Good evening.

Well, TriSec is here again - I'm unemployed. Sort of.

Those of you that have been following along know this isn't my first time here. But this one is different.


It's true that the decision wasn't 100% mine - but I also haven't been happy at Fallon for about a year now. My old manager left shortly after the beginning of 2016, and it didn't take very long for me to decide that I hated the new regime.

As I said then, "The only thing keeping me at Fallon right now is the fact that my vacations for the summer are all set and paid for."

I started some half-hearted attempts to get back on the job-hunting front in the fall, after we got back from Disney. But then my mother went into her four month long endgame, and everything else became secondary.

I will never admit to being happy that someone has died, especially she who bore me, but if you've had any relations succumb to lung disease, you know what a hellacious struggle the endgame was. On the morning I got to the hospital, too late to say goodbye, it was actually a great relief.

But by then, the damage was already done at work - it truly was a matter of time. Even then, I only put a partial effort into "saving" what relationships I had left in the office.

You may remember 8 years ago when this happened last - I was truly devastated by it. A lady in that shop was my true definition of a "work wife". I can honestly say now that I loved her as much as it was possible to love somebody I was not related to by blood or marriage - to this day, I still see her every week, and I consider her that sister that I never had. I imagine we'll remain lifelong friends now.

I had no such relationship at Fallon Health. Although there is a friend I sat next to for the last three years - wherever it was possible to have fun in that place, we did...until the office hierarchy changed a year ago. My only regret this time is the feeling that I've let her down. And I regret very much that I will probably never see her again.

But that's already in the past. When I was involuntarily separated from athenahealth, as I said, I was devastated. I went months moping about, not really caring much about anything. I could only run back to my Scout uniform, and scrounge for hours at L.L. Bean to the best that I could.

I'm still in retail - less than an hour after I left Fallon, I was at REI Framingham talking to my managers there. I told them I was mulling over a career change, and I wanted to know my opportunities at the store. I got a heartfelt "Welcome Aboard", and a hearty handshake. Truly night and day. I already have a couple of opportunities lined up, and it does feel like anything is possible there.

I also signed up to drive for Uber. I know - I saw Mondo's post about it Friday, but I've got to put food on the table, don't I? Besides, I worked for a Bush during W's regime without too much irony, so I can do that again.

It is abrupt - it is upsetting, but this time it doesn't feel like the end of the world. It was a situation where I wasn't happy, and felt trapped there. Things are surely different, we have money in the bank this time and the economic situation is not as dire (re: Great Recession), so I'm not worried about it for the moment.

I will of course be taking unemployment, and seeing what the future holds. But for right now, it feels like anything is possible. I will certainly be mulling over my future choices for the next few weeks or so. I even raised the possibility of leaving this great Commonwealth, should the proper opportunity arise.

You know the saying - when one door closes, another opens. This time, I can see a little fanfare and a red carpet waiting for me. It's all on me now to do something with this.

Peace.