The Saga Of The Past 3+ Years, Part 1

Ever since I got laid off in November 2008, my life has been going on a downward spiral. But in order to tell the story of the past two years or so since then, I really have to start a year earlier in November 2007. On the 29th of that month, my sister had a massive seizure. She had Multiple Sclerosis, and the seizure was a complication from it. They eventually got the seizing to stop entirely. By Christmas, she was pretty well alert. They thought she would probably make a recovery of some sort, but in January she had another massive seizure. Eventually, she had another one. And another one. They kept getting more frequent. In late February, it was decided that she would be moved to a skilled nursing home. She was back in the hospital not long after that. After a couple of weeks, they put her back in the nursing home. By the end of June/beginning of July, she was considered terminal. In October, her body finally started showing signs of shutting down. She died on January 1st, 2009.

During that time, I had a cool job that paid pretty decently. In March '08, I decided to move into my sister and brother-in-law's place, mostly to help out with things, and to keep the kitties company, but also because I really wanted to move out of the parents' place in B.F.E.. My sister and brother-in-law lived in  Louisville, and their place was kind of like my home away from home anyway. I'd spend entire weekends there so I wouldn't have to drive all the way home and back the next day if I wanted to do something in Louisville. Living there full time was pretty nice.

As I mentioned in the beginning, I got laid off in November 2008. I really needed a long break from work considering that my sister was dying, seasonal depression was starting to kick in, and a combination of other things was starting to drive me nuts, but that's not exactly how I wanted to go about it. After my sister died, I found out that my brother-in-law was hoping to get a smaller place, which pretty much meant I'd have to move out, at least for a while. While I transitioned out of the place, I still stayed over fairly often. On Valentine's Day, my bro-in-law revealed that he was dating somebody, a nurse who worked at the nursing home. Instead of moving out, the gf and her kids moved in at the end of March since her lease was up. Around late May, they got rid of the cats, which gave me less reason to stop by. I tried spending a night there a couple of times, but it just didn't work out, so I essentially lost my "home away from home". They ended up getting married in October. They finally moved into a new place at the end of 2010.

After my severance money ran out in February 2009, I went on unemployment. It was a pretty big hassle, the biggest of which was when I found out in 2010 that I owed Kentucky almost $400 in taxes all because I didn't have the option of having state taxes withheld from my unemployment checks. That was something that I didn't have to worry about when I was unemployed in Texas, since they don't have state taxes. As much as people bitch and moan about Federal taxes, they've been pretty sweet to me, it's Kentucky that tends to rape me.

I've went back to work at the place that laid me off (who'll be known from here on out as Main ex-Employer) a couple of times. Why? Because most of the other places I've worked at sucked out loud. Hell, one place (a company that has been featured on Big Brother Undercover Boss) fired me after a month over something really stupid. There was one place I worked that I liked as much as, if not more than, Main ex-Employer, but they don't keep many people around beyond the peak seasons. I had the opportunity to return for their current peak season, but I was already working Main ex-Employer's peak season. BTW, Main ex-Employer let me go again just before the end of 2010, but I'm eligible for re-hire. :-/ Getting to see the pics from their holiday party was marginally depressing.

To be continued...