Danica Is Laid-Off

As of 1pm on Friday March 13th, I joined the thousands of unemployed Americans.

It was not unexpected, but was somewhat surprising. I worked for a non-profit, and knew that money was tight, and it was likely that some people would be losing their jobs.

I knew the 5-HTP I'm on was working when I didn't start crying immediately when my boss said "Can I talk with you in the office?"

I followed her in, and when I saw the other people there, I knew this wasn't just a discussion about whether I was over-using Facebook at work.

I actually managed to not cry at all throughout most of the proceedings. It wasn't so much being laid off that had me crying, it was how nice they were being about it, and my relief that they hadn't brought me in there to scold me for something.

Unfortunately when I did actually start crying it broke a streak of nearly 25 days without crying! And that including during therapy appointments!

So, they explained things too me, gave me a check of severance pay, and a representative from HR followed me back to my desk to watch me pack things up. She was very nice about letting me use the computer to wrap up some loose ends, I hope it didn't get her in trouble.

I called my boyfriend Hans before starting to pack. He was out at lunch consoling a friend and co-worker who had just gotten fired from his job! I asked him to come pick me up. He asked "Right now?" and I said "Yes, I've been laid off. I'm packing up my desk and have to be out of here shortly."

I loaded my plants into the lid from a paper box, and loaded the rest of the stuff into the box parts of the paper boxes. I put my fish into a small glass jar, and dumped out the rest of his water. I forgot to take the name plate I printed out that said "Danica Duensing, Resource Coordinator" with all the cute clip art of black cats around it, but I think I'll live.

I explained where stuff was to my boss, and let her know which loose ends still needed to be followed up with.

The woman from HR helped me carry my stuff outside, where I sat on a low wall and waited 10 minutes or so for Hans to come.

When he arrived, he helped me load stuff up, and I went with him back to Valencia where he was at another job site working on a project. I sat in the car in the sun and enjoyed the spring breeze. A spring breeze out here is a mid-June breeze with no humidity in the Midwest, so I very much enjoyed it.

I finished reading the book I was reading: "Stop in the Name of Pants!" by Louise Rennison. I read over the "separation paperwork". I was about to drive over to the bank when Hans finished work.

We drove over to his friend's shop, where he was going to finish working on his '55 Chevy pick-up. I took the car and drove over to his parent's house. His mom and I talked for a few hours about all sorts of things, and it was very nice.

Hans brought his repaired truck back to his parents house, and we drove back to our house in Lake Hughes and went to bed.