mommagreenfish

Some days, you find yourself in an unexpected situation, blinking like someone just turned on the lights at the movie theatre, wondering how the hell you got there.

Friday was one of those days for me.

After my beautiful impromptu vacation day (see previous post) I arrived at work refreshed and ready to face two of the craziest weeks of the year before taking a week off for Christmas.

At 8:45 a.m., everything changed.

Anyone who has heard their boss say the words “I need to see you in my office for a moment” knows exactly what is coming next. Seeing the lady from HR in the office when I got there just confirmed it.

The newspaper I work for (a small, free community weekly) hasn’t been making money for a long time now, and on Friday they eliminated both the paper and my position.

The parting was positive - they assured me that they would give me great references and keep me in mind if anything came up.

It was positive in other ways, too. I’ve been wishing for more time with my family, more time to write, and the opportunity to try out some of the other projects I’ve been wanting to try my hand at.

Of course, there are all the obvious negatives - the loss of our health insurance plan, the hit to the family income, and all of those financial problems, but overall, I feel pretty good about the whole thing.

My husband thinks it’s our own little version of the “Monkey’s Paw” - he had been wishing for the car more often, and I had been wishing for more time to write, and now we’ve both got what we wished for.

Today, I’m heading off the the employment office to apply for Employment Insurance Benefits. It’s been a long time since I drew on this particular social program, so it will be weird to go back to that.

But it’s also nice to know that I live in a country where that option is available. And I have yet to get to the end of the claim period while on EI - I always end up finding a job first.

In the meantime, I’ll have lots more time to devote to writing - including on this blog.

Enjoy your Monday - I know I will!