Inner Pieces: It's been a week...

After a grueling weekend of soccer and hiking (which I'll post about sometime in the next few days,) the week of April 20th started off really great! I had a decent day at work on Monday. It was pretty quiet in the office, and I was able to get alot of work done. At home that night, it was quiet too. Tuesday, April 21st was great- because it was my birthday! My 46 year old self had a surprise waiting for me when I got into the office- cookies from Soulspeak23! White chocolate macadamia chili chunk chewy goodness. Vegan, too! No eggs! They were too awesome to keep to myself, so I put them out for everyone to enjoy. And they did. The vultures in my office had them gone by lunchtime. I was able to get a report that was due out that day, and I finished up some stuff that I had hanging around my desk. Will, our mail guy, gave me an Estee Lauder bag with makeup, which was a really nice surprise. And I got tons of birthday emails and phone calls. Except for Rick, who forgot. We didn't celebrate my birthday on Tuesday because I had Girl Scout Camp training at night, which was pretty interesting. I'll post on that next weekend, when I get home from the overnight.

So we postponed the celebrating until Wednesday, which turned out to be an awesome day. Soulspeak23 and Ruddyna surprised me with lunch with an extra special guest- SS23's hot Hungarian wife, Ildi ,drove in to meet us and take us to Havana, a Cuban restaurant in the Village. A pitcher of Sangria (yum!) and a pork (yes, but it WAS my birthday) sandwich later- I was feeling happy and psyched for the rest of the day. When I got home, the whole house was decorated with balloons, and MR got Chinese. Dad and Rob came over, and the six of us pigged out. MR and Beena lit the "37" candles on my cake (they didn't have a 4 and a 6- it could've have been worse- they could've made it a 73!) Rob gave me my own bottle of Maker's Mark, which I opened and shared (yum again!) and MR gave me an iPod touch! Awesomeness! Beena and Zombiegirl bought the covers, plugs and screen protectors for the iPod. This was great- it's my first iPod!

On Thursday, the wind turns. The tide goes out. I roll a snake eyes.

I walk to the bus stop using my new iPod, listening to Meatloaf. I miss my bus. I forgot my ID, so I need to get a temporary. I get to work late. Certain co-workers get snarky with me. I started a big project and deleted a good portion of one of my floors. My Executive Director comes into my office, closes the door, and fires me. Yes, I was terminated. After 11 years with the company, I got laid off. I knew they were doing a massive layoff, but you never think it's going to be you. I'm escorted up to HR (after shooting a quick IM to SS23 to let her know what's going on.) The very sweet HR rep went over my severance and medical, then got me a car to take me home. And so starts my new life as an unemployed, stay at home mom.

Friday, after emailing and speaking to ALMOST everyone at work, I met some of my coworkers at the Port Authority Bowl and celebrated my birthday and layoff! Thanks Rick and his sister Diane, Troy, Ryan, Ruddyna, Kamila, George, Jackie and her hubby Patrick, Cassandra, Teri, my new veggie friend Rich and Vivian. I had fun! No bus incidents on the way home, but I did sleep past my train station (where MR and Z-girl were waiting) and got off two stations past (and about 3 miles away.) Thank goodness I had the iPod and Optimum WiFi. I was able to get MR to where I was -sheepishly- waiting.