Tis the season

After Thanksgiving we took a quick trip to San Francisco; here's me finding my heart in Union Square.  

We reassembled the shelves in the "library" and I put as many books as I could fit on the shelves, along with the pictures I like best.  One of the raggedy plaid chairs is in the corner by the window, the ideal spot to watch tv, blog, read, and look out the window.  I LOVE THIS ROOM.  It is perfect.  We put two recently acquired slate leather chairs (from a defunct office lobby) in the window bay in my room; although we had to remove two interior doors to get them in there.  Office chairs are not scaled to fit into residential buildings!  Which is funny because my sofa and loveseat are very stout and they came right in.

So remember when I said there was a light at the end of the tunnel?  Well, there was, it was an oncoming train.  I lost [clarification--they took back] my job the week before Thanksgiving.  Aaaack!  But you know what?  Aside from that gruesome  sensation of the floor collapsing under my feet, another sparkly, sunshiny feeling of relief flooded in like the tide.  As the grim reaper HR Manager was explaining why they stopped loving me and were kicking me to the curb, I wanted to shout Yippee! and jump up and dance around.  I suddenly realized how stressful the previous year had been.  Nobody just quits, in this economy, but now I didn't have to.

When life gives you lemons, make thanksgiving dinner

I'm no dope.  I know I face terrible odds and an uncertain job market.  I am unlikely to find the very good wage I earned during eight years as a phlebotomist.   And I seriously miss my coworkers, with whom I spent so much of my life.  But I can't change that.  Somewhere out there, a better job is waiting for me.

This weekend we (actually A.; I kept both feet on the ground near the cellphone so I could shout encouraging things up towards the roof and call the ambulance if he fell off) did two important things.  Saturday, he cleaned out the rain gutters at both houses which was necessary but invisible.  It rained.  Sunday we hung Christmas lights at both houses which was also necessary but -bonus!- beautiful.  It rained.  But it went a long way towards making me feel better about it being Christmastime even though I am unemployed and feeling rather dreary about the future.

As they say; keep calm and carry on.  I'll try!