Time to Dish

Wow, has it really been that long since I last posted? I am far from being a daily poster, but this gap is even big for me. Well, I suppose I'll let the cat out of the bag and fill you in on what has been going on with me lately. First off, my bonus this year came less than two weeks before Christmas: being laid off. And since two of the companies I worked for are owned by the same person, it was like loosing two jobs at the same time. For the past few years he had been making some poor business decisions and ignoring the advice of those around him. So, it ended up that he could no longer afford to pay my salary. And since I was basically just an extension of him, I was the expendable one. Merry Christmas, no more job for me. OK, I still have my real estate dealings and what-not, but these other positions were my steady income. They were what let me breath easy and pay bills. Besides, I'm someone who is used to being quite busy, so this was a big hit in the grand scheme of things.

Combine this with the fact that my lovely wife is fighting with her own personal demons, our good friend was going to suddenly be moving seven hours away, and there was some drama with the foreign exchange student living with us. All of the above then added up to relationship struggles. Good times, good times.

But it seems that even clouds filled with poo have silver linings. While I have not yet found a proper replacement, I know that I will in time. The upside is that now that I am away from there I realize just how unhappy I was. Sure, I've known it sucked for some time, but I didn't realize how much it was affecting my life. I wouldn't say that I was depressed, or maybe that is as depressed as I get. From the outside I seemed fine, but the few people who really know me could tell something was gradually different. My motivation was way down because the damn place was sucking my energy. When I came home I didn't feel like doing any projects, I didn't feel like working out, I didn't even want to talk about my day. I was so unhappy all day that all my energy was used up.

Now I am feeling like the old me again. I am finally tackling a huge project at the house and I can't wait to get back to it. I want so badly to finish it so that I can move on to the next one. I am excercising faithfully again and feeling great. The longer I am away from that place the better I feel. I pledge to never let a job make me feel like that again. Even though I am thick skinned and can put up with a lot, I am going to be aware of when enough is enough.

Plus, things have smoothed out with our exchange student and our friend decided not to move away. And while the battle between light and dark rages on, there is strength even when all seems lost.

So as I said in my last post (if you can remember back that far) life can bring it on. Now that my energy is back there's nothing I can't accomplish. Plus, I'll try not to stay away so long again, I know you missed me.