1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before? Started exercising like I mean it. Splash class is good.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions and will you make more for next year? I tried (and stopped) the no swearing thing. I am almost done with the other resolution, which was to write something every single day. I'll probably make another one for next year.. I just don't know yet what it is.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Our friends M&G had a baby boy.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Both of my kittehs. This was a sad year.

5. What countries did you visit? We stayed in the USof A.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? My biggest wish for 2010 is to get the best job ever™.

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Last year there were happy dates.. this year they were sad dates:
February 24 - The day Issy died
October 16 - The day Maddy died
December 7 - The day I got laid off
Next year will be brighter, dammit.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I totally emptied out 2 buildings, did buildouts in the south and in Fargo, moved 60 people around.... and they fired me anyway. Lesson there: Let my biggest achievements next year be NOT work related. Heh.

9. What was your biggest failure? My job thing isn't a failure, because I didn't bring it on myself. I can't think of any other do-over moments.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I swear that we had the H1N1 in January (before it was cool to call it that..) - we were both SO sick. Other than that, we've been pretty healthy.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Ragazz's Christmas present (which I can't talk about yet)!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My ragazz'. He is the most amazing man in the world.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? The upper management at my company (whose name I cannot mention until, you know, after I've collected ALL of my severance).

14. Where did most of your money go? Mortgage, car, Target.. LOL.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? My birthday! It was a great weekend of celebrating.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009? Oh for the love of God.. it's Poker Face. I admit it. LOL. But only because I played it incessantly on my new iPod and it made us laugh and laugh.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Sadder. This has been a rough year.
ii. thinner or fatter? Thinner! Hooray for splash class!
iii. richer or poorer? Richer for now... this is the question that is keeping me up at night now.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Paying off ALL the debt. I got a good start on it, anyway.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Worrying about little things at work... because look where it got me! Heh.

20. How will you be spending Christmas? With my ragazz' and our family.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009? I fall in love with him every single day. I am the luckiest girl in the world.

22. What was your favorite TV program? Modern Family, The Office, House.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Hate is a strong word. I strongly dislike some people.. but even thinking about them gives them power over me... so on to the next question.

24. What was the best book you read? I really liked The Girls from Ames.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery of 2009? PPPPoker Face PPPoker Face (muh muh muh mah). Good. that'll be stuck in my head for a while.

26. What did you want and get? An iPod touch! Thank you honey!

27. What did you want and not get? Hmm. I can't think of anything. I'm a lucky girl.

28. What was your favorite film of this year? We just don't watch that many movies. I can't think of any.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? We had Thanksgiving and birthday with the family, then went to Duluth and had birthday margaritas, then came home and had birthday dinner at Pazzaluna, then had birthday brunch with the vah-jay-jays. Best EVER! It was the 20th celebration of my 29th birthday.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Oh, I don't know. Things happen because they are supposed to. But truthfully, a lot of hard things happened this year and it kind of sucked. So having none of the bad stuff happen would have been good, but that couldn't have happened. Does that make sense?

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? I will forever remember this year as the first that I've willingly worn a bathing suit around a lot of people. Next year I will probably be a supermodel.

32. What kept you sane? My ragazz'.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? That one guy.. the one who's NOT a vampire. I don't get that vampire thing anyway.

34. What political issue stirred you the most? Healthcare.

35. Who did you miss? My Papa

36. Who was the best new person you met? This was the year for reconnecting with people (I love Facebook). So lots of my old friends are new again!

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009? It's the same one that I learned last year: That all the worrying and stressing in the world can't do one thing to change a situation. So just do the best you can and things will work out the way they should.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. Two of them:

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

It's not having what you want; it's wanting what you've got.

Ciao.

Holiday Hoedown IV: Santa's Revenge goes into the history books as the most successful hoedown ever. Until next year, when we will present Holiday Hoedown V: Wrath of Santa!.. we just have a figure out a way to jam a few dozen more people into the house.

This year's Latest Arrival Award goes to The Builder and His Lovely Bride. They showed up at the backdoor at 12:31. Hooray! I think next year we'll have a prize for that one. Hehe.

The mess isn't even CLOSE to epic. Once I drag my lazy @ss into the kitchen I'm guessing it'll take about an hour to get everything put back to rights. For now, though, I find it much more rewarding to goof around on the interweb. And I haven't even started with the Bejeweled Blitz yet. Once I get over there it'll be another hour or so before I get around to cleaning.

I think I had the food choices and quantities just about right this year. We ran out of everything at about the same time. That sausage dip IS the bomb. For everyone who wanted to know the recipe:
1 lb Jimmy Dean Sausage
1 C Ranch Dressing
1 C Cheese of your choosing (I used Monterey Jack/Cheddar mixed)
Brown the sausage, add the dressing and cheese. Voila. Could that BE easier?? And you can double-triple-fourple the recipe. This year I doubled it because we ran out so early at the last Hoedown.

I have to say, too, that Sunday feels a LOT different now that I don't have the "OMG tomorrow is Monday" dread. Note to self: when choosing next job, choose one in which you will not have the aforementioned Monday dread.
Also - I have the most wonderous, supportive family and friends. That's how I know that everything will be okay.

Finally - My favorite moment of the party. Well, all the moments were my favorite in one way or another. But at one point Ragazz' and I were sitting on the stairs between the kitchen and the living room (it always ends up being the kitchen party and the living room party - you can move between them.. but that's always how it goes!). Everyone was laughing, eating, talking. The house was full of happy. He looked at me and said "We win."

Clearly, we do.

Ciao.

It's the last day. I don't believe it.

I remember the first day. I walked in and no one was around. There were only about 10 of them in the office (mostly guys.. I think there were maybe 2 other girls). So I just sat down at the front desk and waited. Finally the IT Manager (who was the Sr VP of Technology by the time we got sold) came in and showed me how to set up my computer. No one really knew how the front phone worked... heh. Hello. We were a telecommunications company! So I got that sorted out.

People came and went and smiled at me.. but no one introduced themselves! I called Turk who was at the store (our stores were still going out of business at that point) and said "OMG I hate it here! I I want to come back to the store!" and he told me that I had to stay there at least for the day. "It'll be easier tomorrow."

Then the mail came. A huge stack of it.. and then I saw that there was another whole pile of it on the desk. The old receptionist had been gone for about a month and no one had done mail since then. And it dawned on me.. I had to take charge of this. They needed an office mom, because they were kind of rudderless.

So I sorted it all out by name (or by type) and I found a cart. I put the mail on a cart and went into the offices and cubes one by one, notepad in hand.
"I'm Michele. I'll be taking care of you from now on. Who are you, what do you do, and which of this mail is yours?"

And the rest, as they say, is history.

There were hard days and funny days and sad days. You'd think that today would be the saddest day, but it's not. The saddest day was the day that the new company took over and Eschelon Telecom went away. I had a big part in building it up. I had just as big a part in taking it down once the acquisition was complete. I was there from almost the very beginning.

The company that laid me off wasn't Eschelon. The new company is.. well.. it's a company. It's not MY company, though. I'm not sad to walk away from the name. I'm sad to walk away from the people.

So it's the last day. I'm going to have breakfast with Hellen Ellen and the Oracle Guru, pick up my last check, and turn in my badge. When I walk out the door I'll close that chapter. Then it's time for the Super Extended Chele Christmas Vacation™. Kinda like a hiatus. And then it'll be time for the next thing.

It'll be a super adventure. Ready? Go.
Ciao.

It's day 3. I'm still not going to be worried.

It kinda reminds me of a wake at work. People stopping by to pay their respects.. LOL. I sent one of those "goodbye and good luck" emails out this morning. I purposely tried to focus on the positive aspects. I guess some people thought that I was quitting instead of being let go. Then they'd ask me about it and I'd say "Nope! Laid off." and then they were even sadder. Oh dear.

I kept thinking it was Thursday, not Wednesday. Give me another week and I'll have no idea what day it is any more. Every day will just be known as "UNday".

There was hella snow on the deck when I got home this afternoon. The western house is up on the 3rd floor, so when I shovel I have to throw the snow over the railing down onto the ground. I was about 3/4 done when the new girl who just moved in on the first floor came out. I saw her parents moving her in yesterday (or else they have movers that look just like a mom and dad). She looked up and said "Can you not throw the snow on my lawn?"

............ what??

The rest of the conversation went like this:

Me: "Where do you suggest I throw it?"
Her:"Um, I don't know."
"You do realize that there's snow EVERYWHERE on the ground, right?"
"Yeah."
"You do realize that it's not YOUR lawn, right? You own your patio. Everyone owns the lawn."
"Oh."
"So. Well. Merry Christmas to you!"
"Yeah. Bye."

She's probably a rocket scientist. NASA just opened a branch here or something.

ANYWAY. We're letting the pizza man bring us dinner tonight. Life is good. Ciao, Bellas.

So I got the car thing all sorted out. She started right up, I went to the dealer and got a new battery (under $200) and headed in to the office. I did the quick walk around to see who was there and who was gone and what, exactly, I was up against. I wandered over to visit my friend Hellen Ellen.

Then my cell phone rang.

It was the big boss, and he said "I'm going to need you to step into Vicki's office to take this call." Vicki. She's the HR lady.
Well then.

"....not at all personal, strictly a business decision... appreciate all the hard work you've done... happy to write a recommendation... take as much time as you need... sign this letter by Friday....."

And that was that. 12 years, 9 months, 21 days. 668 weeks (rounded down), and now it's done. As of Friday, I won't work there anymore.

I didn't cry, or yell, or have any kind of meltdown. The HR lady cried. The big boss was all choked up on the phone.

I went back to my desk, grabbed my purse and headed out the door. I called ragazz' and said that I would meet him downtown for lunch. We sat at Eighth Street Grill and I had a Grain Belt (mmmm...beer...) and we made a toast to the next chapter.

I've started telling people.. my closest circle first, and the word is getting out there. To a person, everyone who has heard has had the same reaction: "NO! WTF?! Unbelievable!"
*I* ended up being the one doing the comforting. I just kept telling people "It's okay.. everything is going to be fine! Don't worry.".. Heh.

And I really do believe it's going to be fine. I'll land on my feet (in a pair of stylish pumps).

I'll miss a lot of the people there.. just like I miss the people who went through this whole process before me. They've survived. I will too.

I was fortunate in that I got some severance. So I'm going to take some chill time until after the holidays. Spend some time with my family and my friends, bake some cookies, take stock of life. Then I'll hit the pavement.

I have to go in to the office this morning and start packing up some stuff. I want to say goodbye to a few special friends. And then I'm gonna go to splash class tonight, provided that the last Snowmageddon of 'Aught Nine hasn't started yet.

It's the next chapter. It's not chemotherapy (which, truly, gives you a WHOLE new perspective on what's hard and what's not), it's not the end of the world. What's that song? "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."
Yeah. That.