The start of the new year has been a tad subpar, Management was laid off and her car needs major repairs, though I suppose with such an inauspicious start things can really only look up. Maybe we had a feeling that this was on the horizon when we started hacking at our budget but it definitely is helping that we’ve made some radical cuts to our lifestyle before all this happened but when I honestly reflect on it the layoff is likely a blessing in disguise.
Management hated her job. The company she worked for was demeaning and her boss was less than pleasant and far from stable swinging wildly from highs where praise was cheap currency to dark lows where her fury was a 1000 year storm. She was depressed from the grind and angry that she put the time and effort only to feel like she was running in quicksand; at some point the place was going to consume her body and soul. The layoff is probably the best thing that has happened to our marriage since Gabriella and the time she is getting to spend with our daughter is just what the both of them need. As far as I am concerned, the benefits are outweighing the loss of income.
Work, however, for me is the opposite. I love what I am doing; I am learning and being pushed to think smarter, quicker, and differently every single day. I love that.
As you can see from the picture, I never really gave up on The Beard Project, after a couple of trims around Thanksgiving I just let it go to seed. Management wonders when I’ll grow tired of being so fluffy, my daughter sinks her fingers into it and exclaims “Oh, Bear!”, and I love how warm it has kept me this past cold snap.
Dude….that is the best picture ever. Glad to hear you guys are drinking lemonade.
Need a little sugar to make sucking lemons more palatable, right?
I hope things start to look up for you guys, although I’m glad to hear the layoff has made your lives better. It’s amazing how a job can hold so much over your happiness or lack there of in your wife’s case. Once you change your definition of “fulfillment” to include the things that really matter and exclude the things that don’t, you put yourself in control of your own happiness. Spending time with your kid is an incredible gift and as you stated, the benefits will outweigh the loss of income by orders of magnitude.
There is always a silver lining, hope she is able to figure out what she wants to be doing and makes it happen!
And you really need to start posting more beard updates…
That bear rules. You are clearly a master beardsman, and you’ve come such a long way.
Best of luck to your wife. Getting laid off from my last job was the best thing to ever happen to me. Hopefully she has the same experience.
That’s great James. I mean, it sucks she was laid off. But it’s good you’re making the best of it. It does sound like a blessing in disguise – you try not to let a bad job affect you personally but it always does. I was laid off in May from my favorite job thus far. It hurt very much. But I had a lot of fun being off and jogged and biked and lost 30 pounds. It is what you make of it.
We’re headed into the second week and we’ve tackled the major issues of getting her registered for unemployment and the car has been replaced (just what you should do right after getting laid off, buy a new car). She is really enjoying her time with Gabi, which is great for both of them, and is thinking about maybe going back to school full-time in the fall. So far so good.