I Need A Hug...And Perhaps a Gun

Well, this week just keeps getting better and better, and to paraphrase my friend Lakeisha's catchphrase, I am definitely not feeling the love in the room.

In the "I should have seen this coming" category, the office manager at the CPA firm tells me that "she didn't want to tell me Friday" (why? why?), but "this is our slow time and we don't need you any more." Subtle, huh? Then she said, "you can work the rest of the day (gee thanks, since it's 3:45 and I leave at 5:30), or through tomorrow, or through the rest of the week. Whatever I want."

Whatever I want?! What I wanted was a #*$&#* job from you, not some conciliatory you-can-work-out-the-week making the same temp rate I got 12 years ago. It's still not clear how much longer I will be working beyond tomorrow. My plan is to milk as much time out of them as possible, since I'm now close to--hooray--becoming eligible for unemployment, and the more weeks of work I can rack up, the better.

This experience has taught me a number of things: saying you're a Christian is a helluva lot different than actually being one, don't take anyone at their word, don't agree to anything in return for future compensation, and --when you get mad, don't bring firearms to work.

Although for the last thing, this experience has given me greater insight into why disgruntled workers return to their former places of employment with a shotgun and a whole lot of bad attitude. I've got the attitude, but believe I am showing considerable restraint in not going to the sporting goods store for a gun.

Once I got the news it took me quite a while to email the prospective tenants, realtor, insurance broker, mortgage broker, and home inspector to let them know all bets are off and my home buying plans are on hold. So I can kiss that cute little house in Highland Park goodbye, unless a miracle happens and I get a job before someone comes and scoops up that house. But I'm not holding my breath.

One bright side is that now that I'm amongst the land of the unemployed, that gives me more time to hang out with my slacker friends, chief amongst them Nut Bar and newly-unemployed Tim and Gino (come back to Pittsburgh, we'll have slacker fun, you'll see). Yeah! I see movie days, music and drinking days, laying out in the grass doing nothing days...