A birthday like no other!

 I celebrated my 52nd birthday this past week.   I was looking forward to some time off of work.  I had plans for each day and it was going to be, well not epic; but a good day and week.  Little did I know what was coming my way

I started my birthday week on Monday and everything went well.  I roamed a bit and ran some errands.  I was busy but had a fabulous day!   I hit up some thrift stores, roamed through Hobby Lobby, took myself to lunch.  It was great!

Tuesday was my birthday and it was the day that I had planned to go visit an old Civil War Fort with my nephew.  (Jason had to work.). I woke up with a smile on my face ready to enjoy another day off of work and for our adventure.   We went to Fort Duncan. And explored the ruins of this old fort.  The weather was perfect for us.  

We even took a walk down the remnants of an old road and explored an abandoned household 

And we went to the graveyard and drove by a house that was reportedly used as a house of ill repute.

It was a perfect birthday morning.  And then it went belly up.my phone started blowing ip with texts from my coworkers.  Our team had been called into a meeting, the whole team…at the same time.  In a call center environment, it is rare and HUGE if they pull everyone off the phones at the same time.  Yet they did.  I was still out and about when the meeting went down.   My coworkers  kept me apprised.

‘Our team is disbanding as of December 31’

‘They didn’t find new teams for us’

‘We have all lost our jobs’

‘Not performance based, reduction in workforce based on business needs’

‘Possibly have one position that we can all apply for’

I was luckily heading home by that point.  But I held out some slim hope that maybe they were getting rid of everyone…everyone but me that is.  Yeah, I know how crazy and conceited that sounds now that I’m typing it. But that is where my thought was at that point.   

Within an hour I had my phone call.   I was too being laid off…blah blah blah (that is code for all the legalese stuff).  

I spent the rest of my birthday revamping my resume and getting password resets on websites such as indeed…and updating those sites to my current  address and information.   I sat and panicked about money and worked through figured in my head…constantly.

I was still off on Wednesday and I spent some time shopping for a few clothes at goodwill, I had gained weight and have/had no dress pants that fit and I realize that interviews will be in my future.  So I bought pair or two of versatile dress pants.  Mostly Wednesday was just me assimilating the information that for the first time in my life I was given the boot from a job.   For the first time in my adult life I would be unemployed  yes there were tears.

Thursday I was back at work….starting to work off my last 2.5 weeks of employment.

This would most decidedly be the worst birthday gift I ever got.  Not one I recommend at all.   I have started to apply at jobs already.  I am also preparing mentally to be out of work for a bit, hopefully not long….but the odds of me being able to start somewhere on January 1 is a long shot.  But I am prepared. I am making plans for those days off…vowing to job hunt at least 30-60 minutes a day. MINIMUM!   I also have some thoughts to finally be able to finish the picture digitizing project …even adding in my personal photos.   I have some graveyards that I want to visit.  I have some purging that I want to do.  I also want to try to spend some time away from the house daily to prepare the dog for  the possibility that I will not be by her side 24-7 in case I get an office position and have to give up the work from home gig.  Hello long winter walks….as money will be tight and what else could I do for free?

Shocked, stressed, worried.  But praying for a miracle of a job that I love and that pays what I need!