Am I being laid off soon? Luckily-I planned for it

Well y’all, I sit speechless as I write this. It is almost midnight here, yet my mind is racing. My emotions are…well, I don’t know yet. I could write a book on here but my husband keeps telling me to get to bed so I don’t sleep late tomorrow-on my first day off…yeah my first day off… on a Wednesday. How is this?

I am really tired, and as I started to type this, I took a look over at my “tweets”-which I hardly ever do. Wow, this came at the right time.

Be confident in your dream. Act like it’s a done deal. Plan like it’s already happened. Be confident God will finish what He started. Ph 1:6

As you know, I am no religious person. I do enjoy listening to Joel Osteen and subscribe to his updates. I always seem to get sent a message at all the right times. Those messages always seem to make me feel confident and better about what is going on in my life at the time.

I am off for at least one week as my replacement, gets trained in. Yup, you read it right. I have not been officially told this, but I know it. I have been with the company for…gosh last month made 10 years. I know how they work-I know how they operate. You will remember, I have a good boss and I have the not-so-nice boss. For years, this man has hated me, but his wife and I get along great. She is my boss, but they are family. And as much as he hated to admit it, I did do a great job and I have kept the business flowing and moral up, when everyone was feeling down.

So after college was over, their daughter was left unable to find a job. I would hear talks about the budget and how we can’t afford another person, blah, blah, blah. So I inquired about it- so that I know what is going on. She is a great kid and why not work there-it is her family’s company. I asked my nice boss (her mother) about it and even gave scenarios about how we could fit her in even if it meant tweaking my schedule around. Let’s face it, she is a young girl and enjoys hers weekends and nights off. I was told, nope. I am not going anywhere and she will not be changing any schedule around-her daughter will not be coming in-and if she does she will be working on the field….no worries.That was Friday.

Monday I come into the office to find the daughter sitting there ready to work-pretty much doing my job. My prick boss paid no mind to me and just gave me a very cold shoulder— and everything that went on in the office, I was now not to be involved in. Wow, a flashback to high school days. You know, you’re not “in” with the crowd kind of childish crap. So as I sat there, silent for 9 hours, doing absolutely nothing-my mind was just going a hundred miles a minute. I became the ultimate clock watcher. Boy, time could not go by any slower.

I wanted to leave so bad-I kept thinking of excuses to make up, just to get out of there. I wish I had a job that we could leave for lunch break because I would have gotten up so fast and never came back-but I didn’t. I also just happened to get dropped off too, and hubby was far away. Anyway, I made it through the day, emotionally drained when I got home, I went right to bed. My husband told me to just relax and call out sick the next day. What is that going to solve? That wont solve anything. What they are ultimately doing is having me train this girl in-and once she learns the ropes, see ya.  You know, she is a nice girl really, this is not her fault. Her father just wants her to keep the family legacy going and her mother can’t just be open and honest with someone who has busted her tail there for her for 10 years.

It’s OK.

So yesterday I did go to work, but I asked for my last weeks vacation—starting today. Why not take paid time off before I lose it? I am not stupid-I am not losing that vacation time I worked hard for. My boss (the nice one) knew right away that I was upset but told me no problem. We sat in silence all day. She emailed me later to say she was “Sorry about everything”. Yeah, OK.

I spent most of the afternoon cleaning out my desk and cleaning out my work email, just in case I do not make it back. My coworkers are a little shocked. I am not. Actually if this happened last year or anytime before, I would be hysterical and crying. I wont be now. What have I always said? After I file BK, I will leave. I filed in March but the fears of not finding another job in this economy scared me to death. I did however, start freelance writing around the time I started this blog. Nothing major, just articles here and there for extra money.  Over the weekend I threw together a new resume and writing sample and applied to a company that I did not think I had a chance in hell with—and guess what? I got in!

I am no professional writer, but I love it. Geese, this post is already almost 900 words long and still going. To actually make money doing it-would be awesome. I am not gonna lie, I am still scared, nervous, and wondering what the future holds. But just as I got accepted to this job, out of the blue someone just emailed me some freelance work! I wrote an article for someone (a subject I love!) and he loved it and wants me to do more work for him on a project. I have never had this luck-NEVER! Reading that email made me feel awesome! I have had no time to cry about what is going on or feel upset or hurt or anything. I am grateful that through all this financial turmoil I have been through, I learned to never have all my eggs in one basket. Luckily I had this what seemed to be a part-time extra money gig-turn out to be possibly my lifelong dream. If it works out, life will be sweet.

So I will let my bosses enjoy working with their daughter, I am not officially out of that job-not yet anyways. Their daughter will either work out-or not. I will let them figure it out. I may get an email asking me when I am coming back to work or telling me not to come back to work. Either way, it was a HUGE wake-up call and a “time to get off your ass” moment for me. As it should be for everyone-always be on your toes and don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Never depend on someone else to feed you. Jobs will come and go-I don’t care what you do or where you work. I was there-10 years! Always have a back-up plan and always live within your means. If this would have happened to me when we had 2 car payments, debt, a mortgage-oh gosh! I feel comfortable that it is happening now.

In the meantime, I am off. I will start working from home in about an hour or so. I am going to post frequently here to update on my progress. I am so eager to know if I could really make a living at this. At least I am getting the opportunity to try it out while I am on my paid vacation time.

You know what is really cool though? I got to take my daughter to school today and I will be home to pick her up! I love that. It doesn’t happen too often.

As you can see, I have written a lot. I didn’t finish this post last night but carried it on to this morning. OK, enough rambling. I gotta work with this gorgeous view of the lake behind me and my pooch at my feet. Today feels like it is going to be a good day.