume right from jump street.

This either really got in the way if potential employers have been trying to contact me.  Or it hasn't gotten in the way at all.  If an employer saw that the number (hopefully correct) that I have been entering on my application is different than my resume, that's a major error that could wind my resume in the garbage.  And, since I even put in an e-mail that one organization had a typo in the address for their human resources department, the fact sometimes makes me look like a hypocrite.

It's a good thing that I still have 38 bookmarks on idealist.org that I need to send in my new resumes to.  Hopefully, without any huge typos in my cover letters.  I've been spending all day drafting new ones in various Starbucks until my eyes have went blurry.  The only reason I didn't send in more was that a lot of the jobs I've wanted to apply to required writing samples.  And I never recovered those from my old job.  That's another task for next week.

I can only imagine the typos in those.

Here's how I "spent" last week:

TUESDAY, AUGUST 2 ($45.65)

• 11:23 a.m. Capital One Bank (Market Square) - Free.  After collection all of the change that I had built up over the past three months (even) that I had lived in D.C., I was able to cash in almost $30.00.  I put it in savings.
• 12:03 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  In order to make it to a place with working wi-fi to see the Senate pass the debt ceiling bill, I decided to do my job searching before lunch.  Of course, I ended up looking for no jobs and just watching Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid's summations.
• 1:34 p.m. FedEx Office - $2.34.  I printed out my freshly newly redesigned resumes.  With an incorrect phone number.  Ugh!
• 2:12 p.m. Naan & Beyond - $8.83.  While I don't hold it against their standalone locations, I did not like this one in a food court off of Pennsylvania Avenue.  Fast food Indian can really be done wrong.
• 3:03 p.m. Safeway - $28.48.  Sadly, almost a third of the bill was two boxes of Cheez-Its.  The rest of my shopping for the week was a little over $20.00.
• 5:01 p.m. Simply Sweet on Main - $2.00.  I returned to the little coffee shop in downtown Manassas and got an Italian soda.  One time, when I feel better, I'm going to need to get ice cream.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3 (Free)

THURSDAY, AUGUST 4 ($19.77)

• 11:24 a.m. Roti Mediterranean Grill - $8.52.  This Roti is the closest one to a Chicago location that I have found in Washington D.C.  I rarely have reason to be in Foggy Bottom or I would be a regular.
• 11:54 a.m. Washington Circle Park - Free.  I had just wrote a Yelp review involving George Washington so I decided to check out the only statue of him in D.C.  It's kind of pathetically small.
• 12:53 a.m. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History - Free.  Even though I really wanted to see what I hadn't in this museum, I just didn't feel well still.  Though I did enjoy the exhibit of Rastafarianism.
• 2:21 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  Despite my health shortcomings, I felt the need to submit some resumes at the Starbucks.  My eyes held out better than at the Smithsonian.
• 5:33 p.m. Union Station - $5.25.  Eating dinner at Taco Bell when I didn't feel well was probably a bad idea. But I'm addicted.
• 6:41 p.m. Simply Sweet on Main - $2.00.  Another Italian soda.  I had read Politico on the way home and I figured it was the only thing that could contain the rage I felt.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 5 ($28.45)

• 10:36 a.m. Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden - Free.  I know I'm in the minority here, but I found this place to be complete b.s.  It's the kind of modern art that turns the middle of America off to the East Coast.
• 11:39 a.m. The National Mall - Free.  It was too nice to be in a museum (especially a bad one).  So to wait out the lunch rush in Alexandria, I chilled on The Mall.
• 12:23 p.m. FedEx Office - $6.45.  Printing out my newly revised (again) resume took a lot of effort.  A large family had taken up most of the seats.  And the computers had pretty much stopped working.  But I did it.
• 2:02 p.m. Bilbo Baggins - $22.00.  Thankfully, with the help of Bilbo Baggins' wi-fi, I caught the beginning of Lollapalooza.  I also caught a buzz and didn't send in a single resume.  Oops.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 6 ($10.03)

• 6:59 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  Since I felt guilty about my lack of effort the day before, I went to the Starbucks nearby and bookmarked jobs on idealist.org.  I didn't send in any resumes though.
• 8:43 p.m. Subway - $6.03.  Listening to Deftones made me crave carbs.  Though, honestly, so did being so close to a location.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 7 (Free)

MONDAY, AUGUST 8 ($143.82)

• 11:20 a.m. National Building Museum - $47.70.  Getting my father a birthday present was difficult thing this year.  But I knew he had a lot of books and could use some bookends.  They had ones shaped like the New York skyline.
• 12:35 p.m. National Capital Post Office - $17.12.  I can never figure out what shipping supplies they give you for free and which ones they charge you for.  But now I have a virtually unstoppable supply of packing tape.
• 1:15 p.m. Chipotle Mexican Grill - $7.00.  Since I was about to join a gym in Chinatown, I decided just to eat nearby.  This is one of the busiest Chipotles I have ever seen!
• 1:42 p.m. Washington Sports Club - $68.00.  I couldn't pass up the deal that they had going on right now.  They waived almost all of the joining fees and gave August free.  Ordinarily, I count don't count my dues, but I will this time.
• 2:03 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  Even though I didn't work out on this first visit, my adrenaline was jumping.  So I went to Starbucks and sent out more application.

So that's $247.72.  Quite an expensive week.  Despite the amount of resumes that I sent out, I don't think I can justify that.  Well, at least now I have a better product of a resume (my dad also made some improvements) to send around to hope to recoup it.  My total money spent since I've been unemployed is $6390.35.

How I Spent The Thirtieth Week Of The Rest Of My Life

This was the week that I finally got sick of my resume.  I looked it over again this week while applying for jobs at Starbucks on Monday and decided that I hated it.  What I didn't like about it was how it didn't reflect my new priorities on research and marketing.  But when I had my host look it over, she changed the syntax completely.  At least there were no spelling or punctuation errors.  Now it reads simpler and meaner.

And I'm almost excited to send it out to new places now.

On my own, I also revised my government resume to have some simpler verbiage.  Though the irony is that I have gotten two e-mails from the OPM that they were forwarding my resume from the old format.  Hey, I can't argue with my imperfection if it works.

Also, since my twenty-six weeks (though not my full funding - and I qualify for an extension) is over, I finally put together my list of jobs that I had applied for.  It's, surprisingly, under 60.  In some ways this is disconcerting as I've still yet to get an interview.  But in another way, I have heard of people submitting hundreds of resumes without getting a job.  It still feels like I have yet to begin to fight.  But that I'm grinding down at the same time.

The weird thing is that I just discovered http://www.kellygovernmentsolutions.com/web/us/kgs/en/pages/index.htmlhttp://www.kellygovernmentsolutions.com/web/us/kgs/en/pages/index.html (Kelly Government Solutions) through CareerBuilder.com.  And, shockingly, there are a ton of government jobs on there.  The kind that I actually qualify for (unlike most on USAjobs.gov).  There have been a few research assistant positions on it that have been promising.

I keep putting off temping.  But it seems like it's probably a great way to get my foot in the door.  I'll get on that next week.

Here's how I "spent" last week:

TUESDAY, JULY 26 ($7.48)

• 9:23 p.m. 7-Eleven - $7.48.  Since this time it was deodorant that I was out of, I didn't even walk to Walgreens.  I also bought some burritos.  And a Slurpee.  Come on.  It was still hot.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 27 ($52.27)

• 12:15 p.m. United States Holocaust Museum - Free.  To get really excited about applying for marketing jobs, I decided to check out the propaganda displays on the ground floor.  
• 3:08 p.m. SUNdeVICH - $10.00.  For the first time I tried a Washington D.C. restaurant while it was still brand new.  It was pretty incredible.  I don't know what brined vegetables are.  But I'm sure I like them.
• 3:32 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  Returning to the first Starbucks that I frequented in D.C. (the one in Columbia Heights) was like a homecoming.  Though it's still annoying full of people just chilling out.
• 5:07 p.m. Safeway - $32.24.  I had planned on going shopping on Monday, but I finally did.  I got a frequent shopper card for the first time in ages.  It saved me $8.63.  Safeway has good deals.
• 7:18 p.m. Subway - $6.03.  Even though I had a bunch of food in my backpack and had eaten late, I couldn't help but to eat at the Subway by the Manassas train station.  I don't even know why.  

THURSDAY, JULY 28 (Free)

FRIDAY, JULY 29 ($32.83)

• 10:51 a.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  Since it was hot, I hadn't planned on going into D.C.  But a friend was in from Chicago so I did.  Of course I was really early so I stopped at Starbucks and applied for a job.
• 12:22 p.m. Ebbitt Express - $8.83.  Looking for somewhere cheap around McPherson Square, the carry out version of Old Ebbitt Grill came up.  It was tasty.  And appropriate since my visiting friend and I used to eat at Alonti at home.
• 5:32 p.m. Los Toltecos - $20.00.  Since the roommates/landlords were going out for margaritas, I decided to give this place another try.  The margarita was strong, but my food was just as bad as the first time.

SATURDAY, JULY 30 (Free)

SUNDAY, JULY 31 (Free)

• 5:42 p.m. County Center Association Clubhouse - Free.  For he second week in a row, I attempted to go to the gym on a Sunday hoping that I would go again this week.

MONDAY, AUGUST 1 ($4.00)

• 2:16 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  Since I had overspent my budget, I decided to go to a Starbucks close to home.  It's a good thing that I did since getting upset about my resume would have made it a long train ride home.

So that's $96.58.  Hopefully, as I continue to get really serious about looking for work and apply at two or more places a day every day, the numbers will continue to stay that low.  Temping will definitely raise it since I'll have to leave the condo most days, at least there will be money coming in as well.  My total money spent since I've been unemployed is $6142.63.