The Myth & The Majesty

When I was a kid, my parents moved a lot, but I always found them. - Rodney Dangerfield You know what? This isn't a fun topic. I don't enjoy moving. I am well aware that I am not alone in that feeling, and perhaps that's why I've struggled for the last four weeks to finish this dumb post. From the packing and the loading and the cleaning to the more packing and loading and cleaning, it's a tedious, un-fun activity. Sure, there are high points (the rediscovery of lost things can be fun, and I enjoyed the heck out of purging entire boxes of stuff) but in the end you're still exhausted and your things are still in disarray. And my stuff? It's all in disarray. If you're lucky, you then get to take said things to a new place and begin undoing all that work you just did. If you're not lucky, said things sit and wait, hopefully in a place that's dry and relatively temperature-controlled. (If you're really unlucky... well, use your ima...

Well! Here's a topic I had hoped I wouldn't really experience -- but since I'm currently in the midst of said experience, it would be selfish of me to keep this new knowledge to myself. Some of this is my own -- some of it comes from people wiser than me who have been through it already. All of it is worth repeating. So here we go. * It happened. Your workplace is having difficulty recovering from this lovely recession and you find yourself amongst the crowd unceremoniously let go. Just like that, you're on the curb, wondering what the heck happened and what's going to happen next. Maybe you're panicking a little -- your income is zero. As a single woman, you don't have a husband there to lean on while you find a new job. Maybe you're angry. Maybe you're relieved. None of it changes your scenario. You are now unemployed. Before I go any more into this, I'd like to lay out a few things. I'm assuming this was at least moderately unexpe...

Well, my first week of unemployment has come and gone. If I had to put a finger on the true mental downside to the last week, it would be that no matter how much I've accomplished (and the list isn't short) I have very little to show for it just yet. I'm not even talking about my (feeble) job search. It has more to do with all of the other details. Argh. No matter. I've gotten to enjoy the daytime offerings of this town for the first time in three years (not to mention the unseasonably warm weather). If nothing else, that's made this week not so bad. Besides the school prep, which I'm actually enjoying. (There. I said it.) On to a weekend ... or as I prefer to call it, Saturdays 9 & 10. Yep.

I have some good-sized challenges ahead of me. I have no back-ups -- no husband or other significant other with a job, no roommates willing to cut me a break on rent while I get back on my feet, no nearby relatives. My parents (their house is the easiest place for me to move) live almost five hundred miles away. Like so many places, jobs are hard to come by around here, particularly jobs that fit my particular qualifications. Those are the challenges. This is a potentially catastrophic blow. As I type that it sounds melodramatic, but it's true, especially knowing that lesser things have leveled me in the past, if only temporarily. However. In the meantime, I have a bunch of fantastic friends who have offered all sorts of help, whether it's a place to stay or a contact with a company or to provide a reference. My parents are willing to help me move (and willing to put up with their grown-up daughter for a few months while I figure out where I'm headed next). T...

It was Tuesday, January 9th, 2007, when I first sat in that room. I was surrounded by middle-aged men whose importance I would only know months later, and I was probably not quite nervous enough. The truth was that the day had gone pretty well so far and my confidence was oddly buoyed. It seems only fitting that 1360 days later, I found myself in that room again, this time chatting with a career counselor for a placement agency as my time there came to an end. Yesterday held the third round of layoffs for our company in the last year and a half. This time my department didn't escape unscathed. More specifically, I didn't escape unscathed. As of about 24 hours ago, I joined the ranks of The Unemployed. As I kept telling people, I wasn't doing well -- but I had been worse. It wasn't the worst day of my life and somehow that made it much easier to deal. Howver, it hasn't really sunk in yet despite the "action item" list in my head. I need to call ...