Welcome to the Land of Unemployment

Two weeks ago, I suffered a fate many other Americans have in the last two years, something I haven't had to deal with in nearly nine years. I became unemployed. I wasn't fired or 'let go' for my own failings in my job or anything serious like that, just laid off due to a lack of work. Although I was very capable at what I was doing, the lack of anything TO DO made me the most expendable. Another tech was laid off and the third went part time, something my boss had not had to do in about fifteen years. This dismal state was brought about by this dismal state, which lags behind the rest of the country in some sort of Lostian time bubble, which makes things that affect the country economically take about six months to get here. Weird, I know. This state has other properties that are suspiciously similar to the island in Lost, like this black-hole effect that causes many who think they have escaped it to inevitably be drawn back in. Enough about this land of Mormons and mystery.
I began my stint in unemployment with a dazed sort of deja vu, sending me back to the summer of 2001 when I first experienced being let go. I had much less experience back then, also quite a few less bills and responsibilities, but I had that same feeling of 'what do I do now?' Well, first things first, file for unemployment, which the internets have made much easier these days. Done the night I received the news. Next morning, I began my tedious search for work. The Workforce Service site was still quite handy in this, despite 99% of the jobs being far out of range of my qualifications. Next I went on to craigslist, one of the handiest sites out there, but quickly learned how much the site has become target to scam artists attempting to fool would-be applicants into giving up personal information. A landslide of useless emails and phone calls quickly followed, and I learned to differentiate the legit postings from the false ones. Careful out there on the Internet, I'm still just getting a handle on all these scam contacts.
It's not as easy to get a job as I had hoped it would be, picking up the occasional part-day work has filled in the time not spent on school or searching for a job. Utah's unemployment rate jumped 1.5% from Nov. 2009 to February of this year, right before I met my current fate. I'm not surprised it has been difficult finding work. To all those out there who are like me, keep up the search, and don't give up, something always comes around. I'll keep looking, and until I find what I'm looking for, I'll keep that fraction of my dignity that the unemployment office has decided to give me back.