F*cking economy and a snow day

Fellow Ohioans know all about the snow and ice storm that came out of the south yesterday. We've mostly had lake effect storms here this winter and that means we get just a dusting or an inch of snow in Kent. We're just that far enough south of the lake effect line. But by 10 am the snow was coming down hard and sticking to the roads because we had such cold temperatures for a few days (high of 17 over 3 days).

Lila's school follows the university schedule for closings because they're on campus, and at 10:30 I got notice that they were canceling afternoon classes. My boss seemed grumpy when I told him I had to leave and would just finish up the project at home. When I asked him if he was okay, he said he was having a really crappy couple of days. That he and the designers were taking a beating from upper management.

At home I puttered with Lila and then got the call that the public schools were letting out early and so headed back out in the nastiness to get Ty. The roads were just awful yesterday. So slippery. Even with 4WD, I was fishtailing all over the place.

Then at home an email came across from the CEO, saying that today's layoffs were very difficult for him and for everyone but now that that's behind us we need to refocus and make up for the mistakes we've made in the last year.

Hello, what?

Layoffs?

Nothing on the news. Nothing in trusty google except for the crap that happened in July. OK. So maybe it was all in the LA office. Then Greg called to let me know what happened. Two people from the OH office got let go and one of them is my coworker, a graphic designer who has been with the company for 13 years (I think?) and has a son in college. He's middle aged and will likely find it difficult to get another job in his field paying even close to what he makes. The art schools are churning out graphic design hacks and in Ohio they're all out of work. It's insane.

And it's doubly insane because our 3 designers have been responsible for implementing the new packaging look and have a huge schedule of products that need to be re-shot and designed in the new packaging over the next two months. Huge. Like 100+ products. So two people are going to do that? It's already nuts that I'll be managing every piece of text for all of that, but 2 designers? What the everloving hell are they thinking?

I'll tell you what they're thinking. They're thinking we're all going to stay late to get that shit done. I'll tell you what else: not me. I'm so not giving up what little time I have with my family and with my own projects to make up for their short-sighted, bottom-line, corporate bullshit. Hells to the no. And I know the remaining two designers won't either. No way. Today is going to be Teh Suck.

You may be wondering: dude, when are you going to get off your ass and get that consulting business going, eh? And yeah, I've been plugging away at that. I started my website, but still have to finish a few side projects before I can build the portfolio page and have anything that's actually "live" to show. And I got my biz cards and have been passing them out like a good little pusher girl. I'm learning software that I struggle with in an effort to strengthen my "value added" abilities as both a writer and graphic designer.

And I still think about cupcakes everyday and may start a little side thing at home, cupcake catering with a small menu of choices...maybe all minis?

And there are other things percolating in the background having to do with our local farmers' market and getting more people interested in doing a home garden—outreach and education.

And yeah, the full-time gig certainly cuts into my waking/working hours...making it hard to move forward in big ways with any of that. But we still have that other house and we need that steady paycheck, no matter how uncertain it is in the end. But can I tell you a secret? I wished it was me who got laid off.

BTW, the house is a total fire sale now, we've dropped the price so much that we're going to owe the bank if we sell it. That's so fine with us, we just want to not have to think about it at all anymore. We're doing everything we can to stay responsible to it, not wanting to jump on the bandwagon of the new "walk away" movement. (which, you know, I totally get. I see these companies just walking away from people every day. Hello, GM! Hello my boss's, boss's boss! and why shouldn't homeowners also have that right? OK, contract, fine print, know what you're signing for, don't bite off more than you can chew, educate yourself about predatory lending. I get all that. But shit, the world is changing. The rules change every day. Like Michelle Obama says, they keep raising the bar out of reach. We'll keep going as long as we can because we chose to move out of the house and buy another in order to get into a better neighborhood and better schools, but you know what? I'm not ruling it out. If I'm still talking about this miserable job and this stupid empty house next February? You'll also be reading about how we're walking away.

Chris is showing it this week and he thinks they're the ones. So if you're so inclined, we'd sure appreciate the mojo. St. Christopher seems to be sleeping on the job.