Jobless in Jersey

So last week, I got The Call. The "I'm sorry, your services are no longer needed" call. The "It's not you, it's the lack of advertising" call. The "Please send your company-owned items back to the office because you'll no longer be needing them" call.

I'm officially unemployed.

Thanks to a wonderful co-worker who let it slip that our magazine was going from 10 issues a year to a meager six issues for 2010 (because no one else was going to tell me lest I be prepared, apparently), I had some sort of inkling that business was bad. Had it not been for her, The Call would have nearly blindsided me. As it was, I knew exactly what was coming when I saw that number pop up on my caller ID. Alan had even joked hours before via email to "Let me know if you lose your job today!"

Even when it's expected, it's still surreal to be on the other end of that phone call. I expected it. I knew that there was no way they could justify keeping me on for a mere six issues. But it's still surprising. Like getting a C on a test you thought you aced.

So the news knocked me off my feet. For about 15 minutes. Then? I was so over it. Actually, I've been told I might be the happiest unemployed person ever. And I think I am.

I told Kyle when I was in Phoenix for a work trip in November that if I was still there for the same work trip in 2010, he officially had permission to kick my ass. I've been applying for jobs and sending out resumes here and there since we moved to New Jersey. I'd even been considering cutting down to part-time so that I could stop going insane doing both it and FBG (doing both was causing mental breakdowns and several "I quit" conversations with Jenn).

The job, while it was a huge blessing, had run its course. It was perfect and convenient when Alan and I relocated (twice) because I didn't have to find another job in California or immediately in New Jersey. The job lasted exactly the amount of time we needed it. It got us to New Jersey. It got us settled. I even started on Alan's insurance just three days before being laid off. Could the timing be any more perfect?

Funny enough, just the day before the layoff, Alan and I went to see "Up in the Air."* In the movie, George Clooney's character fires people for a living. Fitting, no? One of the scripts they follow when firing someone (loosely translated):

"Everyone who's ever built a major empire has sat where you're sitting right now."

In other words, make lemonade. Find that new door, that new opportunity. Maybe I won't be the head of a major empire. But I won't be doing a job I don't like. And I never have to write about construction ever again.

Next up in the unemployment chronicles: Calling to get unemployment benefits. NIGHTMARE.

*Seriously, who sees a movie about getting canned, closes on a house AND actually gets canned in the same week?

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