Boy Do I Feel Better

I have just returned from an appointment with the first "placement agency" I contacted. This one was in Prattvegas. I'd heard positive things about them from some Sunday School members, so I decided to give it a whirl, even though I hated the temp agencies in Tuscaloosa.

It was a pain, of course. You must fill out your entire work history, even though you bring a resume. You sign a million papers and consent forms, and I had to provide 7 years' worth of residences for a background check. After filling out the application (that really took me about 30 minutes) a woman came in to "interview" me. She asked what I was looking for and what my minimum accepted pay would be. Then she informed me there's nothing now, but if I call every week to say I'm still interested, they'll keep me on the "professional list." (There's also an "industry list.")

But that isn't the exciting part. Yesterday morning a friend from Sunday School called me to say her coworker's husband is the president of a local company that creates Web sites for people and other businesses. They've created a social networking site and need someone to help market it as well as write copy for their other sites. Uh, hello, perfect! So I sent her my resume, she forwarded it on to the coworker's husband, and I waited. Last night we were at Wal-Mart killing time during an oil change, and we apparently lost cell phone signal, because later I saw I had a missed call. The area code was Montgomery, and I got excited. However, there was no voicemail, so I called the number back. It was 5:15. I got an answering machine, but it was the company I'd send my resume to! So I got to wondering why the man hadn't left a message for me. Then it hit me - on Saturday I'd driven home to get on my mother's family plan and drop my own phone plan to save some money. Since I was switching providers, I had to get a new phone. Same number, but different phone. I HADN'T SET UP MY NEW VOICEMAIL!

Thankfully, once I got home I saw that he'd emailed me saying he thought I'd be a good fit for this new position, and he'd try to meet with me as soon as possible! Hooray!

Tomorrow I meet with another agency, this time in Montgomery. This is the office that my previous employers went through anytime they needed to find a new employee (except me, who was hired the good old-fashioned way.) So my old boss actually called them on my behalf and put in a good word for me. Afterwards, the president emailed me to say he looked forward to meeting with me and would see what he could find for me.

So even though I don't have a job yet, I'm not feeling hopeless at all. I'm actually feeling quite positive.

Also, today we found out that Z's cousin is expecting a baby about 8 months from now. What a good day.

"I've Got Some Bad News For You"

That's what my boss told me Wednesday afternoon about a second a half before she said, "We're gonna have to let you go."

That's right, folks. I was laid off.

Sure, I knew times were tough, and I had definitely noticed all the closed-door meetings lately, but I still felt like I'd been slapped in the face. I mean, I've never been laid off before, or fired in any other way. Of course I cried. I cried like a baby. My friend cried too - we were fired together. Isn't that sweet? Just another unprofessional act from my unprofessional boss. She called us both into her office around 4:00 that afternoon. She laid it on thick too - claiming she'd been crying for days and hadn't slept and was so upset. Wow, that sure makes me feel better. She assured me that she did remember that I'd just bought a house, and she's sorry about that.

This came right on the heels of my office cancelling health insurance (thank goodness I'm on Z's plan) and drastically cutting costs in other ways. The expo I'd been working on for the past six months was cancelled the week before, without anyone telling me. If I'd known that, I would have been prepared, but they kept that a secret, letting me continue calling prospective exhibitors, begging them to sign up and pay a deposit.

We came out of her office about 30 minutes later, tear stained and confused. It just all happened so fast. She gave us our final checks and our W-2s, saying she'd pay us one more paycheck and good luck. We went to my cubicle where our co-worker was waiting for us. She's an older (68) lady who was very upset that we both got canned - we were the only people sitting in her department and we'd become friends. She cried with us quite a bit until we were interrupted.

Our boss had come back over to remind us that if we knew of anyone needing the services of the company, please, please, please send them her way. Uh, excuse me, what? Why in the hell would I take the time to usher business to you after you fired me not 5 minutes ago? I swear, that woman is so dense.

By this point it was almost 5:00, and although she told us we could come back the next day to gather our things, I knew I didn't want to return. I hated the job when I had it; I certainly didn't want to go to work after I'd been let go! So I took the time to pack up my pictures, personal office supplies, etc., as well as delete my files from the computer. It took quite a while, so I was about 45 minutes late coming home. Well, since I hated my job, I have never stayed late - not once. I always arrive home by 5:15, so Z was getting concerned. Then I walked in with my face all red and blotchy and he was much more concerned.

After discussing everything, though, we've decided this is really a blessing in disguise. I hated, I mean really hated that job and the office and the work and everything about it, and there's no way I could have quit before lining up another job. However, it's extremely difficult to find a job when you're working 40 hours a week at an office with no privacy. So even though I'm concerned about money (who the hell wouldn't be?) I'm confident that I'll find a place to work that is better (what could be worse?) and maybe - gasp - fulfilling.

I took Thursday completely off, meeting my sister for lunch and taking it easy around the house, letting my semi-scary situation sink in (and, let's be honest, feeling miserable. It was also the 2nd anniversary of my dad's death and I'd planned on taking the day off anyway). Friday I worked on my resume and set up appointments with two different placement agencies, after searching crappy job postings all day long.

Today I got a new haircut and got my wedding rings cleaned - I'm ready to conquer the world.

Take that, HB.

Clarification

So, I know in my "resolutions" post the other day I mentioned being healthier in 2009. Of course that's a crock of crap and I just plain old want to lose weight. I don't know too many women who don't, so I get that this isn't a unique desire. Once upon a time I felt like I looked good. I thought that I had a nice ass, great boobs, and a decent waist. Now I don't feel so good about myself. I've had lots of stressful times in the past couple of years (long-distance relationship, college graduation, death of my father, unemployment, wedding planning, moving, more unemployment), and during each situation I took worse care of myself and gained a little more weight. My main concern though isn't going to the beach next summer, or what my husband thinks of me, or even stepping on the scale because I don't do that anyway unless I'm at the doctor's office. My main concern is pregnancy. I don't plan (key word: plan) on getting pregnant for another few years, but I absolutely must be in shape for pregnancy. The thought of being one of those fatty pregnant women makes me sick. My good friend Jessica had a baby last year and looked phenomenal through her whole pregnancy. She was one of those girls that if you saw her from behind, you couldn't even tell she was pregnant. On the other hand, I also knew a woman that I just thought was very large. It took someone telling me she was 8 months pregnant for me to even notice the baby. She just had gross rolls all over her. Those are two extremes that most women don't experience, I realize, but still, I want to be a beautiful pregnant woman.

Last summer, Z and I joined the Prattvegas YMCA. It has served its purpose. We have a home gym, but our spare room apparently wasn't insulated and we couldn't use it. So we went to the gym where we could work out in the comfort of air conditioning. But now that we've moved, it takes almost 30 minutes to drive there, and also the monthly fee has gone up a little in the new year. So we are quitting the gym (I'm reminded of a Friends episode) and switching to a combination of using our home gym (which is now conveniently located in a beautiful new home with working A/C) and walking in our neighborhood (we've never lived in a neighborhood before, so walking without the indoor treadmill was dangerous and unlikely). Perhaps I will become svelte, who knows?

Glorious Weekend

I had such a great weekend. Our holidays were so hectic that I really hadn't felt rested or relaxed in a long time, even though with the holidays came a few days off work. Friday night was still a little crazy – I'd made a lasagna the night before for brand new parents in my Sunday School class, and we'd invited a college friend over to watch football and hang out. So I get off work, go straight home, get the lasagna, and drive into Prattvegas to deliver it. This would normally be no more than a 15 minute drive, but at rush hour Prattvegas becomes the 7th circle of hell. And then I discover that I'd been given the wrong address. So, my lasagna was a little late, and I didn't get back to my house to start getting dinner ready for Z and our guest until about 7:00. Anyway, that visit was very nice, even though I fell asleep during the football game.

Saturday morning we didn't sleep in too much (sleeping past 8:00 makes me feel like a bum), but we woke up slowly which is more important. I got a lot of great books for Christmas, so I read Saturday morning, and we spent a lot of time in the yard (it was strangely warm) measuring for our fence and digging up someone's long-forgotten pole which had been cemented into a bucket and the whole shebang buried. I'm not sure what it was used for, but we dug it up and generally just cleaned up the yard. The neighbors seem to view our side of their fence as a dumping ground of little items. It's like they think if we can't see it from our house it isn't littering. So I go outside and pick up Big Mac boxes, gum wrappers, etc. Also, this weekend I found a few butter knives, two pieces of pipe, and a pair of scissors. All in one corner of our yard… This is weird because nobody has lived on our property. The house was just built last summer, and it was a wooded lot before that. It makes me think that Damien threw them (at us? at animals?) or something. I don't know what to think about all that.

Saturday afternoon a storm blew in and we sat on the porch watching it rain and just enjoyed nature. Since both us were raised in the country, this is natural to us. The apartments were definitely not natural. People shouldn't be shut up like that.

Anyway, Sunday we went to church as normal, then went home to get ready for my mom, step dad, and brother's visit. They hadn't seen our house since about a week before we moved in, so we had them over for lunch. The menu was parmesan oven-fried chicken, fresh green beans, cinnamon apples, mashed potatoes, sour cream muffins, and key lime pie for dessert (my mother made that). I only have two hands, and this took a lot of prep. (The chicken alone had 30 minutes prep and an hour cook time.) So when my mother arrived she helped me get lunch ready. It's been a long time since my mother and I cooked together, so that was lots of fun. The meal was a big hit too, even though it was almost 2:00 before we ate.

They stayed for a few hours and hung out with us on the porch, admiring our new house (it does look quite different from the last time they saw it), and just visiting. After they left around 5:00, Z and I went to Books-a-Million to return several duplicated books I'd gotten for Christmas and get a couple of new ones with our store credit. Then we went home for a quiet evening of reading. How very quaint. It was a splendid weekend, all around, and I hated to ruin it by coming to work this morning.

P.S. At nighttime we always set the security system for the doors and windows, but never the motion detectors, because of course we're still in the house. Last night Z was either playing a practical joke or being forgetful, I'm not sure, but around 12:30 a.m. when I got out of bed to get a glass of water, I walked through the living room and the alarm started shrieking at me. It took us a while to get back to sleep after that little episode.

So This is the New Year

"So this is the new year." That's one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite groups, Death Cab. I'm not a big fan of New Year's Eve or Day. I just don't really get what the big deal is or what exactly we're celebrating – the passage of time? Sure it's fun to remember all the highlights of the year and talk about hopes for the upcoming year. That's what Z and I did while we drove 3.5 hours to "celebrate" NYE at our friends' apartment in Huntsville. We thought about the good times in our families – a new baby, a new marriage, engagement, new houses, new jobs, our first anniversary; and we also remembered the trying times – the financial difficulty of the summer, breakups of friends, moving away. We then talked about the things we'd love for '09 to bring – a job to our friend who's been looking since he graduated law school with Z in May, a happy marriage to our friend Candace, a puppy for us, a great job for my sister when she graduates, etc. Those are some lofty hopes, to be sure, but if you can't hope on New Year's Eve, when can you?

I am not usually a resolution maker, but this year there are some specific things I'd like to get better about. I'm going to be healthier in '09, read more, bloom where I'm planted, make more friends here in Prattvegas, dwell less on the negative. What are your goals for 2009?

Even though NYE wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be (approximately 7 hours of driving and an allergy attack) and it caused me to spend more than half of my off-day in the car, I suppose it is a little exciting to think of the opportunities a new year brings. You can put the bad parts of '08 behind you and leave them in the past. Even though it sucks that the summer with no income really screwed up our finances and we still haven't recovered, we have devised a new financial plan for '09 and in '10 we are declaring war on the law school student loan.

It feels good to have a plan and know that anything's possible in the new year, even though I still think it's a silly holiday and doesn't in any way compare to Christmas, Easter, or other holidays with a purpose. I'm just saying.