Thursday, February 26, 2009

Will this be the Friday they tell us???

We are all still waiting to hear what is going to happen. They announced a few weeks ago the layoff of 58 people - all of our production people - that they were going to have the newspaper printed at another newspaper (Charleston???) and they would make the final announcement about that - we still haven't heard. Apparently it would be cheaper to have the newspaper printed somewhere else than to have the capital outlay for a new press and machinery as ours is getting to the point it needs to be replaced. -

Then they were suppose to announce the layoffs of an additional 20+ people - we have gone past being scared and worried and now we're just flat out angry and want to get it over with! the whole scene is mentally and physically exhausting.

I have to go to D.C. on March 12th for my Centurion seminar weekend and am trying to get all of my course work up to date - and my daughter, Lauren, is expecting The Twins on April 4th - and another big project, the church Easter pages, are looming on my horizon - and I just know it is all going to converge on one date and I will end up just going in circles!!!!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Nothing!!!!

There was no announcement made today - I wish they would just get it over with - sorry for the "drama."

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Space Invaders

I didn't know how to write the Space Invaders noise that they would make as they approached the target - "Dun Dun Dun Dun" - getting faster as they got closer - I know my daughters are rolling their eyes at the mention of Space Invaders - one of my favorite video games - anyway - I digress.

"They" say tomorrow is the day for the announcement and "they" said 23 managers were going to be laid off - which is pretty funny because I think there are only about 14 managers. I can hear the Space Invader music getting louder. I brazenly took yesterday off - stayed home and worked on my Centurion class work. I have six weeks vacation due and will lose it all if I get laid off - so I thought I might as well take one day off!

Tune in tomorrow for the next installment - what drama!!!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Valentine's Day!!!

My youngest daughter, April, just called and sang one of my old nursery school songs to me and I loved it - I had really forgotten it until she sang it today. This is the song sung to the tune of "It's a Small Small World":


"There's a big red heart down inside of me

There's a big red heart no one else can see

and it's filled to the brim

with the love from within

and I give it now to you"

Don't know how to do a video but even if I did I wouldn't do one of me singing - trust me on that one - Happy Valentine's Day to everyone - go sing the song to someone you love and figure out the hand motions too!!!! Thank you April!!!

Friday, February 13, 2009

What???

The word is out - there is not going to be an announcement of layoffs today - "they" say it will be next week and "they" say it is going to be 23 or 28 people laid off depending on who you are listening too.

Good news - I brought the brownies in and another co-worker brought in homemade Red Velvet Cake - and Bojangles just came by and dropped off boxes and boxes of heart shaped biscuits (they are right down the road from our office) - so we are eating our way into oblivion!

More good news - suppose to be 70 tomorrow and Sunday and I am taking my books and going to the beach!!! I'll go for a really good walk and then sit in my beach chair and do some reading!!! Time to regroup!!!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Tick Tock

So the word is out that there are going to be more layoffs announced on Friday.

I remember the days when I looked forward to going to work on Monday morning - it could have been because I had been a stay at home Mom and then worked as a nursery school teacher for eight years and was finally working in a place with adult toilets and not having to wipe 18 noses or put on 36 snow boots - perhaps - but I liked being a part of the newspaper - loved the adrenalin of deadlines - seeing a "new" product produced every morning - walking back through the press area and wondering if the "smell of the ink" was getting in my blood - smile - and now there is tomorrow and Friday to get through - the sadness of seeing something that I have been proud of slowly disintegrating before my eyes.

Perhaps I need to bake something chocolate for Friday - brownies with chocolate icing - we need some good things happening on Friday!!! No matter what!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

The Economy and My Life

This week they announced that they are outsourcing the printing of the newspaper and laying off 58 people in the press and production department of our newspaper where I work. They have stopped the matching 401k and all pensions are frozen with more layoffs coming up - but - because of a nifty thing called the *WARN* Act they now have to give us 60 days notice instead of two weeks before laying anyone else off. All of our artists have been laid off except for two full time and two part time artists and the artwork and design of the our newspaper ads is all outsourced to the Phillipines.

This is a quote that I keep on my refrigerator from my Streams in the Desert book - November 27th reading:

"Face it out to the end,
Cast away every shadow of hope on the human side
as an absolute hindrance to the Divine,
heap up all the difficulties together recklessly,
and pile as many more on as you can find;
you cannot get beyond the blessed climax of impossibility.
Let faith swing out to Him.
He is the God of the impossible."

I refuse to lose my sense of adventure in the twists and turns that my life takes - and what the next chapter is going to bring - God really is in control. I have been reading a really great book called, "In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day - How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars" by Mark Batterson. It is the perfect book for me for this time!