27 Reasons Unemployed People Like Birthdays

(or 27 reasons unemployed people should like birthdays, but still don't)

27. Presents
26. Surprises
25. Excuse to get ON your high horse
24. Good feelings that come from being honest when people ask you how old you are and you actually tell the truth (hey, good feelings are hard to come by!)
23. Instant Self-Esteem Boost: You can wear your burger king crown all day and not care when people laugh
22. The slight possibility of a "this is your life slideshow"
21. Excuse to not answer your phone when debt collectors call

20. Now you have some extra candles lying around for when the electricity gets turned off
19.  Craft Time:   I know you haven't been motivated to to craft lately - but who can resist the urge to preserve their birthday cupcake for all eternity...
18. Birthday's provide a whole host of new job search ideas - clown, party planner, balloon animal craftsman, caterer, and singing telegram deliverer.  
17. Maybe that video your Uncle Wally made can land you the big prize on 'America's Funniest Home Videos'.
16. Instant scapegoat. If anything bad happens today you can blame it on the fact that it was your birthday and not on yourself.
15.  You know your less of a snot than the kids on 'My Super Sweet 16', because you "chose" not to have a big party and waste a lot of money.  
14.  You get one birthday wish.  Don't waste it on something like the Led Zeppelin discography, instead wish for something practical like a new skill, extra confidence, or an end to this recession.
13. New Clothes! - well, if you can fashion them out of wrapping paper...
12. Wearing pajamas all day isn't considered lazy - it's your prerogative. 
11. Joy from knowing you share your day with exquisite famous people (for instance.. Pat Sajak and Hillary Clinton)
10.  Recycle:  all of those balloons, streamers, banners, and confetti can be reused in plenty of interesting ways.  (You can knock my balloon rain jacket all you want, but I'M gonna be the dry one next time it rains).
09.  Maybe the magician can make a money tree appear in your backyard.
08. Diet? What diet? There are TONS of restaurants that at least give you a free dessert on your birthday. Now you can spend the money you would have spent binging on food to make yourself feel better on a new video game!
07.  A reminder that you have lots of friends/family that love you and know what day it is (who cares that they also know every in and out of your business and normally make you want to pull your hair out)
06. Birthdays are a good reason to wake up in the morning...
05. The realization that another year has gone by serves as good motivation to make some "new year's" resolutions and stick to them. Like finding a job.
04. Excuse to be hungover at your job interviews
03. Excuse to take a day off from job searching
02. Parties/Drinking
01. FREE CAKE!

Free Food

Being unemployed has made me extremely tired and extremely busy this week... so i had to get my underemployed, idea-riddled friend to write his first (and hopefully not last) guest post.  So, without further ado....HERE'S ANDY!

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If you’re anything like me you like television. And if you’re a LOT like me, you even like the commercials. I should also be able to assume that if you’re reading this blog you are no more than marginally employed, and therefore agree with everything listed here, especially the part about free food (free things in general really). 

Almost a month ago now I saw those commercials for TGIFridays starring Woody. For those of you who don’t know about this promotion (I’m talking to you people with DVR who fast forward through commercials), here is a brief explanation: Woody is a guy who made a bet with TGIFridays that he could get 500,000 fans on Facebook by September 30. He actually had that many by September 15, and has well over a million now. Because Woody won the bet, TGIFridays agreed to give a coupon for a free Jack Daniels Burger (or Chicken Sandwich) to every one of his fans. So I have been waiting for almost a month now to collect my prize…which I found in my spam filter this afternoon.

After coming down from the natural high of earning a free burger coupon valued at up to $9.49, I knew I just had to find more good deals online. So I give you, the top five best free food offers online*:

5) Dairy Queen – Join the Blizzard fan club and receive a coupon for buy one get one blizzards. Some people would tell you to get a friend to buy one and then mooch the second one, but I love blizzards so much I recommend eating them both yourself. That way you can try the blizzard of the month (pumpkin pie) and also get one of your favorite classics.

4) Qdoba – Join their eclub and receive a voucher for free Chips and Salsa.

3) Hardee's / Carl's Jr – This coupon is to promote the Hardee’s (or Carl’s Jr for you folks in Western States) ‘Get What You Deserve Campaign.’ The coupon is actually only for a free small fry to go along with your Big Hardee/Big Carl, but considering how cheap the burger itself is, it’s still a good deal. Also, from what I hear they change the offer every month or so, so you can keep checking back to see what else is available.

2) Red Robin Birthday eClub – There doesn’t look like a catch here. You just sign up with your birthday and get a burger coupon. Of course, there is an advantage for those who have a birthday coming up (you know who you are).

1) Quiznos – If you sign up for the Quiznos mailing list you can get a free Sammie. But the great thing about this is that you also get a free cookie on your birthday. So it’s two fun deals in one.

*This list is in no way an endorsement of these products. I’m writing only as a free food fan.