If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.–Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
My husband’s joblessness ended very quickly. Within hours of posting his resume on the magical computer programmer job-finding site, he had calls about three different jobs. He fielded innumerable calls about the positions, and on Tuesday of this week, he was offered and has accepted a position.
Jobless periods are either feast or famine for Tim. Usually, he’s flooded with job offers, but once in a great while–about two years ago now–he went several months without so much as a suggestion of a job in his field. This is much more common, and for that I’m grateful. He’s incredibly reliable, and will pursue possibilities doggedly, and in the end, he always succeeds.
So now we’re on the path to a new job, another adjustment, a new schedule. This job is located in Ohio, so he’ll be spending four days there and three days at home per week. It’s not optimal, it’s not preferred, but we have managed this arrangement before, and we’ll manage it again. It’s a job.
In the span of 10 days, we’ve gone from both of us being fully employed and living in the same house to both being unemployed to one being fully employed and living in a different state. For the time being, I’m going to stay on the bench and see the household through the transition. I’ll wait out my temporary layoff and see just how temporary it is. I’ve been assured it’s a matter of weeks.
In the meantime, I’ll be the family’s Home, a role I’ve played before. I already miss being at work every day, and am starting to feel the diminished utility that so frustrated me before. It’s a small price to pay for the larger benefit of stability and constancy. The kids have had enough uncertainty, and me starting another new position right now will add a level of schedule conflict and unpredictability that nobody needs. I’ll just wait it out.
Does it sound like I’m still convincing myself this is the right thing to do? I am. Jumping back into the workplace last year was a huge leap for me, and it took me about six months to convince myself that *that* was the right thing to do.
I’m a very difficult person to persuade.
It has (largely) worked well, but not without some major hiccups along the way. So there’s no way to tell whether my decision to remain on the bench will pan out, but it’s what we’ve decided to do.
So there you have it. The latest news from our ever-transforming life. Aren’t you glad you asked?
Meg Currell 
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