Wow, it has been one hell of a winter. The economy goes to crap, my company starts layoffs, the family gets sick multiple times. The start of this year has been just brutal. So here’s the rundown…
I’m irritated at all of the folks that want to blame Obama for the economy being in the crapper. You are morons. You are idiots, one, because you continually choose to ignore the previous administrations 8 years of ineptitude. Two, because even if McCain had been elected you would still find someone else to blame. Fact of the matter is you can’t take owness or criticism of anything. You believe you can do no wrong. Well, quit your whining, you made this bed you have to lie in it just like the rest of us. Whether or not the Obama administration can fix this mess remains to be seen. I for one am optimistic.
As part of this massive FAIL my company is following suit with all the rest and eliminating jobs. I’m not surprised. I knew that we would be, especially since the merger last year. Two companies can not merge without there being some sort of workforce overlap. The only problem is that it is exacerbated by the poor economy. I was fortunate enough to not be one of the ones cut this time. Next time, who knows. Instead of getting laid off I was subject to a pay cut. I was rather angry at first but after a few days came to my senses and was still grateful to have a job. Now, with the announcement of another pay cut, albeit temporary (for now), I’m still somewhat grateful. I think.
Combine that with the fact that everyone in my house can not seem to be healthy all at the same time and it makes for a very depressing situation. The poor kids have had one aliment after another for what seems like forever. Last week was the culmination of what I’m calling the perfect storm. Z got the flu, then I got sick, then A got sick all immediately followed by Michelle getting sick. I started getting over it then got sick again and that was followed by Z getting sick. It was a vicious circle. The boys ended up getting anti-biotics for their ailments and as they got better so did Michelle and I. So over the weekend we thought everyone was out of the weeds and then A wakes up with a bad rash that continues to get worse. Yesterday he goes to the Dr and they say he has hives. Joy. Another prescription and hopeful it’ll be taken care of. Today, the little boys went to school, yes, they are doing much better. A’s rash is still there but much, MUCH less irritating and looks much better. Z was his usual cranky self. Which is quite normal for the mornings. Michelle gets to deal with that every day, she loves that fact so very much.
The big kids are home with me since it’s spring break and I’m 1/2 off work and 1/2 working from home today since I have a photo shoot this afternoon and have to take Jenny to have her wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow. Which brings me to yet another chapter in our wonderful life. Last month Jenny’s herbst device (think of the old fashioned head-gear, only now it’s more technologically advanced and internal to the mouth rather than worn on the head) broke and I took her in to have it fixed. Since she had been wearing it for over a year already and it was due to come off soon anyway they went ahead and pulled it out. She was very excited about this. Now that her herbst was out she was to get her bottom braces installed. This happened last Wednesday. When her herbst broke and they removed it they did a full x-ray and said that she needed to talk to another Dr about having her wisdom teeth removed before they caused problems for her 12 year molars. So that appointment to talk to the new Dr was last Thursday evening. They were able to schedule her for this week (Spring Break) since she will need about 4 days or so to recover from having 5 wisdom teeth removed. Yep, I said 5 wisdom teeth, she has one stacked on top of another. She must really be smart.
On top of all of that mess I had to deal with my winter “funk”. What a joy. The first part of this year was enough to depress anyone, but one thing on top of another, on top of another I had about enough. I finally pull myself together and decide that I just don’t have the time, or the energy to get depressed about any of this crap, anymore. I need every bit of sanity and energy to keep things together on a daily basis and any spare juice I’ve got I need to use it to focus on the business. So I pull myself out of this funk and it seems Michelle goes into one. She’s had her own full plate with her new job. The new job that she absolutely loves. I’m glad she loves her job but the fact that she’s been traveling so much and this job has so much of her focus is taking it’s toll around here. When she’s not working in the evenings she is worn out and tired, a lot. The business is suffering and given what’s happening with the day job, that’s not a good thing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I can’t do it without her. We just have too much going on for either one of us to be able to do any of this alone so something is going to have to happen and it’s going to have to happen soon. If she doesn’t have the time I’m afraid that this year I may have to find another second shooter and someone to handle marketing for me. So much for the husband & wife team marketing angle.
Anyway…I’m still optimistic. Things will get better. Across the board. Mark my words.