Help Deanna stay afloat the rest of the strike

Hi friends,

I really don't know how to put my pride aside very easily, but this summer has been incredibly rough on me financially and I simply do not know what else to do except ask for a little help. As many of you know, this May kicked off one of two very important strikes in the entertainment industry, leaving me suddenly without my job and without a source of income. I was completely unemployed for 10 weeks, and while I technically qualified for unemployment while searching for an interim job, for some reason, I was never able to access any of the unemployment money that I qualified for (I only ever was able to see that I had "one pending issue" on the State website - I tried getting in touch with the unemployment office many, many times and never was able to speak with a human; I was unable to ever figure out what this nebulous "issue" was, it was incredibly frustrating), so I ended up having to go through all of the money that I had in savings.

In late July, I was finally lucky enough to be able to get a restaurant job and I was so relieved to have a source of income once more, but the truth is, I'm only making about a quarter of what I was previously, and I am simply not making enough money right now to cover all of my expenses, especially after trying to catch up on the bills I fell behind on while unemployed. Right now it just feels like every time I'm close to being caught up on everything, I get hit with another expense that puts me back in the negative (especially with student loan payments resuming). I know there are others who have it harder - I'm very lucky on a lot of fronts, and I'm really hoping that the second strike ends soon (and that the union gets a good deal on their end!) so that I will be able to get back to doing the work that has sustained me for the last 8 years.

I feel pretty embarrassed to have to even ask for help, and in theory I really only need a bit of money to push me through the last of this time, but I know we are all struggling with how expensive the world is right now. I totally understand if you aren't able to help, but if anyone has anything they can spare to keep me afloat in the meantime, I would be ever so grateful. Thanks for taking the time, friends, and I hope you're all doing well.

Love,

Deanna