Nearly nine years ago, I was hit by a drunk driver and broke my neck. She was driving a 1972 GMC ¾ ton farm truck, and I was driving a 1990 Toyota Corolla. She was also driving without insurance.

The thing about a ¾ ton farm truck is, when you T-Bone a Toyota going 72mph, breaking the neck, leg and skull of the Toyota’s owner, you can take your truck with you when you flee the scene.

Needless to say, after a year and half basically learning to walk again with severe nerve and bone damage, I have a lot of medical debt. A LOT. And no savings at all. Every time we start to save, some hospital takes out a judgment and grabs all the cash.

This pesky debt has kept me, over the last few years, galaxies away from being able to make ends meet, let alone move ahead. It sucks, but, I really don’t whine about it. It’s just this giant, looming darkness that is screwing up my life and keeping my family poor. It sucks more, I think, to be a part of my family, and to have to be subject to the fact that some dumb drunk girl did a stupid thing and now everyone has to pay for it.

So, add to this dark specter of massive, crushing debt a few elected Democrats, and the picture starts to get bleak indeed.

I’m out of work next Tuesday at noon.

I lose my insurance a week after.

So do my kids.

*aside: Is there anyone who isn’t semi-rich that thinks that COBRA is actually a benefit? How rich are the assholes that passed that law? Good God.

Also, despite rosy and blisteringly ignorant news reports to the contrary, the Utah job market is abysmal and empty. Sure, I could go work five part-time retail jobs, or seven part time McJobs, to not make ends meet, and, that’s most likely what will end up happening, because, Utah is a retail economy.

The job interviews I’ve been on lately are nothing more than a repeat of previous job hunting expeditions: namely, insulting wastes of time.

Again this year I’ve been getting call backs for interviews only to find that, AGAIN, it’s just some Republican who called me in to try and change my political beliefs and tell me I’m going to hell if I don’t.

I am not making this up. Since September, this has happened 11 times. I have a certain amount of, if not infamy, at least some familiarity to folks in Utah, especially in the circles where my resume gathers attention. They’ve seen me on TV, or heard me on the radio and they are convinced that, if they get me in a room for five minutes, I’ll sell my soul, abandon my values and principles, switch parties, and start my road toward their definition of salvation. Not really very Christian (old definition) if you ask me.

So, of course I’m looking nationally, as well, and that presents a different set of problems. Namely, transportation to job interviews: A few years back I drove to Phoenix, TWICE, to interview for a job and didn’t get it. I’m not doing that anymore. The guy that did get it got arrested for possession of child porn three months later, so, I think they made a huge mistake. So, if someone out of state wants to talk to me, I kindly ask that they pay for the flight.

This never happens in government or politics, unless you’re already a politician and a lobbyist wants to “interview” you. So, a few offers dies on the vine because I can’t afford to fly out there – you know, wherever.

Needless to say, yet here I go anyway … I’m both frightened and a little depressed about hitting the job market again.