As One Door Closes, Another Door Opens

Well, this week has been quite a ride. As I sit here on Saturday morning, listening to the wind chimes in the back yard and the rattling of the windows, I've gone over the events of this past week in my head over and over again. Let's go back a few days, shall we?

Monday, was a typical Monday for me.....almost. I've been trying to go to Bible study at my church on Monday mornings. It's a select group of "Career Women" that get together at 6:30 am and discuss books in the Bible. We're actually studying Ephesians right now. Please know that I am NOT a morning person. I like to stay up late and sleep in. Reluctantly, though, I got up and went. I was very proud of myself too. After that I went to work and in the evening I went to ballroom dancing. Yes, I've been taking ballroom dancing and it is absolutely amazing! So that was Monday.

Tuesday, again, I went to work and received a phone call from my uncle around 10:00 am. He said, "Your grandmother fell down the basement stairs and broke her leg badly. She's in the hospital and she's going to have to have surgery. I can't get in touch with your mom, so please call her." Wait for it..........WHAT? That's all the info. I got, at first. I called my mom and my brother, filled them in on what was going on and then called the husband. The tears started to streak down my face. My grandmother and I are very close and she is my last living grandparent. All I could picture was this 75 year old woman falling down 14 steps. And she only broke her leg? Ummmmm, did the doctors check the rest of her body? It turns out that she missed the last step and stumbled at the bottom of the stairs, tried to balance and ended up breaking her tibia and fibula at the ankle. They sedated her, put the bones in place, put a splint on her, woke her up and sent her home to my aunt and uncle's house until she met with a bone specialist the next day.

Which brings us to Wednesday. I go to work, again, as usual. The day is moving right along. I get in touch with my aunt who told me that my grandmother saw the doctor and that she'll need to have surgery on Friday. They're admitting her to the hospital right now. Ok. I spoke with my grandmother. She was in high spirits and just ready to get it all done and over with. At 75, let me tell you, she is healthy, has all her wits about her, and has a strong will. She'll be fine! I, apparently, will not be. See, later in the day I received a phone call from my boss (who was in Texas at our Home Office for meetings). Let me lay it all out for you......My boss works for a Health Insurance Company. He oversees all of the production for the US and gets paid overrides off of what policies are sold for the week. My boss hired me to be his personal assistant. The company wouldn't pay for him to have an assistant so he pays me to work for him out of his pocket. I book all of his travel, formulate reports for him, and since he travels so much, basically keep the office going for him. Well, the company that my boss works for decided that even though our nubmers were 33.6% above where they were this time last year, we're still not hitting our goals - so......my boss was the "sacrificial lamb" and was forced to resign. The week before Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas.....oh yeah, have a Happy New Year, too!

Never in my life have I EVER lost a job; in any capacity. The worst part about this is the fact that since the economy is in such an awful place, my boss is getting blamed for it. Let's face the facts here. If someone is in somewhat of a financial bind because of the economy and they're pretty healthy, they'd rather pay their mortgage to keep a roof over their head than buy health insurance. At least until their financial situation gets better. To boot, the CEO, who actually did the "firing" only had to tell one person - yet it affected 5. (My boss, his wife, his son, my husband, and me).

Let's move on to Thursday, shall we? I go into work and meet up with my boss. I was working on some of his non-residential licensing so I actually still had work to do. We talked about my options. Here's the funny thing - since September I've been thinking of going back to school to be an ultrasound technician. I think that it is something that I'd really enjoy doing, and I know that it's a somewhat secure job in today's economy and society. The word unemployment even came up. I can't believe it. I think I'm still in shock. I've been paying into unemployment 11 years now, so why not? At least to help me during the holidays. Then I started talking to some friends who have been laid off and in my situation. They went back to school and unemployment paid for it?! WOW! I got to leave work early on Thursday since I didn't have any actual "work" to do.

On Friday, my boss gave me the day off. I went to the hospital and waited with my aunt and uncles while my grandmother was in surgery. She made it through swimingly and she now has some scrap metal in her leg - a titanium plate and 6 screws to be exact. I usually HATE hospitals. This time, with the possibility of maybe working there as a UT, I realized that it's not so bad. Maybe there was a reason all of this happened. Is there something more out there for me?

I will go into work on Monday for a few hours, and it will basically be that way until the second week in December. My boss is going to shut down his office. I'm sure he will find something in the same field, as he is extremely talented. This weekend, and any other down time I have, I will look into unemployment and what my options are for schooling. This is a crappy time of year to have this happen, but as one door closes, another door opens.