Okay, I derailed from writing a travelogue…

Ack! And I had really wanted to do that. Unfortunately, I came home from my trip to a slew of unfortunate events.
The first being my kit-cat Sammy. I’ve had Sammy for over 10 years now but I got him as he was already an adult, somewhere about 6 or 7 years old. He’d been passed around from home to home and finally settled with me. He also had some sort of stupid name like “Timber” or something, but I think he was as happy to get rid of it as I was because he started responding to it immediately.

Sammy’s slowly shutting down. He’s not in any pain or anything; he’s just shutting down and we both know it. So I’m just giving him all the loving I can for now and if I ever see he’s in pain, I’ll take him to the vet to ease that. Yesterday, my dear roommie helped me [read: did it all himself] dig a grave in the backyard for him, which is ready and waiting as I’d be surprised if he lasted another week. I’m as emotional as a child now and again, but I suppose that’s normal.

So there was that. And, oh yeah: I also lost my job.

Grrr! So back on the job hunt I am. I’m not sure what I want to do at this point: stay in my industry (more $ that way with 12 years experience), go somewhere else (for the change, for the fun, for learning new things), or somewhere in between. It turned out that almost 700 people were let go Nationwide, so I know it wasn’t anything personal with me: I got a list of all the positions and age of the employee from corporate with my severance information. I showed it to a good friend of mine who knows lawyerish type things and he said basically I was let go because of my title+age+time with the company and for no other reason. I can understand that because, apparently, the company was struggling financially if they had to do this.

I don’t feel any ill-will toward the company at all because of this. I do feel for my salesman who now has to figure out what I’ve been doing for him for the past 18 months since no one else is trained in our niche of the company. But he’s a smart cookie: he’ll get by. In any case, I met an ex-cow orker [sic] for happy hour the other day and was told I needed to have a few beers and margaritas and whatnot. I was more than happy to oblige their whims. Afterward, I even had the pleasure of meeting up with my friend Julia at her gorgeous new house and heading out to one of our favorite stomping grounds: The Paradise Cafe in Chamblee. I had already decided to stay at Julia’s, so we got our drink on a little and it was most fun. I also got asked out by a gentleman we had been talking to for a while (!!!). Wha–?? When does that EVER happen for me? :-) We’ll see where it goes, but if nothing else, it was just really nice to be asked out on a dinner date (and he did so in front of his friends and mine, not even caring if I’d “reject him” or anything - very cool!). I need to get back out there again…at least it’s a start!
So, in any case, doing well and all, but all of that, combined with taking an entire day to read Harry Potter so as to avoid any spoilers from anyone, I’ve been derailed from writing the travelogue on the coolest little trip I’ve had in a long time. Fortunately, there are other trips coming up: September a vineyard trip to North Georgia with the Girls’ Group; October a Big Pig BBQ festival in south Georgia with P1 and P2, and November a bluegrass festival up in Chattanooga (P2: I’m going to explain more about this to you, too! You need to come with). Hopefully I’ll be employed by then. Heh heh. But since I’ve only been unemployed a week and already have an interview set up for Monday, I’m feeling pretty good about it all. :)

So, MWAH! to all my dear friends and hopefully I’ll be a little more proactive about blogging in the future! Good nights to you all!