My next day was a bit better. I had that meeting with my caseworker, let's call him Dennis. Dennis is from another country. I'm not sure if it's French or Russian, but my impression is Russian. He's a nice guy, but our meeting was mostly just him filling out paperwork. My attitude doubles as a sign that says “low-maintenance,” so I'm sure he was quick to move on to his harder cases. It makes me feel like a bit of a dick, but he mentioned some of the other stuff he'd been dealing with and it sounded more important than “some unemployed shithead.”
His first priority was getting me signed up for benefits. The state's health care website was fucked, but he wanted me to sign up for it. He shoved in one of my fellow residents, a nervous guy who was apparently some kind of genius. I didn't respond well to being told that I wasn't able to fill out a form or that filling it out was simply a matter of intelligence that I lacked. After a few tense webpages were filled out, he left quietly.
The form reset itself just as I finished it and I started from scratch, discarding much of the advice of my resident helper. I think he's probably a great guy, but we met under bad circumstances. I'll have to apologize pretty soon and see if he's a cool guy.
The health care sign-up page led directly to a Food Stamps sign-up page. I'm from a prideful Southern family. On the other hand, Food Stamps fed me on more than one occasion when I was a kid. My feelings towards them are pretty mixed, but whether I got food from the shelter or from a federal program, I was eating on someone else's dime. Assuming I want to eat while I looked for a job, I went ahead.
I declined the cash option because—even though I currently have $10.60 in my pocket—I was too proud. Like most of the things I have done out of pride, it was a mistake in hindsight. I do need money for shaving cream, razors, bus fare to job interviews, deodorant, and getting copies of paperwork I need to get a job.
Even after I'm out of here, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to pay the cost of living in these parts. In addition to rent and utilities, I'm going to need money for daily transport, laundry, a phone, and internet service. It's a really long road and I should take all of the help I can get if I want to get to one end of it instead of the other.
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