How to annoy people without a job right now

Here are some things sure to get you into trouble with your out of work friends and family:

1. Complain about your job- overtime, undertime, co-workers, whatever. We don't have any of that. Stop yer whining.

2. Brag about your vacations, new purchases, home remodels. Maybe it doesn't feel like bragging to you, but we're just gonna get agitated listening to all your new, new, new talk. We're busy trying to figure out if we have seasonally appropriate clothes to wear to job interviews that also don't have stains.

3. Give us lots of ideas and tips about how to find work and what we "should" we doing. Out of work people are like Forest Gump- you don't know what you'll get with us when you open that box. So trying to give thoughtful advice will usually lead to pain and suffering. We know you mean well, but we're exhausted. We are still working through the advice we got last week.

4. Minimize our pain. Again, I wouldn't have a clue how stressful this all is except that now I'm living it. Being out of work is really hard. It is confusing and it is complicated. Add in extra stressors like a suck ass economy and three kids and then see what kind of stress cocktail that stirs up. Not tasty. We know we whine a lot, but it still sucks. In fact, it sucks more six months or a year after the lay-offs or change in career. It sucks worse and worse as you move away from the safe harbor of a paying job.

5. Pick on our spending and act judgemental. We know there's stuff we could be doing differently. But we're not. Wah. Bravo Channel is all I have some days. it sucks to be me sometimes. Be gentle with us. We may bite back here.

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you give an extra hug to your out of work friends this year. We all could be worse off and that's a fact. I'm lucky to have people in my life who care enough to annoy me.