Saturday, July 29, 2017

What can I learn from eggs and mosquitoes?

Woody Allen said: “It reminds me of that old joke- you know, a guy walks into a psychiatrist's office and says, hey doc, my brother's crazy! He thinks he's a chicken. Then the doc says, why don't you turn him in? Then the guy says, I would but I need the eggs. I guess that's how I feel about relationships. They're totally crazy, irrational, and absurd, but we keep going through it because we need the eggs.”

It's true... Relationships are absurd, and sometimes you will do absurd things to make them, or break them.

Last week, I was let go at my job. The company and position, and details of the work are not relevant to this post, so please, don't make me go there! However, I feel like the story is worth sharing.

I had arrived at work a little early, because I had been asked to participate in a project for which it was suggested, "I was the right person for the job". There was a lot of work to do, and because I now am responsible for the feeding of my hungry children, I decided to get to work by 7:30 am so I could dive right into the work.

The poor kids have been cooped up (no egg pun intended) in the house for the summer so far, and because we live out on an acerage, it's not like they can just run to the corner 7-11 to pass the time. Sure, you might be thinking: "you are telling me there is nothing interesting to do on an acerage?". Essentially, yes. I was a surprise to me too. One thing you should know about me is that I love running. Not 5 kilometers away is a new holy mecca of trail running, the 300 acre "Ministik Bird Sanctuary". Baden (my Son) and I ran some of these trails in the winter, but the snow was too deep, and it was difficult to run, and have fun at the same time. So we decided to wait until spring. 

While we waited, millions upon millions (I'm not joking) of little mosquito eggs began to hatch as the sun came out and melted the snow. They turned into larvae and in time, started their own life seeking out unsuspecting runners to drain blood from. 

I'm not being dramatic for effect either... First, exercise makes you far more inviting to a mosquito than a couch potato. Another study suggests that mosquitoes like those with type "O" blood nearly twice as much as people with other blood types. So what's more inviting that a couple of type-O runners? Well... you get my point.

Baden and I have tried a couple of times now to venture into the trails without being "eaten alive", but so far, to no avail. The silly sods have stricken us in to submission so suddenly, that the best I can compare to would be this video:


One more piece of background, and I'll make this one quick. I was recently in touch with HR about a very personal family situation. HR was very professional about it, and accommodating. That's all I'll say about that.

So back to the office...

At 4:30 pm, I was still busy working away when I got a meeting request. "1 on 1" at 5:00 pm with the manager. I had not been meeting with that particular manager for 1 on 1's for the past couple of months... "Curious" I thought. At 5:00 pm the manager came over and asked me to come into a conference room. HR was there and my first thought was, "Wow! They are taking some of my family concerns quite seriously! This is great!!!" It was then, that I was informed that my position was terminated.

My first thought was disbelief, and the second was fear. Fear for all the usual reasons. "What am I going to do?", "What if I cannot pay my mortgage?"... You know... Things like that. As quietly as possible, so as not to attract any attention, I packed up my stuff, and exited the building.

May I remind you all that there are two sides to this story. I've shared my part of it, but I hold no hard feelings to the company I worked for. The work is interesting, and I admit, I spent many weekends working on work projects, rather than my own technical projects, simply because I liked the work ones better. The value of what I'm taking away from the company in terms of experience and memories cannot be denied. I'm a rich woman indeed.

So, how do you like your eggs? Sunny side up or over-easy? (this time, the pun was intended). Do I consider my career over easy or do I look eggstatically at the sunny side up?

I'll tell you what I did. I sent an email to my former project manager. I included as much detail as I could about the project, services, and progress I had made. I made it clear I was available to answer questions if anything was unclear, and what my personal email was if they needed to contact me.

Life is not a game of one up, it's built on relationships that can thrive, or be pushed off the wall. Unlike Humpty's story, even though I got pushed, I have the choice to break or not. We all have the choice to break or not.

This is what we do when we love someone.