Things looking down ... and up

[FightingIrish]

I should be hard at work right now but I got some bad news this morning. My best client, a not-for-profit hospital, has put the brakes on the last of several projects I was doing for them. Their balance sheet looks pretty bad and their portfolio has tanked. I am, although self-employed, officially out of work. I won’t show up in the jobless numbers, but the financial impact for me is just the same. I don’t have a job.

I almost made it through the Bush years without running out of work. I did rather well on two federal projects over the past two years, but with one week to go in the Bush free fall, I finally landed hard. The big question now is how long it will last. Since I now have zero income, I already know where the bottom is.

One thing I know for certain is that some things, non-financial in nature, will start improving immediately. I will wake up on January 21 knowing that the tenant from hell has been evicted from our house in Washington. I will sense the slight sway of a massive ship slowly righting its course. I will know that, for the first time in eight long years, we have a competent, caring leader at the helm. Our national embarrassment will have been succeeded by a man whose very election brings us honor. We will have a president who will hold himself accountable when he fails and will share the acclaim with the people around him when things go well.

I’m not expecting miracles from Barack Obama but I sincerely hope he is expecting much of you and me. Bush had pretty low expectations of the American people which we largely lived up to. We gave him eight years and he delivered almost universal decline. His use of the term “disappointment” to describe his blatant failures and criminal acts is telling in that it means a failure to meet expectations. Imagine a drunk driver telling you that he is “disappointed” that he drove his SUV into your living room.

With a new administration will come a return to reality and that means a realization that we have a hard climb just to reach the edge of the hole Bush left us in. The financial bottom may still be ahead of us but at least we will at least have a government that knows and cares how bad our suffering really is. In one week we will begin a new journey and I am quite hopeful that, in time, we will arrive somewhere close to the American dream. I guess I’m not having such a bad day after all.

[MADem]

1. Good luck finding work. Hope things look up on that score. nt

[Diane R]

2. My husband is a self-employed Architect...we've been where you are for a long time.

[renate]

3. I'm so sorry. Good luck

How awful when a bolt comes out of the blue like that. I hope your being out of work doesn't last long.

I read something the other day about how small companies and freelancers can change direction on a dime depending on what the market wants--large companies take longer to adjust. I hope that's true for you and that you can find new clients soon.

I love your positive spirit. I think you're right about how soon we'll have a government that actually cares and I'm also sure that the overall spirit of the country (and of the world, at least in countries that have much to do with the U.S.) will brighten considerably.

Good luck. :hug:

[4 t 4]

4. I am Very sorry for you

jobs just keep disappearing -daily. Good luck, you have a great attitude and I wish you the best.