Maybe Then We'd Remember To Slow Down At All Of Our Favorite Parts

If you are a friend you have realized that work has been monumentally horrible thus far in January. Of course, you could be a friend and didn't happen to know... But if you read this regularly I am fairly certain I have already made it abundantly clear work sucks... Haven't I? (Well shit, now I am questioning whether or not I have aired the fact that work has been blowing giant donkey turds...)

Anyways here's the long and not so short of it (though it may be abbreviated since I actually am at work and supposed to be doing my super secret investigative work...). Plain and simple, shit has been really difficult in our industry as you can imagine with this economy. While our assignments are way up (so far in fact I wonder if I will ever get caught up...) a large portion (over one in every ten Oregonians) of society is not working, and those that are have a tendency to be in debt up to their eyeballs so we are not seeing as high of a return rate as we would have, oh say, about two to three years ago. It has been a struggle and like many other small businesses we have had to make cuts.

At the beginning of the month (last Tuesday to be exact) the owners  laid off one of my favorite people, which was a blow to morale and scared the bejeebus out of the rest of us. It naturally leads one to wonder when and where the other shoe will drop. Then yesterday it was announced that no one  is allowed to make up anytime they lose (whether it's due to being out ill, coming in late, or if you have an appointment scheduled) as it is "not profitable for the company." Not that I have been actively looking, but that does put a damper on wanting to. If I did score an interview somewhere I wouldn't be able to recoup the time I'd lose from being gone.... It's all so stupid and stingey and petty... But that's the way the people I work for are.

It's been "bad" like this for a while now, and especially with everything that has transpired in the last two weeks, you can imagine all (five) of us our wondering when that shoe is just going to drop out of the sky and crush us. Like I said, for now I am not seeking another job (though I do keep my eyes open for possibilities with the state and what not), I figure I will ride out this crapstorm to the end and see where it takes me. Worst case scenario? I'm out of a job and on unemployment... Best case scenario? Shit around here somehow gets a hell of a lot better and quickly... Miracles happen all the time, right? And really, the worst case scenario wouldn't truly be that horrible for me; now that I have the experience I will have an easier time getting another office job...

Last night, Collin and I did our monthly "BIG" grocery shopping (when we buy everything for meals for the next month except the fresh produce we get each week... Can't wait for the farmer's market to open up again...), and I noticed that Collin is ten times more helpful with the shopping since he has been doing the weekly stuff on his own. I think he finally realized why I had a tendency to get a little frustrated when he would space out and be of no help... Needless to say, (but I'm going to say it anyways) we actually had fun shopping. Plus, as always, it was nice just to get to be around each other.

I suppose I should get to my highly invasive work... LOL... These people deserve it (mostly). I gotta stay positive somehow...