Thursday, July 12, 2007

Reality Check

A little update on life in general: got a lot going on at the moment. It is beyond great to have Jane here now, and she's getting so big. We're all adjusting to each other I think, and the past 9 weeks have not been without their challenges and stressed out periods. But I guess that's probably just life w/ a newborn. Once Jane started gaining weight in earnest, we thought "well, we should be good to go -- hurdle hurdled." Jane sez, "not so fast." She's been showing some signs of acid reflux altho the doc says that it's not full blown. Whether it is reflux (I'm not completely convinced) or whether it's just garden variety gas, the bottom line is she has periods of extreme fussiness/discomfort where she will not sleep or let us lay her down. But on the plus side, Jane's way more alert now and her expressions are very funny sometimes. I say "we" have to deal w/ her fussiness, but it's actually Liz who is bearing the brunt of the cranky baby. I feel badly about it, but I gots to go to work.

Speaking of work, there's a bunch of stuff going on. Causing a bit of stress. Big decisions to make. My department's management just announced a big re-org/realignment/whatever on Tuesday. What it comes down to is whether I want to stay or whether I want to take a severance package. The packages are pretty generous, but I've got this life situation now -- baby! -- that doesn't allow me to be too cavalier about what I do. So I'm not sure whether to roll the dice and take the package or stay at the company. Oh yea, I gotta decide before midnight this coming Tuesday. Ugh.

And I'm putting some pressure on myself to get a car very soon. I currently have an old two seater (Miata), and that just ain't gonna work out w/ aforementioned life situation -- baby! We're looking at small SUVs, but I think I'm going w/ a Honda CRV, most likely a used one. There seem to be a lot of features and it gets pretty decent mileage. We're looking at the CRV type cars because we also need room for Lucy in the back. The drop dead deadline for the car purchase is mid August when Liz goes back to work. At that point I've got to have the ability to put Jane in my car. I'll be a little sad to get rid of my car, but all things must pass. I've had it for 11 years, and it has been great to me.

So, that's the update at the moment. I'm sure there are other things that need getting done (our yard is turning into a weed species showcase), but for now I'm only doing the important stuff. In fact I barely made time to write this.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

All right dude, lets think this through. You take the package and you have enough money for a while (assuming you stop spending it on rock concerts). What are your job prospects? In a perfect world, you would take the package and already have another job lined up. Have you been looking - I can't imagine that this has happened all of the sudden. If you don't take the package- but you are looking to leave anyway...not sure how much sense that would make (as you would lose out on the package) except that you would have less risk since you would not be without a job.

You are right in that you have a "life situation"- dude, welcome to the real world. Sometimes is sucks to be an adult- but you have a wife and children and you need to man up. Less worry about two seaters and music- and more about being the Man in your family. Is your wife excited to go back to work- I am guessing not. Your blog indicates she has her hands full, and then she is going to add work to her list of things to do...dude, man up.

Whatever decision you make- make it because its best for your family.

Steve said...

Thanks for the advice. But don't worry too much. In either case, things will work out. And rest assured, I haven't spent much cash on rock concerts in a while.