Greetings and Salutations, Blog Readers!

Today is March the 12^th, nearly 3:00 PM, and I just finished writing, editing, and scheduling my blog for tomorrow, which is the 13^th, and I figured I would address the big ole elephant in the room. 

One year ago, on the Friday of March 13^th, most of the country, myself included, was laid off because of the pandemic. Today is the Friday one year later, but tomorrow, Saturday, marks one year. 

Most of us are still laid off, myself included. (Actually, full disclosure, I checked dated pictures, I did get like one more week on the clock, but not really, it was just wrapping stuff up while most the company was already gone, and we all knew what was coming- Point still stands) 

Since most of the internet is talking about this, I figured, hey, why not also blog about it briefly, in an effort to get back to my daily blog grind, a la my last blog, and the conclusion of Flake City Volume One. 

So, when we all saw the pandemic hurting business, we tried to get ahead of it, and we reduced everyone’s hours, and I started taking Friday’s off, which I had gotten in the habit of- I would always rather work four, ten hour days than five, eight hour days, to get the three days off instead of two, which is never enough. 

All this to say, I was at home when I got the phone call. (Again, one week after we laid everyone else off, we knew it was coming.) At this point I was already a solid two to three weeks into my own personal Apocalypse, which I think made it easier to handle. I got on unemployment, which wasn’t enough, they added to it, but I still had an extra person without income living off of me, so the extra was ate up fast, and by the time I was alone and fending for myself, of course, that’s when the extra person left. This left me to handle many issues I haven’t been blogging about, including a few expensive lurches I was left in, and for the second half of the year, I was adjusting to so many things, including living alone for the first time in my life, paying off debts I hadn’t rang up, on funds I didn’t have. 

I rose above it though. I love living alone now, and I don’t even have to stay awake all night and only sleep during the day, as I once did, to survive the nights alone in a creepy noise filled apartment. I paid everything back, I got ahead a little. I weathered a historic winter storm. I missed my job in a way I still don’t understand, and I realized as toxic as my work place was/could be, I kinda did miss those people, and, I realized with my family living so far away, that, yeah, as cheesy as this is, my work family was my Houston family. 

I had to adjust to that too. Imagine missing the people you claim you don’t care about? Missing, caring about, worrying about, and realizing you really actually did kinda like your shitty fucking job, because you actually do like all those assholes, because that’s your family. 

Toxic, sure, but that’s family. Anyways, I say all this to say it has been a wild year. I started a journal DAYS before my own personal Apocalypse started, and I finished that journal a couple weeks ago, on the anniversary of my personal Apocalypse starting, and there is some major symmetry to that, and I love that for me. 

Journaling has helped me so much this last year, not with my own mental health but to realize that I do miss things, and people, and to accept and embrace that. Instead of being mad at myself for not appreciating it, I am taking all of those lessons, and I am passing them on to whoever wants to hear them. 

Now, I am far from romanticizing my job. My goal is still to somehow make money from my content and not need my job, but this past year I realized that even if I won the lottery and didn’t need my job, I would still want to work it. I have always said that, because I know I wouldn’t wanna sit around, and would want to have somewhere to go a couple days a week, but now, after this year, I very much know it to be sure. 

It’s not just the walks to work where I saw the same people and had passing friendships with, the people who work the construction site, the awesome people at the mechanic shop….Walking up to my own work, smiling at my coworkers, giving a hearty hello to Jim, seeing if Eric needs coffee, seeing how long before my music bothers Larry….Hell even Mike’s grumpy face. I miss little stupid things, and I miss big dumb things, and I don’t miss some of the headaches, because again, I am not trying to romanticize any of this…

But, I will say, as annoying as much of my job *could* get, I do miss my little work family. I’m glad we haven’t lost anyone to sickness, and i hope we all get to go back to the office and eagerly await the weekend, once more. 

I miss Katie, every day around noon, saying “okay that’s enough work today, let’s close shop and get drinks” even though we know even if we could do it, we probably wouldn’t. 

Thankfully, JT lives in the same complex so I can still chat nerd stuff, but there is something lost when we try to talk work stuff, not at work. 

I miss Katie and I petitioning for a margarita machine and queso fountain to a bemused and tolerant Eric. I miss chatting with the other company who we share a building with. I miss talking about vegan stuff with Robin, something I’ll not do on coffee breaks anymore, as she moved. I miss talking about Italian crap with Rob, or dab stuff with Ryan, or literally anything with one of the best conversationalists, Drew. 

I miss chatting with the costume ladies, and i miss wondering if the mail brought in any checks to apply. Little things, big things. 

I do think this has been an interesting year, one of learning and growth. I miss my job, as most people probably do, this far into it. I hope to return to my job soon, but I fear it may be awhile.

Should you need any theatrical needs, be them lights, sound, costume, makeup, WHATEVER- Maybe call Techland Houston. (www.techlandhouston.com)  It’s an amazing company and the sooner we can get back to fully staffed, and I can come back, the sooner I can apply these lessons to my job. 

In the meantime, for the love of my job, please wear a goddamn mask, social distance, whatever the fuck it takes, to get things somewhat close to back to normal- or as normal as we can be. Plus…We are the best. 

So, what about you? Do you miss your job? Have you had an revelations regarding the 9-5 grind? I have, and I will likely do another blog about that. Let me know via comments or DM if you have had any revelations in the last year. 

Thanks for reading,

Abbi