Day Two of Being Jobless

It's actually Saturday...do weekend days count?

Weekends mean a lot less to me now that I'm jobless. And this is just day two of joblessness. I mean, when Monday comes, I'm not going to work. I'm going to stay home, clean the house, cook, might go see about getting my glasses fixed before my vision insurance is taken away, and figure out what I'm fixing for dinner. Many things around here need catching up.

Mack and I have decided I am not going to go looking for a job right now. He said I have worked hard and need a rest. (I just had to put his comment in there to once again congratulate myself on finally picking an excellent mate!)For the next two weeks, my new job is to figure out what I want my new job to be. And, of course, making a fresh, awesome dinner every night. My fresh-food-obsessed husband is *really* excited about that.

I'm so looking forward to taking my little one to her appointments and not giving a shit how that will affect anyone. I never have to worry about her royal highness, the receptionist, again. She is out of my picture. I'm looking forward to taking my time with my little one...taking her to her stuff, not having to hurry, sleeping in a little bit. Now I can attend more of her therapy appointments with her as her therapist desired.

A friend of mine at OA works at Marriott. She suggested I check out their jobs. Right now I feel like to take a job that I really don't want could be poison to this opportunity. I don't want to get into an environment where I limit my thoughts on what I can be and do. Right now I have an opportunity few people ever get, and one that I never thought I would have...I am out of the workforce and being given however much time I need to decide what job I want. On top of that, I don't need to make as much money as I previously made.

I'm free.

Free of the shackles of administrative assisting, which I never really liked anyway. Whatever my next job is, it will not be one where my opinion on most issues is considered close to worthless. I do not wish next time to work somewhere where my position is not valued by higher levels of management. In my ex-job, assistants didn't really know much about what the people they worked for were really facing. We were kept out of the loop. We didn't attend any meetings and were not a member of any team, other than the administrative one. In that office, no one was really valued unless they were personally liked by Napoleon.

I cannot help but feel lucky, even though I was fired. My friend the EA, I don't remember her nickname, remarked in wonder yesterday that I sounded kind of glad or happy. I have to admit, once Napoleon was finished yelling at me and shaming me, once he was done making himself feel better, and had walked away, I called Supervisor up and go, 'I'm fired, right? Ok, let's go talk about it in a conference room.' Supervisor even seemed surprised at how upbeat I was.

So we went in the conference room and I explained what it was about, and then said, 'You know, Supervisor, maybe it was just time for me to move on anyway. Would I ever have quit? Probably not.'

Then, 'Tell you what, you guys are going to be just fine. Let's go back to my cube and pack up my stuff. I will show you where everything is and clear off some personal stuff that you won't need. You can stand there and watch and do whatever the company needs you to do.' She said ok and off we went.

I *cheerfully* packed up my stuff. As I packed, I thought about how much stuff I really did *not* have. I had gone on many decluttering binges at my desk, getting rid of whatever wasn't needed so that when I eventually left or was asked to leave, I would not have to carry much. I had really pared it down to just the stuff that I actually would want to keep. I deleted my personal files. Not much lost there. I deleted all the music and of course my pictures, any other personal correspondence that was no one else's business.

When I got home, I just kind of wandered around the house, aimlessly for a while. I didn't know what to do with myself. I still couldn't believe I had been fired. Then I realized how many personal contacts I needed from my Outlook account. And of course all my passwords that were still in Outlook. I knew Supervisor had not yet filed the paperwork to shut off my access to that, so I logged on and worked on saving and deleting personal stuff. That took about an hour. Soon it was time to go get the little one from school and Mackistani from work. Off I went.

I have decided to sell my old office clothes on eBay. I hate them all anyway. I think I would like my next job to be more casual. I definitely do not wish to ever again work somewhere where clothing was considered so vitally important. Anyway, I will certainly need the money.

I think I would like my next job to be part-time. Like 30 hours per week or something. I don't need benefits anyway, for myself, the little one, or Mackistani. Wow, I should really celebrate the fact that I have options. I'm so very lucky.

And free. FREE AS A BIRD!