February 18, 2009

Cut day.

Cleveland was dank this Wednesday. I drove the entire 9-mile potholed commute into work thinking about the ominous weather. I knew that this commute was likely my last.

On Tuesday I received an email requesting a meeting for me to meet with the partner-in-charge of my firm's Ohio offices. The work had been slow, and was getting slower. Once it became clear that the workload lull might very well turn into the new status quo, I knew that jobs at work would have to be eliminated.

And on Wednesday, mine was.

The firm responded to this economic crisis by dropping over 30 people. Good people. I'm sure the decision was difficult for those who made it, but that hardly eases the pain.

Fortunately Jenny and I saw this coming. We had already started putting out feelers several months ago back home in Texas. Additionally,--and I don't want to disparage my firm in any way--I was far from happy at work. I had already decided that professional growth would have to come from a new opportunity outside the firm, so my resume had already graced a few eyes before being told to update it on Wednesday.

Despite having already decided to leave, there's still a sense of disappointment at not being able to do it entirely on my own terms. I wanted that preemptive strike. But that hardly matters now.

From here we will, along with half of Cleveland, put our house on the market. We will go back to Texas (where Jenny has been DYING to go for ages), and seek opportunities there. Most likely it will be Dallas.

Last Saturday the Welch's were kind enough to watch our children (on V-day, no less) so that Jenny and I could go have lunch. While Jenny was eating the ice cream dessert we were supposed to be sharing, I told her that I had a spiritual prompting that this would be my last week at work. She accepted it. From that point forward we began to make plans for our next move.

I truly believe that this same spirit is guiding us now. We've felt its presence in our hearts, and in our friends' kind words and deeds. Perhaps I'm overly existential, but this will be one of those stories we tell our kids about how bad things happen so that greater things can come our way.

In the meantime, we are excited about the work we have ahead of ourselves.