Goodbye 2012! Welcome (?) 2013

Well what do you say about a year that sucked when the upcoming year doesn't look much better? It started off with my "big" boss informing my department that the company was going to outsource us. Right around the same time my father-in-law became sick. Janice had her plate full already with her Dad and running back and forth to Staten Island so because nothing was definite, and I didn't want to add to the burden she was already carrying, I kept the job status to myself.  In April Dad succumbed to his illness and passed peacefully to our heavenly Father. Then super storm Sandy hit this area followed by the election results. My thought is that the election results will prove to be more devastating than Sandy. Thankfully the voters did keep the Congress split so that at least there’ll be a rampart to slow down this country’s demise. Since Sandy did her thing I haven’t been in my normal work place in downtown Manhattan as it was flooded. I’m currently working in mid-town in make-shift conditions.

It wasn't like there were no good things that happened in 2012. Janice, Robby and I thankfully all have our health. We were able to take our longest vacation ever, spending 11 glorious days at Walt Disney World. I also took a solo trip there in May to play with my tagrel.com friends at tagomania. Yes, I am still a kid at heart. I can’t do anything about getting older but I can, and do, refuse to grow-up. We were also pretty lucky regarding the effects of Sandy on us. We were without electricity for six days and we had some minor damage to the house. Some fascia was blown off the garage and toward one of the peaks on the house, but nothing else other than that.

I also became a published author. Deb Martin Koma, one of the fine ladies at allears.net  and the senior editor of the sites weekly newsletter saw one of my blogs and asked if she could publish it as a feature article. Naturally, being the Disney and allears fan that I am I said yes. You can find the article here http://allears.net/ae/issue676.htm and the original blog on which the article was based by scrolling down below this blog.

Regarding the outsourcing most of the people in my department were let go, others were able to stay with the company in other positions, and yet others have not yet been given their notice. The transfer of their jobs is expected to happen. They just don't know when. To this date the training of the outsource company's people hasn't taken place so it won't happen until 60 days after that. As for me, well there's good news and bad news on that front. The bad news is that I was given a termination date of February 1 of 2013. My immediate supervisor was livid about this and spoke to the person that's in charge of the transition to the outsource company. It turns out the transition person was given bogus information as to what it is that I do. So the good news is my termination date has been rescinded. I'm now in that same state of limbo that those who have not yet been given notice. None of us are completely sure of what is going to happen. There is a chance, a very thin chance, that the outsourcing company won't take our jobs. None of us are counting on that happening though. Along with that piece of "good" news I've had the opportunity to become good friends with a coworker that previously was more of a friendly acquaintance. We've both learned that we can trust each other and keep watch out for each others back. This person knows who they are and how glad I am that we've become closer.

You can see it’s been a heck of a year. I’m hopeful that 2013 will be better. It almost would have to be.