Diary of a Middle-aged Woman

08/06/07 - Adjusting to being Unemployed

It was a strange feeling waking up this morning. The first thing that popped into my mind was "you don't have a job to go to". What a way to start my day.

The weekend was stressful as my husband is in an extreme freak-out mood. "We're going to lose the house, the car, and you're going to be stuck with a minimum wage job now." He feels I won't be able to get another bank job.

Between you and me - I'm not sure I want another bank job. Banks are becoming more and more strange to work for, and quite frankly, I don't know that I want to be a part of that culture any longer. However, that is all that I've done for the past 22 years of my life. So, getting a job in some other industry could very well mean starting at the bottom of the barrel. I realized, with this last job, that I don't want to be responsible for other people - I'm not crazy about having a staff report to me. Of course, when I mention that to my husband, he has a mini-stroke from the panic that I might not bring in the income that I once did. Don't worry, he'll get over this phase and calm down. I guess I have to allow him this lapse in support - for now anyway.

My daughter is happy that I'm home with her, and the cat is too. And if my husband is honest with himself, he's happy I'm home. The house runs so much smoother when I'm home all day.

So, it's back to the drawing board for me. Regarding my potential greeting card writing career, I contacted my instructor from the two courses that I recently took and gave her my bad news. I forwarded the email that I received and she had a great spin on it. She told me that they did mention that my work was great and that they wanted to see more, so I should believe them and send another set of ideas to them right away, while my work is still fresh in their minds. She even offered to look over the new batch and give me her input - free of charge. How great is that?

Today, and everyday until I find another job, I'm pretending to be a stay-at-home mom. I'll get to walk through the supermarket with all of the senior citizens blocking the aisles with their motorized scooters and zigzag my way through the maze of unruly kids, just to buy a quart of milk.

What fun.

My final thought for the day concerns all of you who wrote such great and supportive comments to my last entry. It was nice to know that I do have some value to others outside of my family. You all made me feel better about what happened and you also made me feel great about being back to my blog. I missed all of you too, and truly loved your comments to me. A great big THANK YOU to all of you.

Hope you all have a great day!