First of all, to update my post on U-shaped pillows: I tried one out and it wasn’t for me. The pillow wasn’t thick enough in the head area, so I had to put another pillow on top of it, and that hurt my neck. The front part didn’t reach down to between my knees so I ended up using both the U-shaped pillow and my body pillow. The back part didn’t keep me on my side — I woke up more than once on my back. I think I’ll try getting a new body pillow instead and tucking that behind me; maybe that’ll work.

Secondly, regarding my job search: I still don’t have a job. I had a series of interviews last month that I thought would pan out, but the company went in another direction. And then, about five days later, I heard from the one remaining member of my team at my old job that every single person in the division was offered voluntary severance — one full quarter of severance pay, plus however many weeks they were entitled to from their time in-position, plus a lump sum payout that equals about two months of my salary (when I was employed). However, I also learned that some people wouldn’t actually be allowed to take the voluntary severance because they were mission-critical, and these people wouldn’t know if their request was accepted until their boss reviewed it. Those who do take the severance have to work until the end of the year. So now not only am I not getting jobs, but all those people in that division are now going to be my competition.

Brilliant. Truly.

I’m really reaching the end of my rope as far as job searching goes. I spend about two hours every weekday doing it, just to get at least five rejections a day — sometimes as many as ten or even fifteen. I’m running out of severance, and the next thing I’ll have to do is cash out my 401k — unemployment pays about 10% of my take-home every week, so one full month of it won’t even cover my mortgage, let alone the rest of my bills. Of course, if I cash out, I’m going to lose at least 50 percent of the money to penalties and taxes.

Oh, and on top of that — I’m now paying $575/month for insurance through the marketplace. That’s going straight onto my Delta credit card so I can earn miles, because I might as well get something out of it.

I need a job. I want to work. I’m qualified for at least 75 percent of the jobs I apply for. But the AI systems that review job postings aren’t seeing something they’re programmed to see, so I get rejected out-of-hand. It’s brutally demoralizing.

So that’s where I am right now.