Friday, April 17, 2009

Let me off this emotional rollercoaster!

It's been a crazy few weeks....Last week, my husband got laid off from his newspaper job. No warning, just a suspicion the night before, and then BAM the next day he is no longer employed. This obviously caused a lot of stress since I've been unable to work and we were already living pay cheque to pay cheque as it was. They did give him two weeks severance, but out health benefits ended the day he was laid off. So, we stocked up on as much of my medications as possible.

Even though it was a very emotional day we managed to be very productive about the whole thing, well I should say that my husband was able to be productive and I was able to be supportive. Before leaving workhe was able to grab a bunch of his articles to use as writing samples. He also passed out his business card to co-workers with his email and phone and asked them to keep their ear to the ground if any freelance writing gigs comes up. He also grabbed all the contact info he had from the two years worth of interviews he did, and generally cleaned off most of his files on the computer. He also filed for EI and made a list of people to contact for more freelance opportunities in town.

Since that day, and because of his getting laid off, things have really changed. He has contacted some people in town and it sounds like he is going to be able to make it work as a freelancer in town.

We have also since decided that it might be a good time for him to return to school, to become a teacher! We live in a city whose university is known for having one of the best ED programs, so it really seems to make sense. Being a teacher will allow him to opportunity to talk about polititics, and current events a lot (since he is planning on being a Social Studies teacher, hopefully for high school), allows us to stay in our home and not have to worry about selling our and finding another, has more of a guarantee that he will not get laid off due to another recession, and allows him time off on holidays and in the summer so we can travel. Oh, and better pay than being a reporter too is a good thing.

All-in-all everything has happened very fast. He is already registered at Uni and will be starting May 6th! He has even registred for the Fall and as soon as that is processed (about a week) he will be registering for classes for the fall. And then, he should be able to have his degree done in about 3 years! This is of course if he is able to get into all the classes he needs to exactly when he needs to, and taking into consideration the classes he already took at the Uni and his diploma at the college, and he will be taking summer classes too....so it will be a lot of hard work. I told him to worry about the work though because I'll take care of home stuff and he can just focus on school.

I have finally applied for diability too, which is a good thing. It will still take sometime before I even know if I am approved, but at least I have the ball rolling now.

And in some not so good news, Spider (my black and white cat) is missing. She has been gone for one week and I am thinking that she will not come back. We accidentally had the front screen on our porch open last week one evening and she snuck out (as she loves to roll in the dirt), but we didn't know until a few hours later and she was gone. I spent the whole night awake, waiting in the hopes she might come back and meow to be let in (our apartment is a few feet off the ground and she would not be able to jump back up on her own). I called her and called her all night, left out food, wandered around the block with a falshlight calling her name, but she never turned up. So, the next day we made posters and put them up in the neighbor hood, at shelters, and in a grocery store near our home. We have gone to the shelter a few times now and have had no luck. I've contacted other cat rescue organizations in the hopes they might hear or see something, but again, no luck. It's been hard to deal with as I have had Spider since she was a kitten, which has been about 9 or 10 years. It's been hard on Kitten (my other kitty who is 2) as well. She seems to be a little sad, and I think she really misses Spider's companionship. I'll probably keep looking for awhile, but I think for Kitten's sake, we might end up getting another young cat or kitten soon.

I love kittens and I am excited to bring home a new baby, but I realy would rather just have my Spider baby back....