Darkest before dawn

I’m 18 days into the 2009 and I am already for next year to start.

… Just when I thought things at work couldn’t get any worse, it did. A week after being told that the design and copy editing desk would be moved for all of LANG to one centralized location, there were layoffs.

Two of my good friends were laid off. They both have children and their wives are a semester away from their college graduation. It doesn’t seem fair, but we all know how the rest of that goes.

Moments like this only feed my desire to leave. I’ve contemplated taking the buyout and filing for unemployment if and when it is made available just because I don’t want to be there.
Although I have friends also telling me, just leave when you have a certain thing because you just really never know what can happen, especially with this economy.

I consider loyalty as one of my strongest suits, borderline blind faith almost. But why should I have loyalty to a company that doesn’t seem loyal to its employees. They’ve only been really up front about one thing in the last two years; everything else has been dropped on us with relative haste. It doesn’t seem right.

One of my many brother-in-laws once told me “The only person you have to be loyal to in this business is yourself.” It’s true. It’s clear now they have no loyalty towards the people working for them.

It’s not fair … but you know.

… At the same time, I see some hope coming. After years of wallowing with a President that: started a war on false accusations with no real plan on ending it; allowed a major U.S city and its people to be almost forgotten underwater; and that at one point had an approval rating as high as 90 percent only to see it fall to one of the worst ratings in history, change is finally coming.

I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited about watching an Inauguration than I am now and it is still a day away. I’m even getting up early to watch it, and I always sleep until at least 9 a.m.
I’ll be there watching it on television, just like a lot of people not only in the United States but around the world.

Like I said before, I’ve been looking forward to this day since Obama gave his speech at the DNC in 2004. I wouldn’t go all this way just to over sleep on history.

… I did have dreams of going to Washington D.C. and witness history in person. However, my friends and I couldn’t get tickets to the Inauguration. So instead of going to Washington D.C., I’ll be heading to Las Vegas on January 21 for the fourth annual Eric Johnson Birthday Bash. This year, we’ll be staying at the Luxor mainly because I had a coupon for $50 off a two night stay.

Hopefully my luck – along with the luck of my friends that need it the most – will change, especially in Las Vegas. But I know that February and March are getting closer, and if the first 18 days of the year are the better times, then I might be in serious trouble until April 1. At least this is not a leap year unlike last year.

I am reminded of a Chinese Proverb, however: “A crisis is an opportunity riding the dangerous wind.”