A New Day Dawns…

Hi folks, it’s been awhile…

So, I found myself out of a job this week…  Unexpected, and yet I’ve felt under the microscope for the last several months.  Regardless of how much I did, regardless of the extra hours put in, nothing was ever good enough for TPTB.  “So, you only completed 99 things today?  What about that 100th thing?!?”

Word to the wise, if you want to keep your job, don’t tell the boss he’s being ridiculous when he’s being ridiculous.   The ONLY thing coming from that is a nice big target in your back…

So this week I’ve been through all  kinds of emotional crap, from bitterness to hostility, fear, self doubt…depression.   It’s been a rough week to say the least.

To make matters worse, the Mrs. and our daughter have been on a Girl’s Trip all week,  hundreds of miles and a few time zones away, so I’ve been left to my own devices and the voices in my head all week.  Considering I’m my own harshest critic and my own worst enemy, this hasn’t been a good place to be.  To say the least. I haven’t slept much or eaten much, but I DID completely avoid “the bottle” 100%.  Now, I’m not much of a drinker – generally less than once a month, but dang!  My old friend Mr. Jack Daniels has been calling to me repeatedly,  especially in the dark of night when I couldn’t sleep. 

Truth be told, I mostly hated my job.  I was already looking around and putting out feelers, nonetheless getting sacked was a major shocker.  I took my first “real” job (schedules and paycheck job) at 15 years old and I’m now 55 and I’ve NEVER been “fired” before.  Still, I wanted it to be MY choice to leave that pressure cooker, not have it thrust upon me.  I’ve been in essentially the same job, just at 3 different facilities, for 17 years and I’m BURNED. OUT.  It wasn’t a career choice, it was something I fell ass-backward into all those years ago.  And while I’ve learned a TON over the years, I have gained no satisfaction from it and in a way wished I’d never gotten into this line of work in the first place.  I never had any love for it. No paycheck is worth the constant, unending stress my job entailed, I was just too scared to try something new – even when it was strongly suggested by my Doctor due to stress induced health issues.  Yeah, that’s right.  Rather than find a new career,  I just stopped going to the doctor for about 8 years!

But now the choice was made for me.  And all the fear aside, I’m actually relieved in a weird way.

But then, something amazing happened.  I landed a new job!  I start on MONDAY!  The beauty of it is that the new gig is essentially doing the ONLY part of my old job(s) that I DID like!  And NONE of the crap that I loathed!  No more dealing with HR issues, no more accounting reports, no more dealing with City, State and Federal regulations and all that entails, no more corporate bullcrap.  I almost can’t believe it!  It sounds too good to be true, but it’s a company I have a long relationship with, I know the owners and they do outstanding work that I know I’ll be proud to be part of.  They basically created a new position for me because they desperately need help and they know what I’m capable of.  I gotta say, that feels pretty good.

So wish me luck!  Things will probably be a little quiet on the ol’ blog while I get my bearings, but never fear, I’ll be back!  Hopefully, better than ever now that I won’t be on-call 24/7/365 while trying to stave off an ulcer!

And the cherry on top is that the Mrs. comes home tonight!!  Oh, how I’ve missed her!  Six days apart is a LONG time when you’ve been with someone for 35 years!

Have a great weekend y’all.  Thanks for stopping by!