Last week Sophia Ferrel, 32, e-mailed me late at night asking that I delete a certain paragraph from her note. She thought it was ill-considered. Today, after responding to some of her comment critics, she reconsiders last week's deleted paragraph and its class implications.

Being unemployed is like being pregnant, in that everyone wants to give his or her advice/opinion about what I should do with this new and very noticeable situation. The trouble with advice like this is it only reflects the idealized version of what these people imagine they would do were they in my situation—not my actual life with all its variables.

Another analogy: Looking for a job makes me feel like I am dating again. I know I am a great catch so why has no one snapped me up? And where is the one that I will have great chemistry with?

“Thank you for applying for the position of …This email is to inform you that we will not be using the applicant pool to fill this position. As you may have read, the City [of Seattle] is anticipating budget shortfalls, and we will need to use this position to place an employee who would otherwise be laid off... The economic outlook will not always be this challenging…”

In other words: I think we would be better off as friends.

I wondered if the Employment Security Department was hiring since they are so obviously overwhelmed. And they are! They're hiring 70 intake agents to work in their telecenter, part-time, with this caveat: Expected Duration: March 1, 2009 - February 28, 2010.

Apparently our state government has an end date forthis madness. It’s right there: February 28th, 2010. Just like the quick little wars that we get ourselves into; didn’t they have an end date too?

I don’t know why but this doesn’t actually sound so bad, sitting on the phone all day long with frustrated unemployed people. Maybe my standards are getting lowered after looking at thousands of soul-sucking job postings. Maybe I just care about my new co-unemployees—these collected masses of wonderful people without jobs—and want them to hear my sweet voice of concern and empathy.

Sometimes my optimism can get me into some trouble. For last week's post, I had written a small paragraph about driving right by 7-11’s with "Now Hiring" signs. My boyfriend read the piece and not so subtly pointed out how flip and insensitive that was. At one point in his life, he had to live in his car and took jobs at places like McDonald's to make ends meet. I felt like such an asshole and so insensitive. Who am I to not just take any job that comes along?

I e-mailed Eli Sanders late at night and asked him to take out that paragraph. My boyfriend made me realize that part of the unexplored reality is that it really is part of a broader class struggle to be holding onto the notion that because one has a college degree and has had white-collar jobs, one will be owed that kind of work by the world. Sometimes it is easy to forget this, though even unemployed people are rewarded according to class. Two years ago, I worked at a coffee shop and earned $8.75 an hour. My current unemployment benefits reflect none of that, but reflect 60% of what I was paid at my last job (that I was lucky to get and lucky to be well-compensated for). My friend who was laid off from The Seattle Times makes quite a bit less on unemployment than I do, and she is no less talented, hard working or intelligent than I am. I know we pay into these benefits, and that is why they differ (and they do cap out at around $530 a week). But having these benefits differ based on what you were paid only in the last two years can’t help but seem slightly unfair.

So I have spent most of this week thinking a lot about what other kinds of jobs I would take, since apparently it is near impossible to get an interview for jobs you are incredibly qualified for.

The real truth of the matter is that the very last places I will go will be places like Labor Ready, 7-11 or Fred Meyer. Is that classist? Do I sound flip and insensitive? It doesn’t really matter, does it? I have trouble selling my soul to earn a pittance. I grew up poor, but I grew up educated, free, playing in streams, building forts and riding my bike around the loop road on Guemes Island. My mom is and was a super liberal naked-gardening hippie. I am not well suited to work under florescent lights and suck up corporate bullshit to earn what is not even a livable wage.

I AM willing to paint your house, or make your coffee, or serve your drink, or mow your lawn, or any other multitude of low paying jobs. And probably soon you will see me out there, doing just that. But until those $3,610 dollars I have left in unemployment benefits run out, I am going to keep looking for a job that utilizes my professional experience, builds on my college degree and stimulates my mind. I am going to use the cultural advantage I have and try to do something that benefits me.

A commenter put it well last week, writing: “If you get laid off, you can file for unemployment. You can also cut your expenditures if you must, but you do not have to do so. Not only do you not have to, but also you are not obligated to. Get over it.... Even the unemployment offices do not expect you to take the first job possible. The time they allow is so you can find a job that you are suited for.”

And I have nothing but time; my very favorite thing about being unemployed is that I get to structure my time. I don’t have to give the same amount of time at the same time each week, over and over. I can look for jobs at one a.m. I can hang out with my boyfriend, who works a late shift, during the middle of the day. I can spend hours and hours helping create Flash Volunteer for free. And in the middle of all that I pay my bills, check my overdrawn checking account, and apply and apply and apply for jobs. If this sounds like a luxury, well it is. And I love it.

Things are going to work out or they are not, but why waste my short time I have on this planet worrying about it? And I do believe it is as simple as that.

Have an unemployment story to share? Write to jobless@thestranger.com.