So when it’s a Friday at about ten minutes before quitting time and you’re called into HR, it generally only means one thing; you’re fired! Yes folks, I got the axe today. It’s a small comfort to know it was not me personally and had nothing to do with my work performance as they apparently decided to eliminate my position entirely. Due to the economy and the company's need to get the most bang for the buck from their employees they determined they needed to fill another position in a different department and that parts of my job could be absorbed into the duties of that position. Of course, it’s pretty ridiculous that they didn’t think of this about a month ago before hiring me, as it seems a waste of their time and resources to start a brand new employee and go through all the new hire procedures and costs (physical, drug testing, background check, etc.) and then decide that this wasn’t the position they really wanted to fill in the first place.
So, this leaves things in an uncertain state. The biggest issue is what (if anything) we are going to do about pre-school for the little guy; by far the worst part about this whole saga. In the meantime, I am happy to be back to my old routine and be able to take little guy to and from school for the remainder of this school year, the hubby can get back to his regular routine at work since he no longer has to creatively schedule things around my work schedule and I guess I won’t be tripping any more circuits with my early morning hair drying. Although I’m irritated about this, I’m thankful we hadn’t plunked down the hefty pre-school registration fee for Fall already or we would have lost it. We did have to buy a second car seat but ended up buying one that has a higher weight limit and will work past the time our other one does anyway, so that was fortunate, at least.
I can’t help but think about how things generally happen for a reason and wonder what may be in store. Here’s hoping something positive is just around the corner.
Umm, really?
So here’s a little something I’ve noticed…has this ever happened to you? You’re dealing with an individual on-line for a business transaction of some sort such as e-Bay, Etsy, some home-based businesses (Mary Kay, etc.) and you’ve waited a ridiculously long time for your item or order to arrive. When contacting the person, sometimes multiple times, you eventually get some variation of the following response back:
Dear Customer,
I am so sorry for the delay! Things have been crazy with ________________.
[Fill in the blank with one of the following:]
- Multiple deaths in the family involving numerous cross country travels for funerals
- Horrendous sickness lasting months during which I was completely incapacitated including being unable to email you to let you know what was going on
- Emergency surgery immediately after you placed your order followed by a lengthy hospital stay which lasted until just last night when I was finally discharged and came home to find your email inquiring about your order
Seriously, I cannot tell you how many of these I’ve heard. The sad part is I guess I’m a sucker because I used to believe them and then feel really horrible that I bothered the person about my silly little order! I would immediately write back telling them how sorry I was for their loss, sickness, injury, etc, and not to worry about rushing my order off in the mail. Yeah. Well. I’m just not buying it anymore. Of course I’m sure sometimes these excuses are legitimate, but come on now! This is just a little too much to be coincidental.
New Attitudes
I’m now deep into week two of the new job. So far I am making it through. Of course, the house is a disaster, I blow electrical circuits blow-drying my hair while hubby irons his shirt in the morning and by 7:30 pm I’m falling asleep while watching TV. And speaking of hair, this morning I was faced with a choice of either A) actually do my hair or B) take that time to eat breakfast. Let’s just say that a hair clip was used and I enjoyed a bowl of cereal.
So, naturally there are adjustments. I would like to state however that despite everything I have managed to get up each morning and get my walk in, something I’m pretty darn proud of if I do say so myself. I think it took an attitude adjustment to get to the mental commitment part of this down. You see, back when I was slacking and not getting my exercise in I would feel guilty every single time I missed a work out. It occurred to me that as much as I hated dragging my butt out of bed at an unholy hour, once I did it and got out there and did my exercise I felt great. So it finally sunk in that the downside of not working out was a feeling of regret and remorse yet there really was no downside to forcing myself to do it other than the momentary feeling of not wanting to get out of bed. Then there was another thought process about the excuses; generally that I felt I hadn’t had enough sleep the night before and needed to stay in bed. The thing is, another 30 minutes was just not going to make difference nor was there much of a chance I’d go back to sleep anyway. The fact is, there was a much bigger overall positive to getting up and getting in my exercise than staying in bed for 30 more minutes. I think it took examining all this for me to finally realize that there are some things you just need to do and sometimes you have to change the way you think about things in order to do them. Of course, I wish I could take this same attitude and apply it to a multitude of other things. But, one thing at a time. Baby steps.
That thing called a job
I bet you all thought that once I got a job you’d never see me again and reading about the all the zany antics of my life would be over! Well, of course not!
I’m on day two in the first week of the new job. Thus far, I’ve not said or done anything stupid . One observation; the working area is a wee bit small. No, it’s not a cubicle, it’s actually the tail end of the counter of someone else’s workstation where someone placed a computer system, phone and rolled in a chair. Now mind you, I was not expecting a corner office with a window or anything, I mean, I am the newbie, I get that. Actually though, this is not the worst set up I’ve had. I thought back to a time many years ago when I started a new job for a large company in an oh-so-special state that's home to a famous musical family popular in the seventies. That job by far had the worst working area set up ever. I was hired for a brand new position which combined security with reception. It was very interesting. The idea was that I would be in the front office area of a large building that housed hundreds of employees. The employees would often check out equipment for use at home, testing, etc. It seems the company had a little trouble with the equipment actually coming back. (This is where I’d normally insert a snarky comment about the irony in the level of dishonesty for state and a community that prides itself on upstanding citizens, but I won’t do that.) So, they decided that I would have the duty of logging out the various items on a sophisticated computer system and making sure they were eventually returned and logged back in. A brilliant plan in theory. The trouble was, I had no computer. They wanted me to start doing this manually in a binder while sitting at - wait for it - a card table. That was my workstation. And naturally I looked terribly official in this capacity. Eventually I got an actual desk, phone and computer and was able to do my job instead of looking like I was there to sell cookies or take sign-ups for the softball game.
Returning to work after all these years is definitely taking some getting used to. For instance, I’m finding that my morning routine is going to need some tweaking and overhauling. It’s been tricky calculating when to get up so that I can manage to squeak in my workout, get myself looking presentable, have breakfast and drive to the office in time. In addition I have to also figure out when to actually go to bed so getting up the next morning isn’t impossible. Thus far, those times seem to be around o’dark fifteen and right after dinner respectively.
Now for those who might have been hoping to read all about the crazy co-workers and wacky office goings-on I’m afraid I have to disappoint you. I’ve learned from fellow mommy blogger Dooce that writing about work is almost never a good idea if you want to keep the job.
Easter 2010
This Easter came during some very non-Spring like weather around here. This was really evident at the big Easter Egg Hunt when little kids came bundled up. My little darling was sporting his Easter short-all with a sweater. I doubt he even noticed a chill though, the way he heats up so quickly, he’s in constant motion! The hubby brought along his good camera to take some nice shots.
The pose on this one cracks me up; the Hubby said he actually did this on his own.
They were all gone in a matter of seconds.
Just a little Easter cuteness pictorial for you all.
Goodbye Bon Bons and Oprah
What I’m about to say only sounds like it could be an April Fool, folks. I will now be retiring my title of stay-at-home-mom. I got a job. I know! A job. One in which I will be required to get up even earlier than I do now, find and wear pants that fit, drive to an office and sit in front of a computer that will not be displaying my own web site. I will also be getting something I have not received in a very long time; a paycheck. Actually, I can’t really say I will be getting a paycheck because shortly after payday it will be turned around and deposited to the little guy’s new pre-school. Yes, I am working solely to enable to my child to go to pre-school this Fall, the year right before he enters Kindergarten.
So let me back up and tell you all how this happened. As dedicated readers know, little guy has speech delay and Sensory Processing Disorder. He’s been receiving therapy (both speech and OT) since age 18 months. In addition, at age three he started a speech pre-school that is part of the public school system. He’s attended this 5 day a week program since last August. He absolutely loves school and in fact has done so well academically and overall that his teachers and therapists state he will not need to continue with Special Education and in fact would do well in a regular pre-school. Unfortunately, “regular preschool” is not part of the public school system (though I think it should be!) and must be paid for at a private school. It’s not even within the realm of possibility for us to pay for pre-school out of our current resources. So, as much as I love being a stay-at-home-mom and was not at all considering returning to the working world at this point (beyond my side projects; SimpliSave, Draga Designs and of course, this blog) getting a job was the only answer. We felt strongly that not having the structure and opportunities of pre-school the year before entering Kindergarten would be a big social and academic setback. Little guy is at the top of his class academically and overall seems to be pretty darn smart. Of course we’re thrilled that he’s doing so well but we weren’t prepared for having to figure out what to do in order to keep him in a pre-school program.
A while back I started sending out resumes for positions which met pretty strict criteria. My attempt was to obtain a part time position (something that is surprisingly hard to find) for a local company (so I didn’t have to drive far) during regular business hours during the workweek (so I would be gone mostly during the time little guy was at school and have maximum family time outside work hours). I got one call for an interview and was offered that job. It was truly one of those “meant to be” situations. Now frankly, I’m a tad nervous to enter the work world after many years. I’m not even used to having adult conversations during the day and I just know that within the first week I’ll be asking a co-worker if they need to go potty and if their crankiness means it’s time for a nap. But this is a new chapter in my life and one that I think will be a big positive overall.
Stay tuned to see how this all unfolds. Because you just know there are going to be some interesting posts coming up! Oh, and even though “stay-at-home-mom” may no longer apply to “SAHM” for me, “Surviving Assorted Home Mayhem”, always will.
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