Meltdown!

So, at the interview yesterday, the interviewer asked me what my bottom line salary was, and I told her my ideal was $14/hr. She sort of frowned, so I asked, "Do I have a chance of getting it here?" and she said, "In West Virginia? Honestly, no." Well, at least she was honest, right?

But let's do the math. She said I could probably get $10/hr, so let's go with that. 10/hr x 40 hr/wk = $400 BEFORE TAXES, which comes to something like $330 after taxes. $330/wk x 4 wks/mo = $1320/mo. My rent, utilities, car insurance and COBRA come to $1100/mo, leaving $220/mo for food, car maintenance, gasoline, pet care. That's a whopping $55/wk. Filling my old but serviceable car's engine takes about $28, leaving $27 for surviving. Guess I should be OK with that, at least I can subsist on canned soup. And all that depends on working locally so I'm not using the car too much.

I'm not so much discouraged as I am pissed off, and beating myself over the head for moving here in the first place, and then staying here as long as I have. I know, I really do KNOW, that coulda-shoulda-woulda is a fool's game, and solves nothing, but for right now I'm gonna wallow in anger and get it all outta my system. Grrrrrr.