Dancing amid ruin

Matt-
I lost my job almost 16 months ago. Unemployment is due to completely run out in one month. I send resumes out all the time, every single day. There is not a job I am not applying for. I live in a middle sized city and there are advertisements, but not a single response. When I run out of money, I will not be able to afford to live in my apartment. I have no clue what to do.
Advice?
Mary (not real name)

Mary (not real name) which is beginning to sound sort of Native American to me. Mary Not Her Real Name meet Bill Dancing in his Underwear.

Many years ago I got a haircut on Capital Hill in Seattle. It really is a hill, although in other parts of the country is could certainly pass as a mountain, but with Mount Rainier looming over the skyline, it would be audacious to call it Capital Mountain, so Hill it remains.

At the time I lived in a loft in Pioneer Square. I rode my bike up Capital Hill and walked into a barber shop so a heroin addict tattoo maven could mess with my scalp. At the end of the session I just had it all buzzed off, because my new friend the tattooed heroin addict was not the best of barbers. I grabbed my bike and rode down the hill, and when I made the left onto Bellevue Way, I front tired folded into itself and then I was flipped off the bike, into the intersection, where I landed with what I would imagine was a loud thump.

I have no memory of exactly how I landed. I remember waking up, laying in the intersection, looking up at the traffic light above me. As I focused I realized where I was. A nice man in a Mercedes sports car stopped, opened his door and was walking toward me. I turned my neck and could see his faded running shoes approaching. The speaker in his open door was blaring Bob Seger singing "still the same." I laid there listening.

The man from the Mercedes knelt down, got all up in my grill and asked if I was OK. I said something and he grabbed me under my arms and dragged me out of the road. He asked me again if I was OK, and I told him I could barely hear Bob Seger anymore. He smiled and got back in his car, closed the door and drove away. I sat on the curb, my damaged bike next to me (thanks to the nice man in the Mercedes) and I tried to figure out what had happened.

After some time, I staggered to a nearby bike shop, dropped off the damaged wreckage and they were nice enough to call me a cab. I got to my loft, called a friend and told him about the bike crash and then I believe I passed out. My friend showed up some time later, dragged me to his car and brought me to the hospital to get some treatment for a couple of oozing wounds and some broken ribs.

Now, Mary, what can you take away from that story? That we must always press forward? That even in unfortunate situations, nice people who we do not know can save our lives, or at least drag us from danger? That maybe asking people to help is the first step in getting it? I hate to sound like a Chinese proverb, but when you're at the end of your rope, it might be time to find a new rope.

One more thing, no, make that two more things. First, check your resume. If you have been sending it out for every job that ever gets posted in your medium sized city, from Wal-Mart greeter to executive vice president of marketing, and you still get no response, then there is something stinky inside your resume. That and even if you fail to find work in your medium sized city, it might be time to pack it in and go visit a friend and try another city for a while. And finally, in the words of one Robert Seger:

And you're still the same
I caught up with you yesterday
Moving game to game
No one standing in your way
Turning on the charm
Long enough to get you by
You're still the same
You still aim high