Shoes have never made me miserable before.

It took me just over 4 hours this morning to sign the new footwear ad. It's taken me less time to write papers for classes.

I'm at this strange place in my job hunting (for anything except retail) where I'm either grossly over-qualified or I'm marginally under-qualified. I've sent out a ridiculous number of job applications and resumes. Ridiculous. I had to buy a new package of resume paper recently. That's how many I've sent out in the last year. And yet I am at the bottom of the retail ladder. I believe at this point that my resume/cover letter must be completely average to not even get but a handful of interviews. And I must be god-awful in person if the only place whose interview I passed was the one where they asked me 3 questions: Why do you want to work at KMart? Do you like fashions? How is your closet organized?
We then chatted about my stupidly over-organized closet space and my affinity for speeding down the highway and not getting caught. I walked out 10 minutes later with a job.

I can't catch a break. Either they look at me like I have 5 heads because I hold a Masters degree and want to work as an office secretary or I have "technically" the required degree and might be able to swing the required experience, but never well enough to get a foot in the door. It's all very discouraging. And what doesn't help is that my Mom calls me once a week to read me the classified ads from the local paper and tell me all these jobs that are available.

"You could do this."
"I bet they don't actually require those qualifications, they just say that."
"Well, you did such-and-such for two years, that's close enough isn't it?"

No, Mom. Tutoring students on writing skills for one year does not qualify as "three to five years experience in editing and publishing." Nor does working as a student worker in Financial Aid equivocate to "substantial experience in Enrollment Services or similar setting."
Despite the number of times I tell her to stop looking for that next big opportunity, she never does. I don't think she realizes that her pushing jobs at me that I'm not even remotely qualified for only discourages me further. I can't get jobs I'm over-qualified for, or ones that I'm actually qualified for. Now she wants me to deal with rejection from ones whose requirements I'm not even close to meeting?

Every Sunday, a phone call, an email, or a voicemail. "It's your mother. I was just looking at the newspaper and found some jobs you might be interested in . . . ."

Some days, I'm grateful that she cares so much to keep looking. It does show that she only wants what's best for me. Some days, I want to scream and shout at her. And other days, days like today where I spent 4 hours signing footwear, it makes me want to cry from frustration and, let's face, misery.