Well, I have finally joined company with some of the best people I know. I am now a member of the "Jobless RinkWorks Christian Men" club.

I was pretty pleased with how the whole thing went. I was called into the vice-president's office this afternoon. He had me close the door, and I pretty much figured it out at that point. He told me that the company was having some financial troubles, and that he and the president and the other VP had sat down a while ago, and decided they needed to make some layoffs. He said that of the four new people with the company, I was not in the top two, and so I was being let go. He gave me an envelope with my severance letter and two weeks severance pay (or so I assume-- It says so on the outside, but I haven't opened it yet.) He said that he had enjoyed working with me, despite the differences we had at times (he and I butted heads on a few jobs) and he said he would be happy to give me a reference in my job search. He said that I was smart, and he figured I would do well. That last part sounded like a canned "nice thing to say", but he made it sound pretty genuine. Then he got my access card from me, then gave me the rest of the afternoon to gather up my stuff and copy any personal files and stuff to disk, or forward them home by email. I was also asked to leave my password on a sticky note on the monitor for them. I did all these things. While I was doing them, my co-worker and buddy from the next office over came in and noticed what I was doing and asked me what was up. I told him I had just been laid off, not to worry about it, and that I would talk to him later tonight. He seemed to take the whole thing worse than I did as the day went on.

As it turned out, by the time I was finished all my packing up, it was after 4:30. I had managed to squeeze everything into my bag except my framed diploma and my coffee mug, so I went next door to see if I could scam a ride home. (Go figure that the first day in a month and a half that I DON'T drive to work is the day I have to take all my stuff home. I love irony.) He wasn't too busy, and it was after 4:30 anyway, so he agreed to take me home. He is also thinking about buying a manual transmission Toyota Celica soon, but has never driven standard, so I had agreed to help teach him, and I offered to take him out for a lesson that night. He was a fast learner-- It was at the point where by the end of about an hour and a half of driving back and forth in a parking lot, I let him drive the heavily trafficked roads back to my house, and he even backed up the hill into my parking pad out back. (He stalled four times, but hey-- I stalled four times back in the day, and I already knew how to drive standard!) He even bought me supper-- ostensibly in thanks for the driving lesson, but I figure it was also out of sympathy. I took it as payment for the driving lesson, though. :-)

Well, on to the good stuff.

I have a feeling that I hated my job. I am in far too good a mood right now for anything else to make sense. I also believe, though, that God has something in mind for me. He started working a change in me (a strong one at that) yesterday, and I learned long ago that "coincidences" can often be the sign of God at work. Losing my job today is not something I am willing to say absolutely was "God's Plan" but I am feeling pretty confident about it nonetheless. I won't go into any more detail here right now, but I will say that I am feeling quite confident right now.

Also, all the university students are busy with exams right now, and I still have Alumni access to the Job page at my university, so I can go apply for all the jobs while they're distracted. And I have an extra year of experience. Heh heh heh...

Don "Surprisingly Jovial" Monkey