"Aaaand the Hits Just Keep On Coming...

...so keep that dial tuned to WATL and our sister station WSUX! Next up, all the headlines that matter!"

So, I should have known I was tempting fate. When you write things like this, "We're both employed at a good salary, and look to continue being so employed for the time being" and post them in public, you really are leaving yourself open to a great cosmic beat down.

It's not official. Yet. That won't happen until shortly after the new year, and the terms aren't entirely clear at this point. But the unofficial word is that one of us will not be employed for too terribly much longer. I don't want to say more, because if there is severance offered, I don't want to jeopardize it by being too blabby now. But that's the word from above. The way it appears to be working is that the let-go person is going to be staying on for some period of time, during which time they'll be encouraged to find other employment.

I guess my nanny dilemma has been solved, hasn't it? I didn't even have to get your weigh-in on whether to keep her on or not (bottom line: we didn't feel we were getting the value for the large amount of money we were paying, and we thought Caetlin would do well and be more challenged in a day care setting, but we didn't want to let the nanny go in such a crappy economy, knowing what we know about how her job sustains her family). I just hate to cut her loose into this economy, but that choice is completely out of my hands at this point.

We don't have a huge amount of fat in our budget to cut, though the largest expense that we can cut back is food, mostly because we eat out or takeout way too often. We'll be cooking much more very soon. We already have Caetlin into a day care, though it's not terribly convenient- it's a number of miles in the wrong direction. They at least have room for her. And if other employment isn't found, maybe we won't need day care at all. Being a stay at home parent has been discussed often around here lately, as one possible contingency plan.

Anyway, pray for us that the Charlotte house rents. If it rents even at a lower price than we might like, we'll still probably be okay on one income.

I'm scared. I wanted change, and I can see a lot of ways that this will be for the better for us, and I will be able to look to the future and those positive changes soon, but right now I'm just scared of what will happen to us. There is no market. For anything, really, but certainly not for what we do. I'm scared to make a go of it on one income, mostly because we have the Charlotte house to worry about. If I'm honest, we still have a lot of ways to cut back (cable, we could move someplace cheaper, etc.) without really sacrificing our quality of life all that much. And we have lots and lots of ways to cut back by sacrificing our quality of life, if it comes to that. Our credit will be fine, we will have food on the table and a roof over our heads.

It's just a lot to take in, combined with the emotions that come with this kind of news. Change is being foisted upon us, which is never preferred. I would have liked to have change come on my terms, thank you very much.

It's kind of like that old video game, Punch Out. Did anyone play that, or see/hear it in an arcade? I remember the announcer, when someone got on a particularly good streak, "Body blow! Body blow! Body blow!"

Yeah, it's kind of like that around here lately.