The foundation of the American Dream crumbles...

Sorry to deviate from the purpose of my plog (yes, plog) but I just had to spit this out at ya.


Ok, I cannot stand to keep it to myself any longer. When my heart was still in it, one of the reasons I loved restaurant work was because people were always going to eat and that was an industry that would undergo little change. I also believed that I was in the right industry for a career until I got laid off for the first time in my life. I took that pretty hard and looked deep into my heart about what I wanted to do for a living and decided that I did not love the service industry anymore and with a little nudge from the Wiz, I took a different path.

I took a path into the corporate world that I feared soo much. No, actually, I came by it on accident. I wanted to be in a lawyers office but while going to school, it was nearly impossible as all lawyers want you to work full time and part time legal assistant work is nearly unheard of. So after a couple of internships, I came to work for a company doing customer service. I choose to take this job because there was no selling and no commission. I tried that once. YES, once, and it was not my forte. So here I go, talking on the phone for a living.

I got sucked into it and I actually love doing this. I don't have to look at these people, (for the most part) and I can talk them to death to get them to see my point of view. That is a challenge that I readily accept more often to the dismay of my coworkers. It is a great accomplishment when I keep them from cancelling though. So, I accept!

Then the corporate monster begins to growl and snarl. While I knew I am classified as temporary part time, I am still there and I am watching as people all around me are laid off and let go. People who have been there for years and years and whole departments gone.....in the blink of an eye.

More recently, it was announced that our printing and packaging was going to be outsourced to another company. I love walking through the press room because the machines are so big and I wonder what they sound like when they are running. Everyone tells me they are a great site when they are and that I should come see if I ever get a chance. Sadly, I do not think I will. This affects a lot of people in our building. On top of this department, I read emails almost weekly about this one and that one who no longer work for my company. I feel sad for them because those people now have to go out into a world where finding a job is like finding the perfect diamond in an abandoned mine. You are very lucky if you can find something. Even minimum wage jobs are becoming a rarity.

I am thankful that I do have a job and plan to hold on to it until the very end. What the future holds is not bright. I had a family member ask me the other day what would I do. I said the only truth that was apparent to me at the time. "Well, we will just have to work more hours and try to get by." I believe that is what everyone is doing.

I always wondered what the people of the great depression were thinking during that time period. I have a feeling that I may not have to wonder much longer. We are heading in that direction is a quickening downward spiral. How nauseating that is. While I choose not to have a portfolio so to speak, it is still frightening to see the world like this. What amazes me however, is that all the world is watching the United States. Our dying economy is affecting everyone the world around and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it nor is it likely that they want to. Wow. Turbulent times, we are in them folks, maybe the worst ever....