Please wish me luck this morning -- my appeal hearing with NH Employment Security is at 11 a.m., Eastern Daylight Savings Time (in Portsmouth, NH, USA).

As many of you are aware, l turned in my resignation from the Real Estate Guide the end of last November and I gave my employer three weeks notice. After a relentless three year rollercoaster ride of bi-weekly deadlines without having any back-up, on salary with no hope of overtime, paid holidays for which I'd be expected to put in unpaid hours to get the book to the printer on time, no official vacation time and very limited time that I could take off at all, and then only by doing all the work beforehand, not to mention actually doing two full time jobs -- ALL the production and ALL the advertising sales, and having spent 6 months of last year trying to find a replacement job, I decided the only way I WOULD find that replacement job was to leave the magazine.

Then, the morning after my last issue was safely to the printer and several days before my last day of employment, I broke my upper left humerus requiring surgery to fix it with a plate and screws.

So...totally out of commission for almost three months, being able to neither work nor drive a car.

When I could work again I applied for Unemployment benefits and was, as I expected, pro forma denied benefits because I had quit the job. So I, of course, filed an appeal.

This morning is my appeal hearing where I lay out my reasons for leaving the job. My experience has been that every time I've had to appeal, I've won, and gotten my benefits reinstated. We've had very little income since December and winning this appeal would limit any feeling of desperation while finding a suitable job. (I'm afraid that last year while interviewing, despite my best intentions my desperation and burnt-outedness showed.)

Please send good thoughts in my direction! Mudcat energy has so often helped before.

Thank you!
Linn