Keep Trudging On

Last week marked our 2 1/2 year anniversary of moving to California. Thirty months in the Golden State and we still feel like newbies. Today, my husband is attending company meetings to discuss the 'future' of the IT department. Yes, for the third time in 2 1/2 years, they are downsizing IT.


Who downsizes IT in 2014? That would Mitt Romney, of course. Or, at least his old company, Bain Capital.

 So what is Bain Capital?

Glassdoor review:

“Bain Capital brought in to sell company once layoffs complete”

Contract Manager Power Procurement (Current Employee)

sssssssss, CA

I have been working at ssssssssssssssssssssssss full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – descent salary, excellent benefits plan

Cons – Highly political, laying off top performers and keeping dead weight in management levels, don't quit a job to join this company as there is no future here and you might be laid off even if you are a top performer unless you are in the good ole boys club

Advice to Senior Management – all political, useless meetings and powerpoint presentations, Bain Capital is going to sell you off so goodbye!
No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company ~~~

We still struggle to put space between us and that never absent trapdoor that threatens to open and drop us back into a pit we won't recover from. Others our age, at this same company, are looking at retirement as an option, as opposed to being laid off.


That is not even a slight possibly in our case.


Everything we had was lost to the Bush recession. Our home and all the equity that went with it was lost when we were forced to sell or lose it at the very bottom of the housing market crash. The retirement savings we had kept us alive during that same time.


Now, we barely make from paycheck to paycheck, while still trying to pay off bills that keep us going when everything crashed down upon us. If it happens again, there won't be any severance. Although, that was never anything we received anyway, thank to co-signing on student loans.


The government took it all because the kids weren't paying them, we couldn't pay them, and then they took the money we were supposed to live on.


Thoughts filter through my mind like flour through a sifter. Some lumps stay stuck forever in places I can no longer get to. I helplessly watch as my husband considers the harsh possibility of yet another job hunt in his mid fifties. The earthquakes around us seem metaphoric to our lives.

We spent the past few days cleaning, hiking through the desert, practicing Spanish. Last night the girls cooked dinner to a full blown acapella rendition of "Frozen". 

And for the first time in a year and a half, I got a new pair of shoes. So, I may soon be homeless, but at least I won't be left barefooted, as well. 

As we wait and wonder...AGAIN, what the fates have in store for our little family, we keep trudging on the best we can.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on,” Nick Fury


Avengers Nick Fury by JPRart

In the meantime, we take advantage of those things we can, like the perks of family working at Disneyland. Seeing Captain America is definitely one of them.

"In case it's unclear, if you try to escape, if you so much as scratch that glass...30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works? Ant. Boot," Nick Fury