Category Archives: the silver lining

*updated* I will not let Twitter ruin my good mood.

Overall, today wasn’t that great.

I attended two hour-long meetings that were a complete waste of time (but they were shorter than the hour AND A HALF that they were actually scheduled for, so there is that), talked to the secretary of an attorney who can’t seem to get it through her head that they ALREADY GOT THE DAMN CHECK (gotta love Payroll, right?), and got extremely frustrated with my problems getting on & viewing tweets (wonder if Brizzly is going to be blocked here at work soon too…..possibly and then I’ll REALLY be screwed).

I got a break, though, when I was talking to her about her about her day. We were getting ready to say goodbye, when all of a sudden, OUT OF THE BLUE, she says, “I love you.”

And it sucks bcuz I can’t tweet it.

Update – And by ‘her’, I mean my daughter. I guess Twitter flustered me more than even I thought. Great. NOW I’M AN ADDICT! Does that mean it’s time for TA. Noooo, not T and A. TA. Twitterers Anonymous.

I never thought I’d see the day when a layoff meeting would be a good thing.

It’s official…..I’m losing my job. There I’ve said it. I knew it was coming, so I wasn’t surprised.

The merger closed June 11th pretty much right on schedule. From the day the merger was announced I knew Payroll would be absorbed. There were lots of rumors and speculation (what a bunch of gossipmongers!), but I tried to take them all with a grain of salt. I would not falter in my resolve that I was going to lose my job. It was easier that way…..no surprises. Well, no bad surprises anyway. If somehow I managed to survive this merger with my job intact, it would be a pleasant surprise. Much better, I think, than to hold out hope that I would be safe only to get the horrible shock that a significant part of my world was gonna come crashing down. That wasn’t a risk I was willing to take, especially since the husband has been laid off twice in the past 6 years.

However, to say that I was okay with losing with losing my job depended on which day you caught me. I’ve been on a pretty interesting emotional roller coaster since the merger was announced. It’s safe to say that I’ve been through all the phases of grief at least 5 times and not in any real particular order. I always came back to “what’s next for me?” In some ways this could be the best way to move forward with the divorce. And then, there’s the inevitable (& frequent) “WTF am I gonna do now?” I think out loud a lot, but have to be careful who I do that around, cuz if they don’t know how I deal, I could inadvertantly burn a lot of bridges. Not good. The stress of all of it felt like a brick sitting on my chest, but it was manageable so I didn’t worry about it much.

Until this week. We were told a rep from corp HR was coming cuz those who were losing their jobs had to be notified within 30 days of the close of the merger. Yesterday morning, I woke up and the brick had morphed into a 2-ton boulder on my chest. It was all I could do to get ready and actually come to work. I didn’t really need to worry, though. My meeting was in the afternoon & I was ready to get it over with when my time came. They confirmed that my layoff date is 2/28/10 (still somewhat tentative) and that I will get a severance, which will be paid out in bi-weekly installments (the only thing I wasn’t expecting). I got the feeling that the people in the meeting thought I would have some sort of breakdown. Hello? You’re not really telling me anything I didn’t already know. Besides, have you WORKED with the Main Sales Floor? They DRIVE you to want to quit drink excessively. My brain liver needs a break. Anyway, I walked out of that meeting with more options than I thought I had going in. I now know that I don’t have to hurry to find a job. I’ve got time to check out ALL my options. I’m doing a lot of thinking outside of the box on this one, which is probably what I’m doing if you catch me muttering to myself.

Life goes on and as long as I stop finding gray eyebrow hairs, it will all be good.

finding my rat park…..

i read an article escape your rat race in a recent o magazine that talks about how most people will tend to stay in their familiar “cage” rather than face the unknown even when the cage is the worst place for them to be. they keep themselves from finding their “rat park”.

when i thought about many of the decisions i have made in my life, i saw that i have been keeping myself in familiar situations, rather than allowing myself to find my more ideal life (note how i didn’t say perfect life). after reading this article, i feel better knowing that finding that ideal life won’t require any major changes. it’s just a matter of focusing on what feels psychologically “warmer” to me and making small changes as i go along. i can definitely do that.

so hopefully soon i can honestly say that i’m in rat park. it will be a much better place, i’m sure.