...Cheese (cont)

Okay - where was I...

Oh yeah, I hated my job. So, in the spring of 2007, I tried to find other things to do in my life to compensate for that misery and that's when I did The Artist's Way. In going through this recovery slash healing process, the synapses in my brain began to fire more effectively - meaning they began connecting with their receptors - and I began to feel more empowered about what was going on in my life.

That's when I decided to quit dreaming about going to Paris and make it a reality. I hated my job, but I was making very good money - money that could afford me the opportunity to rent an apartment and spend a month in France. I still hated my job, but I hated it less.

I was also a year from finishing grad school. Getting a Master's degree from a private college is not cheap, but guess who was paying for it? That's right - my employer.

With a plan coming together, I was suddenly feeling a lot better about dragging my ass into work every day.

Save money for Paris. Finish school. Quit.

This plan became my mantra and I began to feel grateful instead of hateful. (I really didn't mean for that to rhyme.)

Things at work got gruesome. No one seemed to know how to steer that massive ship and it started to go down in a big way. Closed-door meetings started taking place. Higher-ups from other regions started infiltrating our office. People started disappearing. It was stressful and depressing and we were all completely freaking out.

Because the company has a policy of not doing lay-offs around the holidays (because of the high suicide rate around the holidays and what company - especially one that's in the midst of issuing mass lay-offs - wants to be associated with the suicides of a bunch of former employees), there was a brief reprieve in November and December. But the lay-offs resumed after the first of the year - and this time, they were happening in our office. The big fish were the first to go - and then, by February, the time had come for the managers to hit the chopping block.

I already shared the story from this point on as it was happening; but basically I packed up my desk and took everything home two days before I was invited to a meeting where 14 other managers received the news that our "positions had been eliminated." Even though we were let go in February, we were still employees of the company through the end of May.

So...my plan actually came to fruition - but in a much better way. Not only did I save up for Paris and finish grad school - I got a very nice severance package. Had I quit as I'd originally planned, I wouldn't have had the cushion - and I certainly couldn't have anticipated how wide-spread the problems were in our economy and the fact that my job prospects would be nil - so that cushion came in handy.

Okay - so why am I regurgitating all of this now? The universe. I know some people say that "putting your intentions out to the universe" is hocus pocus nonsense. But, I dunnnnooooo... it sure seems that whenever I do it, it works out that way. Let's be clear - I'm talking about "intentions" not something like, "Okay, Universe, I want the winning Lotto numbers!" It doesn't work that way.

I have to run for a bit, but I'll come back and finish this thought in a little while...