Wedding Survival, Job Hunting, and the End of the World

Looking at the calendar, it's hard to believe it's been three and a half months since I've written. No curriculum writing (no job.) No creative writing (no time.) One brief personal journal entry. It's like any creative spark trying to catch a break was squelched before it became a flame. (I know...soooo dramatic.) Everything I read on writing says to just write. So here it goes.

But first things first. Wedding survival. I did it. Five weddings in one calendar year, 4 in back-to-back-to-back-to-back months. All lovely ceremonies, each with unique charm of its own. However, the last wedding had an extra sweetness to it; a sweetness of relief that it was the last ceremony I would need to be in attendance for in the foreseeable future.  I also kinda sorta lied to a priest so it had an element of forbidden adventure. (Don't get too excited. When he asked me if I'd led prayers in Mass before, I pointed to a copy of the prayers for the wedding mass and said, "I just start with this one, right?" So it was more dodging a question than telling a lie. I couldn't get my friend in trouble on her big day! And if you're interested, I did a good enough job to receive a compliment from a stranger. WIN!)

Next up: organizational restructuring, aka downsizing! Shocker? Not for me. It was my third awkward conversation in a five year period. The first one, with the hockey team went something like this: "We're out of money and you're all laid off." The second one went something like: "This is a conversation I never want to have..." Buh-bye, now. This one was one of those things I kinda sorta saw coming. Mid-summer, Booz-Allen was brought in to survey effectiveness. While I was a nice accessory, my job role did little to boost the bottom line. This layoff was a big one, with my region dropping from 22 offices to 8. Tons of people lost their job. Many of them didn't see it coming. So...while these situations are never fun, at least it didn't catch me by surprise. My two part-time "fun time" jobs have kept me busy, even if the schedule is all over the place. My workout schedule has disappeared with the lack of structure and to be honest, I'm losing my mind. I really miss it. I need a spinning class or a boot camp at 11:30pm. On the job front, I've had a few interviews and a few very odd replies to applications, but who knows? Maybe someday the experiences will get tossed into a book. 

Which brings me to the end of the world. The predicted Mayan apocalypse is upon us, spurring doomsday preppers to head for their hideouts. I abide by the philosophy that nobody knows the hour or the day. But if that's not enough for you, my Mayan tour guide Gus announced to our group that the Mayan predictions for the end of the world were inaccurate and blown greatly out of proportion. His words: "...it is nothing more than Hollywood hocus pocus, my friends." 

And if you're still not convinced...it's already tomorrow in Australia.