My first week back to work after the holiday/new year did not start out very eventfully. It wasn’t even a full week. Wednesday-Friday appears to be a dream come true. Wednesday I caught up on emails and got my team back in the swing of things, not that there was too much to do. Mostly we were wrapping up little things that still needed to get done, and a lot of organizing. Thursday was more of the same, but even slower. It was one of those short weeks after a vacation that makes you think it isn’t so bad to be back at work. My boss told me that we would be having a company meeting on Friday to talk about programming for the new year. This didn’t feel out of the ordinary for two reasons, the first being that at that point she didn’t know herself that anything was going on, and second, we usually have company meetings on Fridays.

Friday rolls around, and three things happen. For all of you who believe that things happen in threes, there you go, but I have never really given much thought to that mindset.

Thing number 1: The meeting is at 11 a.m. and my phone rings at 10:30. It was someone that I had been waiting on a call from. I had been offered the opportunity to teach a class, which I was pretty excited about. I had already talked to my boss two days before, and she had approved me leaving a little early two days a week to be able to do this. This call was my final confirmation and the details. It never is a good sign when the conversation starts with “I have good news and bad news”. Turns out that I had been approved and was able to start teaching. The bad news was that because a teacher’s name hadn’t been put on the class, no students signed up for it, so now I have no class to teach. I was promised a class next quarter, and if they ever need someone to fill in, I will be the first call. Ok.

Thing number 2: I go to talk to my boss and let her know that the class is no longer going to happen. She tells me to shut the door and then shares with me the conversation she just finished having with her boss. Our funding did not get renewed. Our meeting is to tell everyone that today is 95% of our staff’s last day. We talk about the whole situation and about what we will do from here. She is a really great woman, and I have loved working with her and getting to know her. After a great talk, I go back to my office. Eight minutes until the 11 a.m. meeting. I call my wife. “I’m losing my job,” I tell her. “And the teaching thing fell through.” She is surprised but supportive as always, and we talk briefly. She is in a meeting, and I have to go to mine.

Thing number 3: The morning meeting. Confirmation of everything my boss told me. It goes as she says it will. “I don’t have good news,” she says. And the rest you can figure out from there. After the meeting, I talk with my team. We spend the rest of the day finishing up, organizing, and making sure we all have copies of the work we did.  The big boss takes turns talking to us one on one, which is a nice gesture on his part.  A large group of us go out to lunch. It was also one of my staff member’s birthday, so we toast to her. It is bittersweet. No more window facing a brick wall. I am mostly worried about my team. They are much younger then I am and do not have the same support system I do, being married.

It doesn’t fully hit me until I get home.

So today it is Wednesday again. I am in search of work. The question that always comes back: full time or freelance. Honestly, whichever comes first. Until then I shall play the role of housewife. The dog is thrilled.

I didn’t make a New Year’s resolution. But a new job search resolution seems like a bigger kick in the butt to get active again. So I ran this morning!! (It’s one of the benefits of not being full time.)