Things to do while being unemployed.....

I spent nearly the whole day today being unemployed. What I mean is, I spent nearly the whole day looking for and applying for a job. I have had to learn a whole new set of skills to be unemployed. Addressing selection criteria is my daily grind, and I have no idea if I am doing it right. I ring people for feedback, they don't call back. I ask people for advice, I get irrelevant information. Applying for a job takes is tedious and time consuming, and doing it every day with no success, is soul destroying.
Being unemployed is like taking a trip to a great city and spending the whole time in a hotel room (did that when I went to Japan, but that is another story). I have all this time, but I spend it all looking for work and writing incredible job applications. I change it each time (following the advice of those careers counsellors) and I update my CV on a regular basis. Being unemployed does mean however that I have a severe shortage of funds, so even if I did have time, I can't afford to go and do anything.

The whole process of job applications is completely demoralising. I understand there has to be a process, and employers need some way of sorting wheat from the chaff but this is hideous. Part of the problem lays inherently with me. I am from a conservative background and was taught from a young age to be modest, never vain, always humble and gratefully accept what I was given. Todays workplace environment is the complete antithesis of this. You have to be bold, sing out your own self praise, brag about your  marvellous qualities that make you the best candidate for the job. I am seriously out of touch and out of my comfort zone.
I am also completely tired of hearing stories of people who landed their dream job when they weren't even trying. Truth is, this does not happen very often. The rest of the world has to suffer with repeated rejection, day after day.

I decided to go and study because all the jobs I wanted to do required a qualification. Now that I am qualified, all the jobs are asking for experience. I can't get experience without a job: catch 22. What I really need now is a fairy godperson (fairy godmother or father, I don't mind) or somebody who really loves my paintings to buy a few and sponsor an exhibition. I would like to be discovered, now would be nice please. I will continue to find things to do while being unemployed because sadly, I know this is the real world and miracles and fairy godpeople don't exist. Not for people like me anyway.