First of all...don't give up! If it's what you want you'll find a way to make it happen. I think sometimes it happens at a different speed than we want, but find something to fill that time and keep at it.
Find a way to always do something a bit more complex. Add a cloud element to your MEAN stack application, for instance. Host it on AWS or something (try Elastic Beanstalk). Learn what it takes to do that, and add it to your list of skills if you don't already have it. Play with this stuff...it's supposed to be fun right?
The social is HUGE. Meetups for sure. Just posting questions here is probably a good idea too. Someone might engage with you about what you're up to, etc.
It does seem that different tech stacks live in different areas, so you might want to take that into consideration. Maybe try Austin for your specific stack, especially if you're not wanting to move too far away. Looks like right now there are 217 JavaScript jobs on Dice for Austin.
Also, maybe try some interview prep practice. That could be really helpful. There are several services you can use for that now. You can do actual mock interviews with these ones: www.interviewing.io www.pramp.com
Keep at it!! Good luck.