Well, back to Square One.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I apologize to the SDMB as a whole for creating another emo post just a couple weeks after my last one. I ask that you all please indulge me one more.

After 11 years of turbulence, I finally was getting my life to a good point. I have a great job, love what I do, and get paid well for it. I just moved into a new home and have a fantastic roommate. I’m doing so well financially that I’ve even been playing with the idea of buying a new car and perhaps even purchasing the home I’m living in. I was seeing a really nice girl (that ended, and probably for the better). By all accounts, I’ve been very pleased and happy with my life as it is.

As has been the same old song and dance in my life, stability never lasts long.

Earlier this week, my roommate’s mother died of bone cancer. I really feel for him. He’s a good guy and very good to his family. She willed him her house, so he’ll be moving out. No more roommate. The house owner (who’s kind of a prick), will probably be moving back in.

Today, the VP of Training and Staff Development (my department’s boss), gathered us together to let us know that effective immediately, all contract employees are fired. On the upside (I guess), they’ve given me two or three weeks. Everyone else has to have their desks cleared out tomorrow.

From what I understand, the VP is working hard to hire me as a full-time employee, or at least find me another job in the hospital. While I’m very grateful for that, it doesn’t help with the sudden uncertainty, not to mention the fact that I’ve loved this job more than any I’ve ever had, and I was damn good at it. I’ve only been working here for a little over a month (the contract was meant to be long-term, as in years), and I just sunk several hundred bucks into my new place. What do I do now? :frowning:

I guess the main point is that I’m sick and tired of my life being a constant roller coaster. Up and down and up and down and up and down. I’ll be 30 next year. When do I get some stability?

2

Sorry for your hard times.

Ever consider self-employment?

3

I’m afraid that death is the only ‘stable condition’. If you work at a hospital you know that. What you can do is just roll with the punches. Know that everything happens for a reason, and that reason IS going to present itself. Just keep looking for it. When stuff like that starts happening, I say to myself “wonder where this is going to take me…” Eventually you’re going to like where you end up, if only temporarily.

4

I just wanted to chime in with a “Been there… like… 5 mins ago” post. Thirty is less than a month away and I’m starting over. Again. I have no great advice of my own to give, so let me share some of the sage advice I’ve received from others recently:

[ul]
[li]This too shall pass.[/li][li]30 is when your life begins (I believe this to be a bold faced lie, but we can hope, no?)[/li][li]“You have to sometimes drop your newbie eq to wear better stuff with higher stats… and sometimes the equipment you drop will disappear… but eff it, you’ll have better shit!” - Gamers are a bit hard to follow, but I think this means that one door closes so that another one can open. Who knows.[/li][/ul]

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.

5

I call Mom on the phone every Saturday, when I’m not close enough to speak in person.

Last Saturday she was furious because The Nephew had been sick and SiL had made the mistake of whining “when ever does one stop worrying about the kids’ health?”

Mom’s bitten back answer: “never! Well, yes, when you die or he does and as a mother I must tell you I do consider the better option to be me who dies first.”

Life IS a rollercoaster. Have some popcorn.

6

Years ago - probably before you were born - a friend offered me this thought-provoking observation: Over the course of your life, there are ups and downs, but if you assigned each a number on a scale of 1 to 10, chances are, they’d average out around 5. Would you trade all those 1s and 10s for a consistent 5?

Speaking from the wisdom of my ancientness, I’ll take the highs and lows. I’m at about the best place in my life so far, but I do remember the days of living paycheck-to-paycheck and having no savings to fall back on. I remember sitting in hospital waiting rooms 5 different times that my husband had surgery. I remember (at 31) having to ask parents for money because of a stupid decision. I also remember the birth of my daughter, moving into a house that we loved, and waking up at dawn at anchor in a beautiful, secluded cove one vacation. And I remember watching my husband walk our daughter down the aisle.

No way I’d trade any of the highs to avoid the lows. I’m hoping to deal with lots more of both…

7

Get your resume’s out there.
Inform your landlord of the situation with work.
Sign up on eHarmony - Go on a date.
Eat some chocolate
Take the poor me out of your vocabulary
Did I mention get your resume ot there?

:smiley:

8

I think that’s true, I didn’t even feel like I was fully a grown-up until I was in my 30’s. Now if I could go back to being 18 with what I know now, that would be better.

9

One of the great things I’m learning about aging is the perspective it gives you. It seems like everything’s crashing down around you right now, but that’s just the way it is sometimes. It’s happened before, and it’ll happen again. What you do when it happens is you deal with it (like you’ve done before). Most of the stability in life comes from within, with the knowledge that it always was like this, and it always will be. (Sorry - getting a bit Zen there. :slight_smile: )

And you’re not back to Square One. You are well ahead of where you were before. You had a good job for a while, and you made good money at it. You learned that there is a job that you love, so you can go pursue it now. I might suggest that you make a habit of counting your blessings instead of your problems - it changes your whole outlook. A practical exercise - find five good things about your life every day. Write them down in a gratitude journal. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how good your life actually is, and how small the problems are.