ON THE BREADLINE: ANGELA KAO

Kao, of Brooklyn, worked as an editor for an independent press, specializing in academic history books. She was laid off at the beginning of April.

How do you cope with getting up every morning? What motivates you?

During the first week, I was full of vim and vigor. I had great plans for my “time off.” I was going to explore new interests and change careers and become the person I always wanted to be! But that in itself has warped into a different kind of stress. So now, in my third week of unemployment, I guess my best answer to this question would be the great, fat Theodore Roethke poem that starts “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.”

Likewise, how do you cope with getting to sleep at night, or getting any sleep, period?

Medication. Love it!

Give an example of the sort of changes or cutbacks you’ve had to make in the way you live your life.

I put the kibosh on new clothes (so sad!). NO new books because we’ve got plenty of them at home (apologies to my friends still toiling away in the industry). Not as much new music. Alcohol is one thing I refuse to give up; instead of buying a bottle at a time, we now buy cases to get the fifteen-percent discount at our local wine shop.

Share with us some of your recession gallows humor.

I’ve been itching for unemployment for quite some time now. I loved my last job but was tiring of the publishing industry in general. I’ve never been happier!

What, if anything, gives you hope that the future holds better things?

Sweet baby Jesus, I haven’t the faintest clue. I used to think about the future all the time. These days, I try not to dwell on it.