Well, I am back from my week-o-driving. It started last week on Friday when I had THE longest drive back from work. Let me explain.

For those of you who haven't talked to me in the last few days some major things have happened to me. Starting with last Friday at work. The long and the short of it is that I was laid off. Not for performance mind you but due to money issues. So I have A LOT of free time now. And no, I haven’t decided what to do yet. I don’t know if I want to be an engineer anymore. And if I do stay one I haven’t figured out what industry to look at just yet. [sigh]

It’s funny. I kinda saw this coming a few day before it happened. I actually had my cube packed and ready to go by Thursday night. The firings started around 9 AM on Friday morning. It was like watching a strange disjointed race. The starting pistol was the phone ringing. Then the person would walk by, disappear for 10 minutes and then reappear with boxes. I got my call at 10:30 AM. It was surreal. I saw the name of my boss’s boss pop up on my phone. He NEVER calls me. So I knew what that meant. I almost didn’t pick the receiver up. When you know it’s coming, that act is like yelling fire at your out execution. At that point I became another “runner” in the race. Everyone around me got quite and just looked at the floor.

Sidebar:
A grasshopper walks into a bar.
The bartender looks up and says, “Hey! We have a drink named after you.”
The grasshopper replies, “ That’s stupid. Why would you name a drink Bob?” (I thought that was good)

That should lighten the mood a bit ;) After I got back from my “meeting” my boss got the whole team together one last time. They all took me out for lunch and then I was on my way to the beach to meet up with my parents. The beach was a GREAT distraction. I got to decompress and just relax a little.

So, after I got back from the beach on Sunday I decided to go visit a few of my frat brothers near Philly. They had invited me earlier but at the time I couldn’t get my boss to give me the time off (ironic huh). It was good for me. It was neat reconnecting with them. Lots of beer, off-color jokes, obscure movies, and PS2. All and all a good time was had by everyone in attendance

Now I am back home in my apartment and I guess I should start doing a little soul searching to figure out what the hell I am going to do. I have a bunch of less than orthodox options on the table but it will take a HUGE leap of faith to attempt any of them. If I head back to engineering it will probably take around 3 months to find a job. That’s just based off of the market condition and tales from the water cooler. Could be longer or shorter. Who knows…..

So, seeing as how I now have plenty of free time I am looking to visit some of you. If you have a free day or something give me a call. I’m only a few hours away from most everyone on the east coast. Well, I am off to bed now.