No image for this post. I apologize if you’re a picture kind of person. Also, no cussing in this post – if you’re the kind of person who checks this blog every day, you got a profanity-laced one last week, which has since been made private. I would’ve deleted it, but years from now I want to remember how I felt.
Anyway, here’s the deal. Remember that I mentioned at the beginning of my week at Pictured Rocks that AT&T was going to lay people off? Yeah, well, I’m one of those people. In a nutshell, I’ve got until December 27th to find a new job. If I can find another job at ATT (I’ve applied for 5), then I keep my years in service and it’s not a big deal. If I can’t find an internal job by then, then I’m on the street, I get 50% of my salary in a lump sum (taxed to hell and back), and ATT wishes me good luck.
Having run the math about 400 times, I think I can live on that severance – if I eat beans and rice – for about a year. I don’t want to eat beans and rice. I particularly don’t want for my cats to eat beans and rice.
But that’s where I am at the moment. I’ve applied, as I said, for multiple internal jobs – best case scenario even though I really hate ATT – and I’ve applied for multiple external jobs, which is almost wasted effort because I’m a jack of all IT trades and external jobs want specificity. I’m over-qualified for damned near every job I’ve applied for, and damned near every employer will look at my resume and think that I’m not qualified. So I’ve got that going for me. If I have to go outside, I’m pretty sure that I’ve got to take an entry level job (and lie about my qualifications to do so) and start over. I’m cool with that. Not happy, but cool. My kitties won’t know the difference.
Have talked to a friend who’s lease expires in February about renting a room from me. Have talked to a senior director – who also got the axe – about a possible start-up company. Have gotten through one interview with an outside company to be a systems admin 1 (major step backwards). At this point, however, I’m still really scared. I’ve tried being religious in the past. It didn’t take. But if you’re religious, feel free to pray for me.
In an attempt to start saving money, I bought some peanut butter and jelly last week. PB gives me incredible heartburn. Jelly is way too sweet for me – I hate it. But I made myself a PB&J sandwich tonight. Two, actually. I ate them. They tasted terrible, and my stomach is currently rebelling on me. It was cheap, though. I can get through this. I *will* keep my cats safe. And they’ll stay together. I don’t know exactly how I’ll do that if I get to the point where I can’t pay the mortgage….but they will stay together and they’ll be cared for. I’m not married. Have no children. My kitties are my kids, though, and any of you who think that kids are more important need to stop reading this blog. If not for my cats, I’d take the severance tomorrow and I’d be living in Canada.
So let’s end this one on a happy note. The Cubs won the world series. Dad, I’m sorry that it wasn’t the Indians…but come on: It was the Cubbies. You can’t feel too bad about that. 108 years and all that. Pretty good news.