The buggy whip that got me thinking...

I woke up really early today and its fantastic the number of things that run through your head when really just want to go back to sleep.

I’m leaving here and when I meet people they’ll say “what do you do” or “where do you work” and I need a real answer that isn’t sad because getting laid off elicits a weird response in people and oddly enough most always bring up the one other person they know that lost their job. It’s like when you go to a foreign country and tell someone you’re from the US and they’re like “I have a friend Bob from Chicago…do you know him?”. My favorite was the kid I met
in Scotland years ago who asked me if I knew LL Cool J because I lived in LA at the time. That was awesome.

When I talk about losing a job, I hear comments all the time like “oh that’s too bad. I’ve heard its way easier to get a job when you have a job”. For the record, anyone that says that to me is now being put in the same bubble as people that when I’m talking about rising gas prices say “Oh in Europe, they’ve been paying eight dollars a gallon for years so really we’re lucky”. First of all…am I Spanish? Do I look like I’m in Europe? I don’t care – I live here and if I want to be upset about gas prices I can and if I don’t already have a job does that mean I won’t find one—I know they mean well but they can go kick rocks.

Also, why does so much of your self-esteem gets wrapped up in what you do. What do you do? It’s no wonder. It’s the first question people ask when they meet you. It’s one of the first questions people ask when you start dating someone new. Why does what we do for a living matter so much? I am hoping my winning personality and good hair gets me by for a while since my response to those questions is likely going to be “well I’m waiting to hear back from Publishers Clearinghouse because apparently I’m really close to winning the grand prize and I want to make sure I’m home”.

What if I’m not good at something else? I’ve never really been great at anything but here I was a winner. Remember the clock I won? Well that’s a sore subject but I have had a great run here. What if I’m not so lucky in my next job. I’ll bring my clock in to my new job just in case.

I’ve always thought that you need a pretty solid foundation in your life where everything in your life is well-developed and important—your work, your friends and family, your outside of work commitments and activities. That way, should one of those pillars collapse, you’ve still got the rest to balance yourself on so you don’t completely fall apart. And really, losing my job is hardly falling off a bridge and I know I’ll be ok. I was told this industry was going the way of the buggy whip. Maybe getting smacked with that whip was what I needed to go out and see what else is out there and if there are other clocks to be won.